With their usual perfect timing, The Wharf Revue team has swept into town with their hilarious serve of satirical wit and derision. As an antidote to the gloom and doom of lockdown, Jonathan Biggins, Phillip Scott, Drew Forsythe and Mandy Bishop open a can of worms to let the foibles and follies of the political arena wriggle out and entertain the audience with their ridiculous antics.

This year these superwits of satire have cast off their affiliation with the Sydney Theatre Company and ventured out on their own. In a prologue akin to the preparations of travelling troubadours, the players set the stage for a leaner, sharper and revamped revue with a sting in its tail.

A Can of Worms is satire with a serpent's bite. The opening number of Go Far Away contrasts the generosity and heart-warming humanity of the smash hit musical Come From Away, with Australia's cruel and xenophobic attitudes towards refugees. Philip Scott's John Howard spruiks the praises of his holiday resort Howard Springs. On the larger Canberra Theatre stage, A Can of Worms is a revue with less glitz and more grit. There is magic in the performers' art. They can have you wincing one moment at Jonathan Biggins's Donald Trump or laughing hysterically at Drew Forsythe's Craig Kelly. At another moment the audience is enthralled by Mandy Bishop's versatility as a powerhouse, show-stopping Michaela Cash and then capturing the forthright honesty and shooting-from-the-lip no-nonsense channelling of Jacqui Lambie.

I wonder if there is anything Bishop cannot do. She is as stunning as Gladys or Jacinda, James Ashby or Ivanka or Dorothy Gale. Devotees of the annual visit will recognise their old favourites, now honed to perfection and as sharp and funny as ever; Forsyth's malapropism-blundering Pauline Hanson is once again right on the mark. Scott's Rudd suffers his usual sanctimony. The versatility that is the earmark of the small team's talents is also evident in Forsyth's academically delivered analysis of China's rise with reference to Samuel Taylor Coleridge. There is poignancy in Forsythe's portrayal of a beleaguered royal monarch.

As the show began, so does it end with a prophetic and ironic commentary on home ownership as Dorothy (Mandy Bishop) and Toto meet a real estate agent (Drew Forsyth), a mortgage broker (Phillip Scott) and the local MP (Jonathan Biggins) along the Yellow Brick Freeway to meet the Wizard on video. And we are left with the shattered dream of home ownership. In spite of the many laughs along the way and the sheer delight of recognition, this year's Wharf Revue gives us food for thought and points to ponder.

In the Canberra Theatre and away from their natural habitat of the more intimate Playhouse, this year's Revue seems less comfortable in the larger theatre. At the beginning, Biggins implores us with Shakespearian import not to judge. And yet A Can of Worms, though brilliantly performed, invites deeper judgement. Perhaps this is a reflection of difficult and challenging times. Scott's musical direction is again spot on and the original lyrics to popular showbiz numbers are wonderfully clever. It is early in the run and the script occasionally lacks the customary sharpness. Barnaby Joyce's Magic Cave sequence and Rupert Murdoch's tussle with Mephistopheles are scenes in need of tightening. These are small quibbles. The Wharf Revue is back in town. Not bigger, not better but different and yet the same and that is its gift to audiences. On opening night, an appreciative Canberra audience welcomed back their favourite revue artists with grateful and well-deserved applause.