Tammy Faye review: a ‘divinely delirious glitz-bomb’ of a musical

There are some shows you never expect to see, and one of them, said Nick Curtis in the London Evening Standard, would be a “madcap” musical about a gay-friendly televangelist and the US Christian Right in the 1970s and 1980s, with music by Elton John, lyrics by Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters, and book by playwright James Graham. “But here it is and, praise the lord, it’s a religious riot.”

Telling the story of the TV preacher Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye – who was initially the sidekick but became the star – it’s a “divinely delirious glitz-bomb” of a show, said Sarah Hemming in the FT, with zinging dialogue, infectious songs, “wildly camp dance routines” and “the ungovernable energy of a roller-disco high on hairspray”. But under all the fizz, it makes a serious point, about an “ungodly mix of populism, politics and preaching that remains with us today”.

Plucked from the obscurity of a Christian puppet show, Bakker and Faye are gifted a religious satellite channel by Ted Turner, said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out. This becomes a big success – but only when Tammy “breaks out of her meek Christian wife role and starts addressing the audience directly”.

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Their story, which ends in tragedy and fraud, makes for “terrific entertainment” and the musical numbers move things along nicely with glam-era pastiches plus “colossal torch songs”; and as Tammy, Katie Brayben gives a “performance that never loses sight” of the character’s “absurdity, but turns it into something exhilarating via sheer lung power”.

Brayben is brilliant, yet sadly the show isn’t, said Susannah Clapp in The Observer. Elton John’s contri­bution feels “dutiful rather than divine”, and Graham’s script “lacks threat”.

The real problem is that it provides us with no insight into its central characters, said Clive Davis in The Times. “Even in a musical with more than a sprinkling of camp, we really do need to know what makes people tick.” What we are left with is the “playfully transgressive mood” of Jerry Springer: The Opera, but none of that musical’s “vicious satirical energy”.

Almeida Theatre, London N1. Until 3 December