The epic rise and fall of Tammy Faye, the televangelist who fronted America’s first religious network with husband Ted Bakker, has obvious possibilities as a musical.
Tammy and Ted brought round the clock religion to millions of enraptured fans through the 1970s and 80s, Tammy famously reaching out to the gay community and embracing a pastor with Aids live on air.
And then there’s the starry appeal of the show's creative team: music by Sir Elton John, lyrics by Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters, a book by James Graham (Sherwood, Quiz, This House) all given predictably super-slick direction by Almeida artistic director Rupert Goold.
The production has many irresistible elements: a sartorial kitsch-camp aesthetic with an inspired set by Bunny Christie that mocks up a TV studio. Multiple screens with candy coloured projections that herald American consumerism tie in with the couple’s commitment to pimping products as a way of selling their wholesome brand of religion.
After all, using the latest non-stick pan to make superlative pancakes - as one particularly witty scene demonstrates - could heighten religious fervor. The choreography is delirious fun, the costumes impeccable – Tammy’s garish sequins and flouncy perm are a visual highpoint that encapsulates the couple’s success.
Soon the pair are syphoning off salaries from viewers buying into Ted’s utopian vision of a residential evangelical community, "a Disney-land but for good people."
Katie Brayben as Tammy is given some glorious numbers to belt out and Andrew Rannells as Ted confidently plays the role of outshone husband while suggesting the pain of Ted’s secret homosexual life. Zubin Varla as fusty conservative Jerry Falwell delivers a swansong number that is breathtakingly good.
Peter Caulfield as Billy Graham, the stadium preacher, turns in a deliciously satirical performance. Shears’ lyrics are intelligent and Graham’s script dazzles, but the pace is so fast. The far-right’s attempt to co-opt this populist surge in TV evangelism is dealt with too briskly in the second half.
Dangerous conservatism is explored more to showcase Faye's virtue as a champion of gay rights, and we are never given much back story. Faye’s weaknesses – an addiction to prescription drugs, relishing power – are dramatised but she’s still held aloft. But if Faye is drawn too neatly and lightly, the production is seriously entertaining.
Tammy Faye runs at The Almeida Theatre, Islington until December 3. https://almeida.co.uk/
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