An hour is much too short a time to fully appreciate the genius of 95-year-old satirist and former child prodigy Tom Lehrer – mathematician, pianist, lecturer in maths and musical theatre history, retired spy, and self-proclaimed inventor of the jello shot - but with this show, Dr H (Dr Anthony Hubmayer, also a satirist, pianist and music educator) provides the uninitiated with an inspiring introduction to Lehrer’s work. For those of us who’ve been hearing and singing Lehrer’s songs for decades, it’s a welcome opportunity to laugh at familiar jokes and also at Dr H’s updated versions of some of Lehrer’s classics.

Dr H opens with one of the songs banned during Lehrer’s first tour of Australia, ‘Be Prepared’. Unlike a real Lehrer performance, Dr H encourages audience participation, asking us to sing along with the refrain of this famous tribute to the Boy Scouts of America and scouting generally, as well as Lehrer’s slightly more ancient Irish ballad and the atomic age survival hymn ‘We Will All Go Together When We Go’ (each in their own key).

Of course, some of Lehrer’s songs and jokes have aged better than others. As Dr H points out, ‘I Got It From Agnes’ is possibly even more relevant in the time of COVID than when it was first belatedly recorded, but he’s included Australian references to replace some lines in ‘National Brotherhood Week’, and ‘The Elements’ now requires an entirely new verse to include more recent discoveries.

The highlight, for me, was the two love songs – a rousing rendition of ‘The Masochism Tango’ and the lesser-known ‘I Hold Your Hand in Mine’. ‘New Math’ and ‘Werner von Braun’, however, seemed rather odd choices for a modern Australian audience, even one composed mostly of seniors.

That said, neither the hour nor the audience were wasted (though as I saw a matinee on January 27th, some of them may have been hungover. But I digress). So, if you enjoy trenchant musical satire, come to the show and be prepared for an hour of laughter and merriment.