Henry Naylor started out in comedy but the lines that get the biggest laughs in Monstering the Rocketman are not his. That credit goes to the subeditors on the Sun whose talent for writing headlines, as crass as they were inspired, was second to none. In their 1980s heyday, when the tabloid’s circulation soared close to 4m, they could sum up their readers’ belligerent mood with a “Gotcha” or just make them laugh.
You might wince at a bottom-related soap-opera story headlined “Rear Enders” or, in the 1990s, George Michael being stung with “Zip Me Up Before You Go Go”, but you can only admire their panache.
Was there much else to admire about the mass-selling newspapers of the time? As Naylor presents it, Kelvin MacKenzie, who edited the Sun throughout that decade and more, ran a publication so merciless in its pursuit of sales that everything else came second. Relentless in his lowest-common-denominator drive, he even claimed the readers were the editor, not him.
Fascinatingly, in a play nominally about Elton John, Monstering the Rocketman is primarily about the newspaper industry and, from our own perspective in the age of fake news, the democratic imperative of letting the truth be heard. In a clever analogy about the dirtiness of printer’s ink, Naylor talks about tabloid “smuts and smears” ending up literally on everyone’s faces. He is not ready to let anyone off the hook.
Performed at a fair old pace by Naylor himself, the play is about the Sun’s homophobic campaign against Elton, whom it falsely accused of partaking in a sex orgy with rent boys. “Elton porn photo shame” was among the follow-up smears, as was “Mystery of Elton’s silent dogs”. Elton, with time on his side after a vocal problem and with concerns for his future as he neared 40, decided to fight back. He launched 17 lawsuits and earned a front-page apology.
The pop star, his manager and his mum all make appearances in the story, but this is primarily a tale about journalism and it is a 22-year-old hack, doggedly believing in accuracy, who, in Naylor’s telling, saves the day.
• At the Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh, until 24 August
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