Gabe Atkinson

The challenge was to compose snippets of song for a Broadway musical titled Beehive!, about any political period.

A Bloody Shambles (Bolger’s Dilemma) by William Green of Auckland: Oh it’s eggs and rotten tomay-toes, Jim/It’s pricks and briars and brambles/Oh it’s worse than growing potatoes, Jim/It’s all a bloody shambles!

Sting Song by Katherine Uren, Auckland: (Verse) In the Hive, the workers strive/to feed their Queen and stay alive./ In the Hive, the media thrive/on bees who sting and flick their knives. (Chorus) Sting, sting, tell the Press!/Honey or money will stir the mess./Sting, sting, tell the Press!/Hum it or thumb it, but do confess!

Two Titans by Paul Mulrooney, Wellington: Rob knifed Jack to lead the Nats/Wasting no time to hit back/At the PM, our Big Norm/Who was feeling quite forlorn/In a public hospital, under the weather/But Rob thought he was just being clever/To send a card that said:/“Get well soon Norm, a pensioner needs your bed.”/ But the joke fell flat when Norm dropped dead.

But a tune called At Bellamys by Auckland’s Rex McGregor is the winner: We see it all at Bellamys:/Passions uncontrolled,/Overheated rivalries/

And sweet revenge, served cold./With treacherous backstabbing rife,/It’s hard to keep things clean./Before you dine, please wipe your knife./You don’t know where it’s been.

For the next contest, choose any existing TV show or film and modify its title slightly, then provide a new synopsis. For example, Tree’s Company: a DoC ranger stationed alone on the Auckland Islands gradually descends into madness. Entries, for the prize below, close at noon on Thursday, January 24.