A musical about the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez is to play in Belarus.
The Chávez regime, controversial in many places, was popular with the authorities in Minsk, and they have smiled upon the idea of paying tribute to the Venezuelan in song.
The show is planned to have its first bow in Minsk and later to go to Caracas.
Whether it is a success (as with other political bio-tuners such as Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita) or a flop remains to be seen, of course.
But one thing is for sure. It's not going to give an honest, unvarnished account of a leader who always remained controversial for some of his fellow leaders.
Chávez, himself, was a keen musician--known to prove the fact halfway through the odd public address, by crooning to his audience.
As far as we are aware, this marks the first recent musical about a head of state who is either living or recently deceased since Saddam Hussein encouraged the creation of a parable centred around, err, himself.
That show, Zabibah and the King, told of a heroic figure, a parable for the former Iraqi leader.
For that matter, it was at one point reported, back in 2011, that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was making a film of Zabibah, presumably a parody.
Which, obviously, the Chávez show will not be.
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