TONY! The Blair Musical the Pleasance Theatre, Islington, for a limited run in late September 2007. The production returned to the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2008, alongside its sequel "Tony of Arabia". Previews were performed at the Oxford North Wall and the Theatre Royal, Wakefield, in July 2008. The production begins with a news reporter announcing the fall of Tony Blair, before the erstwhile prime minister is carried onstage, funeral-style, by four pallbearers, to melancholic chants of "Tony!". He is then thrown to the ground to the crash of a drum fill, where he begins to sing the opening number, "Tony's Entrance," in which
Radio 4 UK Theme mass coverage in the British media and even to comments in its support by then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. On 24 January 2006, several British MPs submitted Early Day Motions about the theme, which led to a question being asked at Prime Minister's Questions, with then Prime Minister Tony Blair referring to the "strong feeling" around the country. Also, BBC Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman played the "UK Theme" to end the programme on a number of occasions and several British orchestras and institutions have also pledged to play the theme. Meanwhile, another controversy broke out as to whether