The Comedy About Spies - Review

Noel Coward Theatre, London

*****

Written by Henry Lewis and Henry Shields

Directed by Matt DiCarlo

The cast of The Comedy About Spies

The Comedy About Spies is the latest hilarious epic from the Mischief Theatre crew. Written by and featuring Mischief’s architects Henry Lewis and Henry Shields, the play sees a madcap plot unravel.

Think of the movies and a fusion of the action of James Bond and Die Hard combined with the comic craft of Airplane, and you begin to get close to the genius of this drama, where England in 1961 is the backdrop to espionage and skullduggery between the USA & the USSR over a Top Secret file.

The plot’s details are of course ridiculous (including an American agent accompanied on his mission by his overbearing mother!) and riddled with double-agents’ trickery but the narrative here is but a mere excuse to display some of the West End's finest comedy.

Slick tongue-twisting dialogue, outstanding punning, immaculately timed physical comedy and slapstick all merge to deliver an evening of first class farce from the cast of eight.

Not only that but David Farley’s set design is a work of art itself. Set in a hotel we see actors fall between floors in brilliantly designed, hilarious stunts, while a thrilling escape into the hotel’s lift-shaft has to be seen to be believed.

Directed by Matt DiCarlo, this is world-class theatre that is performed to the highest standards of discipline, yet which always appears to have its tongue firmly in its cheek - the hallmark of comedy done to perfection!

Runs until 5th September

Monty Python Live (mostly) - Review

O2, London

****

Let’s put the Python re-union into context please. The gathering of these 5 comedy talents on one stage is an iconic event. Monty Python, in the 1970’s and evolving from TW3 and Beyond The Fringe, re-defined what television comedy could be with an impact not dissimilar to what Elvis Presley did for rock n roll.

Such was the reach of their scripts that I grew up (and I think of myself as moderately well read) believing that they came up with the phrase “this mortal coil” (cf. The Parrot Sketch) and it wasn’t until I studied Hamlet for A Level that I realised the words were penned by the Bard. Us geeky 50-somethings, on both sides of the Atlantic (and the Americans LOVE Monty Python – remember that Eric Idle’s musical, Spamalot, began life on Broadway) can quote from the sketch outright and sing The Lumberjack Song too. But remarkably, even those far younger can still relate to that ultimate rhetorical question (only recently referred to by Gary Lineker in a World Cup commentary) “ What have the Roman’s done for us?”

And those references are but a handful of the Python’s contributions to the English-speaking comedy scene. Whilst the TV series was a product of the 1970’s, much of their writing has proved timeless. They are all getting old now and it is to Idle’s credit that he motivated all his surving peers to re-form for the show. Sure, the O2 show was at times schmaltzy and cheesy – but actually, so what? These guys ripped up the rule book in their day (and in that glorious day too, when there were only three broadcast channels and all with decent risk-taking comedy budgets at their disposal) and they paved the way for acts from The Goodies, through to The Young Ones and Little Britain to follow. Their humour was madcap, but brilliant and bravely innovative. They didn’t play down to a lowest common denominator – rather the Pythons assumed a basic working knowledge of massive cultural pillars amongst their audience: Shakespeare, Philosophy, History.

So, to see the five, live on stage performing The Four Yorkshiremen (for which we were indeed lucky) was actually, nothing short of a privilege. This tour will not be repeated – It is indeed one down, five to go and with all probability, one or more of them could well have joined the Choir Invisible in the next few years. So to witness Michael Palin, 71 and now the widely acclaimed Peter Ustinov / Alan Whicker (improved version) of his generation amongst the broadcast world, clad in suspenders, basque and acknowledging his show-biz roots, was simply priceless.

Decades old words were brought to delicious life in a song and dance extravanganza that was as tasteless and wonderfully tacky as it was brilliantly executed. Salutations to John Du Prez whose orchestra segued effortlessly from de Souza's Liberty Bell to Idle &co's more provocative compositions. Arlene Phillips (no less) and Richard Roe's choreography was drilled to pinpoint precision, whilst Carol Cleveland reprising her role as the boys' token-female, has simply not aged a jot!

Don’t compare Cleese, Gilliam, Idle, Jones and Palin coldly, as pensioners acting out sketches that are 40 years old. If that is all you see at the O2, then you have wasted your ticket money. These men, together with Graham Chapman RIP, changed the way many people in the Western World laugh. They mocked the establishment, tradition and taboo and in their wake have left a legacy of brilliantly crafted scripts. Comedy gold.

Playing at the O2 until 20th July 2014

Tickets available from the O2 and also, at discounted prices, from Viagogo and Seatwave

Daisy Pulls It Off

Upstairs At The Gatehouse, London

***

Written by Denise Deegan

Directed by Thom Southerland

Daisy ( Holly Dale Spencer) is made Head Girl

Denise Deegan’s Daisy Pulls It Off, revived by Ovation at Highgate’s Upstairs At The Gatehouse is an excellently performed piece of theatre, that stylistically has nonetheless been left bobbing in the wake of more recent dramatic creations. First presented in the West End in 1983, where it ran for three years, it portrays a (literally) jolly hockey sticks world of an upper-crust English girls' school in the 1920s. But where Daisy Pulls It Off, some thirty years ago, lovingly overtook the St Trinians’ genre, so in these times and to varying degrees have Harry Potter and Matilda Wormwood sharpened our expectations of the role of the English public school as a source of entertainment, whilst Maria Aitken's The 39 Steps has set the bar in defining pastiche of England between the wars.  Where those productions brimmed with both humour and social comment, this show is little more than a quaint collection of plummy caricatures, likely to be of entertainment value only to stereotype-seeking American tourists or  softly natured locals. Director Southerland has a recent track record that glitters with stimulating stunning productions, but whilst this cast most definitely sparkles, the underlying show lacks fizz.

The actors do however make a fantastic job of the material. Holly Dale Spencer, fresh out of The Old Vic’s Kiss Me Kate, leads the line as Daisy Meredith. Her role is enormous, onstage almost throughout, maintaining her persevering character and flapping voice convincingly including a particularly demanding clifftop rescue (think Enid Blyton’s Famous Five) towards the play’s end. Notwithstanding that the story is tosh, Spencer remains sufficient of a trouper to still command our sympathy with her plight, as like Potter and Wormwood she tries against insurmountable odds to fit in and make friends with her schoolchums. With a nod to the St Trinians’ style of comedy, Southerland has chosen to mix in veteran actresses as the senior schoolgirls alongside the more recent drama school graduates. This idea certainly has a novelty appeal but the concept would have worked better if the elder ladies had been more well-known or household names, to enhance the ridiculous pantomime nature of their gym-slipped schoolgirl roles. Whilst their performances to a woman, are all outstanding, Paddy Glynn and Norma Atallah in particular, outside the bubble of theatre-land these esteemed actresses lack a widespread recognition and the joke factor of their age quickly wears thin.

In what is a classy acknowledgement of Alastair Sim's acting genius, Adam Venus is the show’s comic star, creating the few genuine laughs of the night with each of his scenes that he also cannot help but steal.  James Yeoburn puts in more of a turn as a scene shifter than as the school's Russian music teacher, moving a wheeled staircase around the stage that bears more than a nod to Southerland’s Mack & Mabel where such steps and platform were used wonderfully. Here they seem cumbersome.

Joanna Cichonska is simply a delight on piano. Providing background music ranging from classic school day hymns to some enchanting Dvorak interpretations, she also adds to the moments of faux-suspense brilliantly and this young Polish woman (who surely soon should have her own night at Lauderdale House or similar) continues to prove herself as a ridiculously talented musician.

When early in the second act of Daisy, Gillian Mcafferty’s character Trixie comments that its “beastly boring being stuck in here” her words have a resonance with the audience that the writer could not possibly have intended. The show is an odd choice for Ovation, who like Southerland, have wowed in recent years and months. It’s a throwback to a different era of writing, and is probably best enjoyed by those seeking little more than a mild evening’s entertainment. For this production, set your expectations of wisdom and mirth to low but then sit back to nonetheless enjoy the performances of a superb cast.

Runs to 14th April 2013