The Queen enters the auditorium at Palace Cinemas, adorned with an akubra complete with corks, on top of a tiara and scarf, to regale and bemuse, rule and perhaps confuse.
This rather doting affair, complete with Lamingtons and Royals biscuits, on London-flavoured napkins, is a gentle float around the palace, a quaint jaunt across the lawn, and a sweet saunter down to the mall – even if there is a risk of arrest once you get there.
Her Majesty is dispensing valuable parental advice to all as our highest-ranking matriarch: if you take the Gaza Strip, give it back, don’t side-saddle on a scooter with the corgis in tow after a stiff sherry, and appoint old mate David Attenborough as Minister for Climate Change.
Carole Shaw reverently portrays her dear and staunch Queen as such an adorable authoritarian, that it’s hard to argue any point of the equation.
In this comedy musical, there is of course singing, and a gently given requirement that all us subjects join in. A family-friendly show, it was a surprise that even the kids in the audience knew most of the melodies.
The lyrics of tunes familiar to the Commonwealth, such as 'I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major-General' and other tongue-twisters, are replaced with monarchic fantasies, such as “Boris and ScoMo want to ride in the carriage”. . .
It’s not all glitz and glamour though, having the top regalia spot, we are assured – people lick the back of your heads when they post a letter – though Liz in this incarnation is indeed adept at adding all her notes of ‘levity’ to all margins.
When considering future vocational pastimes once relinquishing the throne, Liz is looking mainly for trailblazing opportunities. Since there’s only one party left in British politics yet to have a female leader, the Labour Party needs her.
She reads aloud her policies, including: turning Father Christmas into Mother Christmas and no words for wife batterers, just sentences.
Maybe Liz could become a barista, having brewed up a description of a new style coffee to break up the American and Italian influence, that would be parochially British. She would christen it Britannico – it would be mild, inoffensive and somewhat wishy washy.
If it’s as endearing as this show, yeah, I’d pop one in my Keep Cup and keep trundling.
God save the Queen. And the bone China.
★★★★☆
