You are about to be saved. Well, kind of. This new musical about the technicolour eyeshadowed televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker may not deliver you to Jesus, but it is a whole lot of fun. You’ll have to pray to God for a ticket, because Elton John wrote the music, Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears wrote the lyrics and super-playwright James Graham did the book; the show is all but sold out. But the truth is, you probably won’t remember the songs – it’s the ebullience of Rupert Goold’s gloriously OTT production that will stay with you.
Naturally, the show is camp. And when I say camp, at one point it features a tapdancing Jesus in gold pants. It seems mischievously designed to upset Christians, which is exactly what the Bakkers apparently first did when they set out to communicate religious devotion in a new way. Tammy Faye, played by Katie Brayben in a series of flammable looking wigs, is presented here not just as a gay icon but a feminist hero. When she and husband Jim (Andrew Rannells) land their own show, it’s Jim who leads the way – because men, obv – except he’s a wooden, nervous presence on screen. One day, Tammy has to present alone – cue gasps, “is this allowed?” – but her homespun warmth is a ratings hit. First comes fame, then comes capitalist corruption, then comes trouble with the FBI – a story already familiar thanks to the recent film, The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
