TORONTO - Filmmaker Larry Weinstein is hoping a spring election will get voters wistful for the good old days -- of Brian Mulroney.

Weinstein's outrageous musical satire, "Mulroney: The Opera," hits movie theatres just as Canada gears up for a May 2 federal election.

It's a fluke of timing that a jovial Weinstein -- who has been working on the film for five years -- says he never could have predicted.

He notes the project dates back to the explosive book, "The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister," although the film is not based on the profanity-laced bestseller.

Weinstein's over-the-top farce depicts Canada's 18th prime minister as a power-hungry egoist with a flair for song-and-dance.

It screens at select theatres on April 16 and 27.

Weinstein says he's not sure whether an actual political campaign will inspire audiences to see the film or not, but hopes "Mulroney: The Opera" will at least offer comic relief as voters ponder the candidates.

"Politics is such a wonderful thing to make a comedy about in the first place but politicians are larger than life like opera singers," Weinstein said of his urge to meld lobbying with libretto.

"You could set a leadership convention to music and it already is almost operatic with the people in the bleachers with their signs. It's inane. It's something kind of American in its jingoism, it's something that's kind of evangelical in its outrageous absolutism of right and wrong and all these other things that actually kind of make me gag. Or make me smile, because they're so ridiculous."

Surrounding the gags with arias also gave Weinstein, librettist Dan Redican and star Rick Miller (who sports a prosthetic chin) licence to run wild with blatantly ludicrous portrayals.

Things kick off with a melodramatic Mulroney attending the unveiling of his official portrait at the House of Commons in 2002, later wandering the halls while decrying the nation for failing to recognize him as the greatest prime minister since John A. Macdonald.

In flashback, a showdown with Pierre Elliott Trudeau (played by Wayne Best) over Meech Lake descends into a two-man tango as they croon to a melody sniped from Carmen's famous "Habanera" aria. And comic Sean Cullen skewers Bob Coates as a lascivious oaf in a scene that imagines the scandalous visit to a German strip club that forced the former defence minister to resign.

"If this were a serious script then you know would we be open to all kinds of litigation and whatever," Weinstein says of the added benefit of joking through song.

Weinstein kept details on the project secret throughout production, partly because he feared it would be quashed by Mulroney, who earlier had pursued a lawsuit against journalist Peter C. Newman for the "The Secret Mulroney Tapes."

"Somebody can't really imagine what this thing is that we made until they see it," he says.

"If you tell somebody that you're going to make an opera about them they might think 'Nixon in China,' which is far more serious and kind of abstract. This is like pure comedy and even people I spoke to at length about this, only when they saw it did they go, 'Oh my God, I had no idea what this was going to be.' Usually they think it's far more funny than they ever imagined or the comedy is much broader than they imagined."

Weinstein says fellow producer Niv Fichman wrote Mulroney the day shooting wrapped to alert him to the film "as a courtesy" but Mulroney never responded.

None of today's stumping politicians get Weinstein's vote for starring in an opera followup. The director muses instead on the possibilities of a Jean Chretien opera or one focusing on prime ministers' wives.

"There's something about Harper that I just don't know how to read. But he does have a nice singing voice and he did '(With) A Little Help From my Friends' really well," Weinstein says, referring to Harper's surprise performance at an arts gala in 2009, when he took the stage to sing the Beatles tune and accompany himself on piano.

"He's provided at least one musical scene for that opera."

"Mulroney: The Opera" screens in select Cineplex theatres on April 16 and April 27.