Mao Mia, here we go again! First it was 'Springtime for Hitler', now we have 'Mao, the Musical'

(Mao Mia, here we go again. My, my, how can I resist you…?)

Well, thanks to Mel Brooks, we’ve already seen the song and dance routine ‘Springtime for Hitler’. Thanks to the evil spirit of nostalgia, we’ve also had the chance to give ‘Mama Mia!’ a miss and now, thanks to China’s new-found wealth and yet another disastrous cultural revolution, we can all soon swoon to the sounds and sights of this:

“You’ve read the book, attended the seminars and pondered the accumulation of surplus value – now see the musical. Chinese producers are attempting to transform Das Kapital from a hefty treatise on political economy into a popular stage show. Whether Karl Marx would approve of his masterwork being served up as entertainment for China’s new bourgeoisie is a matter of speculation. Director He Nian has promised to unite elements from Broadway musicals and Las Vegas shows in a hip, interesting and educational play featuring a live band, singing and dancing. “The particular performance style we choose is not important, but Marx’s theories cannot be distorted,” he said sternly, in an interview with the Wen Hui Bao newspaper.”

Which all sounds very promising, I’m sure – though I’m afraid the great Chairman will have to do without my patronage. I was never among those misguided imbeciles here in the West who had his poster in their bedroom when they were young and I see no reason to do so, now the biggest mass murderer of the 20th century has started to wear a tutu.

Mind you, I wouldn’t wish to be a flunky in the Kremlin, right now. Life there must be quite grim. What with both Hitler and Mao now having their own musicals, Prime Minister Putin must be in the foulest of moods, waving his old poison-tipped KGB umbrella like a batty conductor’s baton, mad as a latter-day Attila the Hatter, because his idol, old Joe Stalin, hasn’t, as of yet, a musical to call his own.

(A very hard act to follow indeed…)