Eurovision Song Contest caters to Liverpool humor in Jonathan Harvey’s ‘A Thong For Europe’

The night Liverpool won the Eurovision Song Contest, playwright Jonathan Harvey conceived the idea of ​​creating a musical for the city, featuring some of the biggest hits in Eurovision history. Six months later, A Thong For Europe rivals the main event.

When Graham Norton announced the host city for this year’s Eurovision last October, two bids were up for grabs.

“I never thought Liverpool would get it,” recalls Xavi. “One of my partners, her partner works for the BBC, they think they have the inside information and Glasgow will get it.

“So I told everyone, ‘We’re not going to get it.'”

His spouse was wrong.

Harvey, a Eurovision fanatic and acclaimed author, immediately thought of the possibility of combining his two passions – in his hometown.

He already has a half-formed idea of ​​a woman who rents out her house to a film crew. “But that’s not quite true,” Harvey said.

“Then on the night of the announcement they said Liverpool and I texted Steph [Fletcher, director] And say, ‘I think we’ve got our story now’.

“People immediately put their houses on Airbnb for extortionate sums, and suddenly you can’t find hotel rooms.”

His show, a wildly camping comedy about Lulu, named after Britain’s 1969 Eurovision winner, rents out rooms to 2023 contestants from the fictional Balkan republic.

It can take years for a play to go from concept to stage. Musicals usually take longer. But Liverpool’s Royal Court Theater was keen to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest festivities and “was given the green light within days”, the writer said.

“They were building the sets before I wrote the script. It was amazing.

“I’ve never worked like that before, and you think, I’d better keep writing the script because it’s coming out soon. There’s usually a lot of hurdles to jump through to get it going, and it’s soul-destroying.

“But it’s such a quick transition. I’m not really holding my breath yet.”

Merseyside pop star Sonia, who represented Great Britain in 1993, also makes an appearance. Not the real Sonia – but an actress wearing a balaclava to play her, supposedly so she wouldn’t be recognized by fans.

Harvey said the idea for a fake masked Sonia came from an American TV show. “I once saw a sitcom in America where Cher came to live with these people while she was recovering from plastic surgery. It was literally an actress with a bandage on her face and she never spoke. It really made me laugh.”

In A Thong For Europe, Lulu wants to scatter her mother’s ashes on stage at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest after she meets an unfortunate end in a hot tub wearing her Euro-flag lingerie.

“I mean, it’s a stupid show about Eurovision,” Harvey said. “If I were to write a really important, serious article about the state of the country, I wouldn’t expect to finish it in such a short period of time.

“The hardest thing was choosing the songs because I knew all the Eurovision Song Contest songs, so it was like, what’s a favorite that people want to step on or sing along to?”

He chose classics ranging from Fraternity’s “Stay Your Kiss for Me” to Conchita Vorst’s “Phoenix Rising.”

Harvey remembers watching Brotherhood of Man win Eurovision in 1976 when he was eight years old. He was quickly drawn to the exoticism of the game’s cross-cultural popularity and kitsch allure.

“I think it’s the size and scope that really excites me. It’s kind of otherworldly, and there’s a lot of stuff that I don’t really understand.”

A few years later, on Eurovision Morning, he asked the rest of the Liverpool Penguin Swim Club if they were excited. Facing the expressionless gaze, he was frustrated.

“That’s when I realized I was completely different from everyone else.”

After starting writing screenplays as a teenager, Harvey had his breakthrough with the 1993 drama “Beautiful Things,” a romantic comedy about two gay teens.

That too had a tight deadline. Harvey is a teacher and only has summer vacation. He wrote it the first two weeks, typed it the next two weeks, and touted it to agents the last two weeks.

In 1995, Harvey wrote his first Eurovision Song Contest script, titled Boom Bang-A-Bang after Lulu’s Eurovision Song Contest song, and appeared at a Eurovision Song Contest party.

The match was also featured on his late 1990s sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme, where a character is said to represent Great Britain in a song called Dee Do Dee Do Dum Dum.

He then revived the 1998 contest on the 2009 sitcom The Beautiful One, featuring that year’s winner Dana International in a cameo.

Harvey has also been tackling more serious material for Coronation Street since 2004 – and says making soap operas has made him a disciplined and dedicated writer.

“The first episode I did was about Todd Grimshaw coming out. I found that really easy,” he said.

“And then on my second episode, I had to write a scene between two gangsters, and I’ve never written two gangsters before.”

He was suddenly full of doubts. “And then you go, you know what, I have to do it because it’s going to be on the screen in eight weeks. So you just have to keep writing and hope it’s okay.

“So there’s an element of not being intimidated by anything — go ahead, well, they need the show by then. Nobody’s going to write it for me.”

He is keen to work at the Royal Court, which has found success by staging stories – often Liverpool-set comedies – that appeal to local audiences.

“I think it must be the only theater in the country that puts new shows on a regular basis and sells as many tickets as they do,” Harvey said. “They really know their market well.”

A Thong For Europe will be the venue’s 100th original show since returning to producing its own productions in 2006.

“They have regulars and they go because they know what they’re for. I’ve been wanting to see if I can do that too and find out what those ingredients are.”

He added: “I think it might be a bit campier than they’re used to. But it should live up to the comedy.”

Like most royal court shows, European Thongs has a strong sense of Scouse humor.

Some of this might be forgotten by European visitors to Liverpool who have a spare evening to catch some Eurovision-themed entertainment.

“Hopefully they’ll love it,” Harvey said. “It’s definitely a celebration of the game. We’ll see!”

Euro Thong takes place at Liverpool Royal Court from 21 April to 27 May.

All the buildup, insights and analysis are explored each week in a BBC podcast called Eurovisioncast.