HARRY HILL,

who wrote a famously unsuccessful musical about TV talent shows, I Can’t Sing, has not been deterred and is to bring another of his efforts, Tony! [ The Tony Blair Rock Opera], to the West End for a limited run.

The show, billed as a ‘ reckless reappraisal of the life of the former Ugly Rumours front man and Britain’s first pop Prime Minister’, had a brief stint at the Park Theatre in North London last year ( when my colleague Patrick Marmion awarded it the full five stars for ‘ two hours of vintage comic anarchy’).

The cast of characters includes Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden; and there is some striking ‘gender-blind’ casting, too, with actress Rosie Strobel playing John Prescott and Sally Cheng as Robin Cook.

Hill’s musical I Can’t Sing, which was backed by Simon Cowell, lost a reported £4 million and ran for a little over six weeks.

Previews of Tony! will start at the Leicester Square Theatre on April 15.