By Lucy Komisar

It’s a 1980s British tabloid story. “The Sun” (a Murdoch rag) sells 5 million copies on cheap paper whose ink comes off on 12 million readers’ hands. It also soils their brains. The foul-mouthed editor brags that he picks governments. And it is the venue for a stunning play by accomplished playwright-actor Henry Naylor. (It got one of the “Fringe First” awards given by “The Scotsman” to the five best plays out of more than 3,000 the first week of the Edinburgh Theater Festival Fringe.)

The Rocketman is rock star Elton John. But this is not about rock or any music. It’s about the corruption of the seedy press. Which fits with Naylor’s serious political commentary. It’s a fast-paced story with Naylor playing all the roles. His face, voice and demeanor persuade you he is the characters.

To sell copies, Sun editor Kevin Mackenzie invents an Elton vice boy scandal. The story includes Elton wearing leather shorts, twirling a dildo and “bonking rent boys in a coke-fueled orgy.”  Except he was in New York at the time the “event” took place in the UK. And he filed a series of defamation suits in court, Britain’s largest libel case. Mackenzie ripostes with a year-and-a-half of blistering, lying attacks.

A young intern trying for a permanent job is given the “story.” He is in competition with “The Mirror.” (At one point he steals the Mirror reporter’s car keys.) Covering John’s 40^th birthday, his Los Angeles hotel room is bugged. He sends back a story about the decadence of the celebrities. But the paper writes about an alleged 80K pound gift to Elton.

The intern is assigned to interview a “rent boy.” Naylor’s face turns into a character: “You’re at the wrong fucking paper if you’re not prepared to write up the lies of a rent boy.”

The play is not about Elton John, it is about the abuses of the yellow press.

The young reporter sees him as a real person suffering a press campaign of harassment. Ordered to follow John to a small town in America, he discovers that the young boy he visits is a hemophiliac he is cheering up.

The Sun attacks get weirder. John is accused of cutting the vocal cords of a yappy dog.

Making a “monster” out of Elton John proves costly. In the end, there is a lawsuit resulting in the paper paying him 1 million pounds and writing an apology. “Sorry Elton.” It was the late 80s. It was worth about 3 million today, U.S. $3.8 million.  The money funded a campaign for AIDs awareness.

Murdoch’s scandal sheet as the force for the evil Naylor brilliantly describes declined from 3 million circulation in the 80s to 1 million today. A problem, of course, is that the mainstream “legacy” press – the broadsheets who give themselves Pulitzer and other prizes – are in a dead heat for lies with even more consequence than the tabloids. Viz Russiagate.

“Mastering the Rocketman.” Written and performed by Henry Naylor.  Pleasance Ace Dome, Edinburgh. Runtime 1hr. July 30 to Aug 24, 2025. @HenryNaylorUK on X.