Musical skewers Bush and Blair

A gung-ho President Bush and a sanctimonious Prime Minster Tony Blair made their sing-along debut on the London stage this week -- in a musical satire about the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Alistair Beaton’s “Follow My Leader” at London’s Hampstead Theatre is unlikely to be music to their ears, though: It depicts Blair as a God-fearing, image-conscious puppet of the Americans while Bush appears as a religious zealot whose only aim is to increase U.S. influence in the world.

The war in Iraq has helped fuel a renaissance in political theater in Britain. Last year, Justin Butcher’s “The Madness of George Dubya” became a runaway success, transferring to the West End for more than 20 weeks.