‘Prince Andrew: The Musical’ Is a Sweatily Excellent Royal Romp

Royalist is The Daily Beast’s newsletter for all things royal and Royal Family. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Sunday.

Rather like Prince Andrew himself, a new show inspired by his travails, Prince Andrew: The Musical, is daft, brash—and a gleeful attempt to exploit public fascination with the royal family. It is timely, as Andrew’s own royal position hangs in the balance: one Christmas royal news story had Andrew fast-tracked to total excommunication, while on Christmas Day he was seen in public with the rest of the family at church.

Unlike Prince Andrew, the musical—airing Thursday night on Channel 4 in the U.K.—is a thing of genius, from the opening credits which are contained within a Pizza Express logo (Andrew famously claimed in his car crash Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis that he couldn’t have been having sex with Virginia Giuffre because he was at the chain pizza restaurant with his kids) to the final number, “You’ll Always Need an Andrew,” in which he explains to his brother, Charles, why he can’t ever get rid of him: “I was born to be the scapegoat of all our family’s shame/ Members of the great unwashed demand a saint / But perfect is something we ‘aint / You haven’t heard the last of me yet.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.