Yes, Prime Minister | 3/5

SINGAPORE — Yes, Prime Minister makes its way from the West End to Singapore with a cast from London, invoking waves of nostalgia for the ’80s Britcom.

Updated for the 21st century, the story involves Blackberrys and flat-screen TVs tuned to 24-hour news channels — although, oddly enough, there’s not a laptop or Bluetooth device to be seen on stage — and nothing is sacred, with topics like sex, religion, human rights, illegal immigration and reality television not being spared.

Prime Minister Jim Hacker (played by John McAndrew) and his Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby’s (Crispin Redman) hope that Britain’s finances will be saved by investment from the made-up country Kumranistan are jeopardised when the Kumranistani Oil Minister demands to seal the deal with some bedtime companions. Of course, as ineffectual politicians, they and their clueless staff spend the whole evening asking one another what to do.

The script is clunkier than you would expect from Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, the original writers of the BBC series, but it is a difficult thing to turn a beloved sitcom into a self-contained dramatic farce with a conflict, denouement and resolution.

On Thursday’s opening night, the slow first half set the scene for the contrastingly manic second half, during which the actors seemed to settle better into their roles. But their comic timing, so important when the action takes place in words, remained a little off. The Jubilee Hall at Raffles Hotel, while supplying the perfect ambience for a play set in a British Prime Minister’s office, doesn’t quite come equipped with the acoustics necessary for such a verbose play.

Still, there’s nothing an audience enjoys better than bumbling politicians giving bureaucracy a much-needed send-up. And for every cliched joke that you can see coming a mile away, there is a pithy aphorism that Oscar Wilde would be proud of, delivered with what one might call guileless cynicism.

What: Yes, Prime Minister

When: Until May 18, 8pm (Tue to Fri) and 4pm (Sat and Sun).

Where: Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel

Tickets: S$100 to S$125 from SISTIC