★★★★☆ The Wharf Revue offers a welcome dose of political satire and budgie-smuggling hilarity.

Wharf 1, Sydney

October 20, 2016

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott still has his fans – well two, anyway, in the latest Wharf Revue, Back to Bite You. And very fetching they are too: think red feathers paired with budgie smugglers. In a hysterically funny routine, Jonathan Biggins plays Abbott in burlesque mode, complete with goanna mouthed-grin: an image that will be hard to erase.

^{Jonathan Biggins as Tony Abbott. Photo by Brett Boardman}

It’s one of the funniest moments in the show along with Drew Forsythe’s impersonation of Pauline Hanson (“the Oxley moron”), but there’s plenty more to savour in this latest outing by the Wharf Revue team.

Writers and creators Biggins, Forsythe and Phillip Scott have been skewering politicians of every persuasion for 16 years now, mixing sharp political satire with lowbrow spoofs and musical merriment in a show that arrives each year like a welcome tonic in the face of so much that is depressing about the world.

Back to Bite You is no exception. It is equal parts clever and silly but also pushes the boat...