American singer-songwriter Tom Lehrer has been a hero of mine ever since his first LP arrived at my stifling Jesuit boarding school in 1959. He was an icon for the disillusioned generation of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

“Mr. Lehrer's muse is not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste" wrote The New York Times, and Lehrer put the quote in big letters on his record sleeves.

But in 1960 Tom Lehrer gave up writing and performing, at the height of his fame. He spent the rest of his working life as an obscure Maths lecturer. He never explained why. It remans a mystery, and this show tries to unravel it.

In his 90s, he put a legal instrument on his website, renouncing all financial interest in his songs. “Help yourselves, and don’t send me any money” he wrote.

Tom Lehrer is Teaching Math and Doesn’t Want to Talk to You tells Lehrer’s story, and along the way it crams in many of his greatest hits: The Elements, Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, I Hold Your Hand in Mine, I Gave it to Agnes, The Vatican Rag, and others.