THEGAYUK

Tag: Four Star Comedy Theatre Review

The latest Four Star Comedy Theatre Review from THEGAYUK.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Buyer & Cellar – Above the Stag Theatre – Barbra Streisand’s shopping mall!

    THEATRE REVIEW | Buyer & Cellar – Above the Stag Theatre – Barbra Streisand’s shopping mall!

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Take a tour through Barbra Streisand’s underground shopping centre – in her home – in the new play Buyer & Cellar.

    Is the shopping centre real? That’s for you to decide, but in this brilliant production, you’ll get a bit of insight into the woman who is the most talented, respected and perhaps loneliest biggest celebrity in the world.

    Now playing at the Above the Stag Theatre (until November 8th) in a show that never had it’s premiere as it was scheduled to open in mid-March, Buyer & Cellar is nowhere and it’s your chance to go see it in a socially distanced theatre which is perhaps one of the cleanest around!

    And Aaron Sidwell is brilliant as Alex More, an out of work actor who gets hired for a mysterious job, it’s a job that no one knew ever existed – to run the shops beneath Barbra Streisand’s Malibu home, shops that are full of her memorabilia. But when Alex encounters La Streisand when she enters the basement, he treats her like any other customer in shops where there will be only one customer – HER. And when she wants to buy a doll, Sidwell cleverly and quickly jumps inter her character, and he effortlessly does her throughout the show. Eventually, Alex feels like he and Streisand are forming a bond each time she comes to the shops, and he yearns to know whether she sees him as a friend or just another employee. As the lines get blurred Alex maintains his composure until he’s invited upstairs to see the house, and he’s hoping this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

    In this 100 minutes plus show, Sidwell who holds your attention and masters the dialogue, and draws us into his world – and Barbra’s basement shopping mall. It’s a one-man show – with a larger than life celebrity at its centre, but Sidwell getting the applause.

    Tickets available at AboveTheStag.co.uk

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Desiree’s Coming Early, London

    THEATRE REVIEW | Desiree’s Coming Early, London

    ★★★★ | Desiree’s Coming Early, Soho Theatre, London

    90 minutes of non-stop comedy is what you’ll get when you see Desiree Burch.

    American comedian Burch, now at the Soho Theatre until Saturday November 23rd in a show called Desiree’s Coming Early – rapid fires her tale of her experience at the Burning Man Festival – a festival held every year in the Nevada desert where people are free to be naked – she was! The show is also about her quest for dick there (and not a man named Dick) after the breakup of a long relationship.

    Desiree recounts the moment of her being the only woman of colour in a sauna in the desert there, where it’s mostly white people. She also doesn’t hold back on jokes about Bill Crosby, Harvey Weinstein, and more specifically Michael Jackson.

    Burch is rude, crude and honest! And her American-style comedy will leave you gasping for air, because she doesn’t! But she’s forthright and honest about a law in California where it was illegal to administer IQ tests to black students. Discrimination?

    You decide. It’s the background theme of the show, and a clever one at that.

    Desiree Burch, who is about to take this show to New York – is fast, funny, and brutally honest.

    https://sohotheatre.com/whats-on/#this-week

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Noises Off, London

    THEATRE REVIEW | Noises Off, London

    (C) PR SUPPLIED

    ★★★★ | Noises Off, Garrick Theatre, London

    The production of ‘Nothing on’ in Western-Super-Mare is now playing at the Garrick theatre in a new production of Noises off.

    Confused? Dont be. We are treated to the show, as well as the backstage antics of the cast, in this hilarious and new production of Noises Off – a show that has been around since 1982. It’s a farce, with lots of physical humour which the cast amazingly carry out. They are all amazing and all have impeccable timing.

    We are at the Grande Theatre in the play within a play, and the show we are seeing involves a lot of tooing and froing. We are watching a rehearsal of ‘Nothing On,’ and the cast seem to be hopelessly not getting it. The director (Lloyd Owen) is at his wits end, but the actors continue to act out the plot, which is just as zany as the show. (It involves two couples and a very large house with a maid (Meera Syal) who goes about her business while mayhem goes on around her).

    Then after the interval, the set is turned around so we are now looking behind the stage but it’s still the same scene we just saw in the first act – so get so see what is happening backstage at the same time. Genius! The actors at this point are performing twice – and they do it brilliantly! Especially the contact lens scene that was in the first act and it is also actually happening backstage – it boils all to great laughter!<

    And act 3 carries on with the show that we saw in the first act and the physical humour is ramped up (way up when Daniel Rigby falls down a flight of stairs. God bless him, and the other actors who have to do this 8 times a week.

    Noises off is a play within a play, a farce within a farce, and one off the most hilarious shows you will see this year, or any  year.

    Noises Off plays at the Garrick Theatre until 4 January 2020 noisesoffplay.com

  • Theatre Review | Benidorm Live – Sheffield Lyceum and National Tour

    ★★★★☆ | Benidorm Live

    Based on the hit TV show, Benidorm Live brings the Solana Hotel, its staff and guests to life in this raucous comedy.  Picking up from the end of the most recent series, The Solana is at risk of takeover from a large hotel chain, and corporate inspectors are rumoured to be masquerading as guests. Intending to bribe the inspectors, the staff to scurry round trying to butter up the seemingly out of place couple who have just arrived at the hotel; as mistaken identities, unrequited love and a cringe-worthy cabaret all combine to try and keep the hotel open.

    Stealing every scene with a deadpan delivery of her innuendo filled lines was Janine Duvitski, as elderly swinger Jaqueline, eliciting the largest laughs with double ententres which would make a sailor blush and a cocktail menu which may put you off drink for life. Tony Maudsley ramps up the camp as Kenneth, “tasteful” t-shirt wearer and the manager of the Blow and Go hair salon, who is hotly and relentlessly pursued by Gay Derek (an excellent Damien Williams). Added into the mix are TV regulars Adam Gillen (Liam), Sherrie Hewson (Joyce Temple Savage), Shelly Longworth (Sam) and Jake Canuso as the resident lothario barman, Mateo.

    Having never seen an episode of Benidorm, it was with some trepidation that I approached the stage show, thinking that I would be a lone island in a sea of people who were “in on the joke”, but that certainly wasn’t the case. Benidorm Live will utterly delight fans of the TV series, and will certainly win over some new ones.

    With with a feel good factor as warm as the Benidorm sun itself, close to the bone comedy which had me giggling like a schoolboy one minute and laughing out loud the next and a smattering of (intentionally cheesy) musical numbers, Benidorm proved to be the perfect, and incredibly funny, antidote to the January blues.

    Benidorm Live is at Sheffield Theatres until 26th January 2019 before continuing on its national tour.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Lady Bunny in Trans-Jester, Soho Theatre, London

    ★★★★| Lady Bunny in Trans-Jester

    She’s the queen of drag queens, and almost as famous as the Queen of England, Lady Bunny is back in town to perform her one-woman show called Trans-jester, and no one is safe from her catty claws and endless wit. It’s a no-holds-barred performance that is the best of Lady Bunny.

    She commands the stage in her glitteringly-best sequins and a wig that practically reaches the ceiling. With shiny jewellery that, she tells you, is bought at yard sales.

    Lady Bunny, direct but not straight from New York, provides her loyal and tongue-wagging audience with literally an oral history of her life, which included lots of black cock-sucking jokes, as well as her days as a no name drag queen in Atlanta Georgia USA when she and Rupaul used to be roommates.

    Lady Bunny also gets all political by discussing the ridiculous notion of how now everyone has to go by a label. She tells us that she remembers when it used to be only ‘G’ but now it’s LGBTQIA – she screams that it’s ridiculous to have labels – and the audience agreed with her with a roaring cheer! Bunny doesn’t hold back when discussing Bruce Jenner and the transformation to Caitlyn and how Caitlyn’s Republican arse and new pussy doesn’t come close to representing her community. And there are quite a few hilarious Kardashian jokes thrown in for good jester.

    But Bunny is best when she does jokes. They come fast and furious in the part of the show that is her tribute to the old US television show Laugh-In. It’s a skit she used to do at the late and great Wigstock Drag Queen festival she founded in the late 1980s and which sadly came to an end in 2001.

    Lady Bunny is an institution, and she should be in an institution (ha ha ha). But she’s one of a kind, the Queen, a pure Lady, and now’s your chance to go see her live in person before she’s put out to pasture. Long Live Lady Bunny!

    Lady Bunny in Trans-jester is playing at the Soho Theatre until Saturday, July 1st.

     

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Peter Pan Goes Wrong

    ★★★★ | Peter Pan Goes Wrong

    If you’re a fan of farce, then this genius gem will slap you round the head, crack your ribs from laughter and leave you with a weaken bladder.

    The Mischief Theatre Company are changing the face of comedy in the West End. They already have The Play That Goes Wrong and The Comedy About A Bank Robbery and now they’ve brought back their Christmas pudding, Peter Pan Goes Wrong. They’ve tapped into something that the West End has been missing for a long time. They’re giving us what we need. A laugh and lots of them.

    In these politically trying times of neverending referendum headlines, a plummeting currency, a US Presidency election that makes even EastEnders look dull, and don’t even get us started with how Brexit is going to affect us in Eurovision, this theatre company is like a lit candle next to a flammable costume. On Fire.

    The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society are about to put on their Panto (oh no it’s not) and they’re nearly ready, but the audience has arrived for the first night and the show must go on, regardless if all the necessary health and safety checks have been made. The set has been improved for 2016, thanks to a cast buy in of £40,000 and they’ve splashed out on a revolving stage. All is set to be an incredible, critically acclaimed am-dram performance of the evergreen favourite of Peter Pan… Or is it?

    The theatre’s electrics are on the blink, the sound recording cues are all wrong, the revolving stage has gone haywire, lines have not been learned, but that’s no barrier to this well-meaning band of merry actors. It’s hilarious.

    Christmas has never been so funny. Even that time Dad tried to play charades in a full body cast.

    This is exactly the pill the doctor ordered!

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Ballet Black Triple Bill – CAST Theatre and National Tour

    ★★★★ | Comprising of a trio of pieces, this mixed programme from Ballet Black combines abstract dance, drama, passion and narrative storytelling in a triple bill of short pieces which amounts to a stunning evening of dance.

    Photo Credit – Bill Cooper

    The piece opened with Cristaux, an abstract piece centring on the beauty of crystals and how mesmerising they can be. The piece was performed by Cira Robinson and Mthbuthuzeli November, who both carried precision, synchronicity and poise in their movement. Robinson’s costume was beautifully decorated with 1500 Swarovski crystals, which glistened in the light as the pair traversed the stage.  Despite the quality of the choreography and performance, this was the weakest of the three pieces, primarily as a result of its soundtrack comprising of tinny bells ringing in a mish-mash of patterns. Despite sitting well with the theme of the piece, the composition held the piece back, which is unfortunate for something which otherwise had a lot for it.

    The second piece, To Begin, Begin was choreographed by Christopher Marney, a former performer with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures. Warming the stage with subtle lighting comprising of hues of blue and orange; and accompanied by gentile compositions of swathing strings and piano, this piece had a warm, dreamlike quality to it which felt comforting and familiar. The second abstract piece of the evening had a more contemporary slant to it, and knitted together both the traditional and modern movements beautifully; and kept building the momentum with the music and movement. To Begin, Begin was evocative, atmospheric and utterly absorbing.

    Rounding off the programme was Storyville, a narrative driven piece choreographed by Christopher Hampson. Set in 1915, the ballet tells the tale of a young girl who finds herself working in an infamous dancehall in the red light district in New Orleans. Taken advantage of because of her youth and innocence, her spiral into self-destruction cannot be halted, even by a young sailor that she falls in love with. Brimming with passion and sadness, this piece had a clear narrative relayed by well-defined characters. Added into that was a collection of music which was evocative of the time period of the setting and a subtle undertone of fears of voodoo and black magic, reflective of the culture of New Orleans; which both added gravitas to the piece.  Storyville rounded off the evening perfectly.

    Having never seen this company before, for me, the triple bill was a fascinating insight into the company and an impressive taster of what Ballet Black has to offer, leaving me keen to see more from them.  With a consistency of quality, precision and emotion running through the three pieces and with their impressive choreography and presentation, Ballet Black is thoroughly recommended.

    Ballet Black is currently on tour across the UK. Details of the company can be found at www.balletblack.co.uk . Ballet Black were seen at CAST Theatre, Doncaster, who have a variety of art, dance, performance and shows, from West End shows to world premieres, in their upcoming season. Details can be found at www.castindoncaster.com

     

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Dina Martina “Sitting Ovations”

    Would you willingly embrace artistic schizophrenia?

    Even fiercely kiss your inner, self-hating, subconscious bigot? Join the club. It’s a deliberate, artistic strategy stunningly deployed by stellar gay stars Penny Arcade and Franko B, the spectacular collision of two opposing points of view.

    Arguably first expressed in literature by Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘Imp Of The Perverse’ and refined as ‘DoubleSpeak’ by George Orwell’s 1984, it’s contrarianism writ large as art. Which is where manic, barely-sane comic Dina Martina – the probable incest brat of Family Guy’s Stewie Griffin and Ronald McDonald – comes storming in.

    Hailing from Seattle, USA, she’s 301 pounds of deeply skewed fun, a human CGI ball of deeply silly putty.

    So why mention her size? Because it’s the raw material of her art, darlings, Dina’s comic rocket-fuel, like Jack Dee’s trademark misery. ‘I stick to a high-sodium diet for that lush, larger-than-life look’, she giggles, her huge, plus-size clown’s mouth dilating like a gynaecologist’s nightmare.

    Think Heath Ledger’s Joker squeezed in a ball-gown cursed with Michael Jackson’s falsetto, and you too might run screaming for the exit. But wait; this funky assassin in a fright-wig only has one, single target, her own, all-too-willing self. Zoning in on personal pain with the exquisite virtuosity of the Saw torture-flick franchise, Dina masterfully misleads us from moment one.

    ‘I live a life without purpose’ she sadly observes, but who could possibly take this cosy, human cupcake seriously? And that’s precisely the point; we’re being taken for a brilliantly contrary ride by a Wizard of Oz Munchkin with the super-shrewd crowd perception of Sigmund Freud.

    But even with hindsight, it’s hard to adequately conjure Dina’s utterly demented stage entrance. Grinning like a slaughtered, Hallowe’en pumpkin, all Sergeant Pepper frock-coat and ballooning flesh, she pipes out inane, disco lyrics like a hooker on helium.

    How do we take her? At face value? Not quite. See, no matter how twisted you are, there’s always someone more extreme. Take dog poo; amateurs eat it dumped and stale, but dedicated gourmets suck it straight out. Just like comedy, in fact, and Dina’s surgically precise freak-show.

    And I’m in awe. Frankly, she’s attempting – and pulling off – a knife-edge balance of audience sympathies, by deliberately playing gay public poison Number One, the mincing, often self-loathing cliché. Never met one? Then check out John Inman and Larry Grayson on vintage TV. Still guaranteed to give gay rights activists instant heart attacks, Inman, Grayson and company were the utterly bland, acceptable face of homosexuality for heterosexuals.

    Try that now, and you’ll be as ostracised as white actors in blackface playing to Afro-Caribbean audiences. But remarkably, Dina embodies that fluffy, yucky stereotype – the target of mass straight derision – and still melts modern-day gay heartstrings.

    And mercifully, Dina’s Sitting Ovations is utterly removed from the vile, exploitative voyeurism of Soho’s deeply morally dubious Box club. Instead, she’s conceptually elegant, a drag Noel Coward of devastating double-takes and exquisitely dry, social dissections. ‘I am currently single’ she quips, ‘due to an unspoken agreement between me and men’.

    Okay, so the subtlety’s often swamped in a pell-mell parade of costume changes and video clips of spoof 1980s pop tunes, but it bites. Dina’s cracked, sectioned-on-glee-pills voice sweetly trills of infants raised on booze-filled pacifiers, and middle-aged housewives memorably disfigured by ‘Necrospheres’, facial fillers harvested from spoiled corpses. In other words, USA today through a gorgeously dark, twisted gay looking-glass Oscar Wilde would’ve killed to glance at.

    But there’s far more to ‘Sitting Ovations’ than faux-naive vignettes of the grotesque, distasteful and gaggingly twee. Arguably most memorable is a moody, extended reminiscence of an encounter with a (frustratingly unnamed) vintage Hollywood legend. Young, gauche and dumb, Dina’s fabulously dismissed by the aged, but still super-chic madam stabbing a prawn in her cocktail and holding it aloft.

    ‘This empty husk of a formerly vital creature’ she hisses to a suddenly tomb-silent room, ‘reminds me of you’. Just like anyone rash enough to risk Dina’s quick, eviscerating, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde wit, in fact. Me, I’m shrewd enough to stay way out the firing line; Dina’s an ongoing, monster talent steam-rolling any unwary opposition, and sometimes – like many reluctant celibates – it’s best to just say yes.

    At the Soho Theatre until 24th October 2015

  • THEATRE REVIEW: Pam Ann Queen Of The Skies, Leicester Square Theatre

    She’s still got it. Forty-Six she reminds us, and still has lots of wear left in those knees. ★★★★

    And as those noisy punters she had removed from the front row will attest, as feisty as ever. Pam Ann is the unchallenged Queen of the skies and looking around at the packed Leicester Square theatre – queen of the gays as well – with every c*ck joke, every rim job mention provoking whoops of excitement that explode across the small auditorium.

    It’s not hard to understand why the gays have taken Pam under their collective wing for nearly 20 years, in an interview with this very magazine in 2013 she said about the gay community,

    “They didn’t create Pam Ann; they created my whole fking life and my existence. That’s why I have not got married. I have not had kids. I am a fking gay man, 99 per cent of my friends are gay so they can take responsibility for everything. My vocabulary is gay, I speak gay, everything is gay. I f**k like a gay so you know, I say they created my whole existence and Pam Ann.”

    There’s something different though with Pam Ann, perhaps a little more self-aware than her usual, it feels a little Pam Ann 2.0. In this show there’s a lot less “air” jokes and hardly any of her beloved characters, such as Lily, Valerie and Helga. The first part gives way to a full on stand up routine and while much is in the character, Caroline Reid (Pam Ann’s creator and body) is it seems, breaking and aching to get out.

    Don’t get me wrong; she still gets in the ‘ass-like-a-hippo’s-yawn’ gag (it was at 3 minutes and 42 seconds, but who’s counting) and she still flies in the headwind of the PC brigade, using race, religion, heterosexuals and class as her bread and butter material, much to the applause of the crowd.

    While some media outlets will call her shtick out-dated and a product of days past, our community needs levity and moment to stop eating itself from the inside and listen to some of the pearls that fall from Reid’s mouth – and she knows that. With a knowing eye she momentarily tips her hat off to one particuarly hotly contested word – to the delight of the audience.

    But what if Pam wasn’t Pam anymore? Instead we have Caroline… I’m excited about the prospect; does she need to be dressed up in the uniform to still be hailed high as one of the campest comic creations by the gay community? The question is will we let her flamboyant, coked up stewardess character go? Will we let Reid fly, shed the wingtips and become a fully-fledged real person rather than the institution she’s become?

    Pam Ann Queen of The Skies is on at the Leicester Square Theatre until November 30th.

     

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Naked Boys Reading

    ★★★★ | Naked Boys Reading

    If you happen to be in Hackney or even if you’re not, we cant recommend Naked Boys Reading at Vogue Fabrics enough…

    In a dark, overcrowded, underground steamy room in North London something quite spectacular is happening. Fortnightly, certain men are getting naked, very naked – and not in a dark, overcrowded, underground steamy kind of way. No there are no glory holes here, but literature, glorious literature delivered in an unusual way, naked.

    Now naked reading is usually reserved for the bedroom, under the covers and there isn’t normally an audience; but the team at Vogue Fabrics have cottoned on to a winner here.

    Naked men. Reading. What’s not to like, and although the shabby, non-descript entrance to Vogue Fabrics might seem daunting, once you’ve got one of their bargain beers (there’s no choice of brand here, just glorious cans of beer) down your gullet and your eyes have adjusted to the light, you begin to realise that you are in fact, somewhere very special.

    It’s like stumbling on the hottest ticket in town, where just you and this room of eagerly expectant patrons are waiting, with baited breath for nakedness – and the show doesn’t disappoint.

    And you certainly get an eyeful.

    With the front row literally in cupping distance, you are close to the action.

    Some of the readings are a bit hit or miss, but the overall experience is just exciting. A complete hit and judging by the smiling blushing faces, emerging, squinting into the early evening sunset onto the busy, bustling, cosmopolitan streets of Stoky you know they’ve had more than an eyeful.

    With Sharon Husbands your inimitable host, with lines to crack even the sternest of faces, Naked Boys Reading is our absolute must.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Noises Off, National Tour

    ★★★★ | Noises Off, National Tour

    If someone had told me that I would sit through the first act of the same play three times in the same evening and actually enjoy it, I thought I would be laughing at them, not with them.

    But this cleverly written play, produced for this national tour by The Old Vic Theatre, amounted to a hilarious and thoroughly entertaining evening at the theatre.

    In Michael Frayn’s classic comedy, a group of actors initially find themselves rehearsing Act One of a play, “Nothing On” in the small frantic hours before the opening night of a regional tour. Nothing is ready, the cast don’t know their lines, there is a significant problem with the sardines and the director, Lloyd Dallas, is becoming increasingly agitated and frustrated at the lack of progress. The relationships between the actors become strained when their backstage shenanigans start to interfere with their professional integrity.

    Fast forward to the middle of the tour. Life on the road is taking its toll on the company and what we see is the view from backstage, as the cast perform Act One of “Nothing On” to an eager audience of pensioners and as jealously, rivalry and a quickly disappearing bottle of whiskey backstage all contribute to the sabotaging of each other’s performances whilst keeping the ‘noises off’ the main stage.

    The final scene is once again viewed from the auditorium, where the cast, on the last performance of the tour, perform Act One of “Nothing On” with a complete lack of enthusiasm, damaged props, an almost total disregard of the script and a ridiculous amount of improvisation as the performance spirals out of control.This incredibly cleverly written play was great fun. The first act centred on the rehearsal of a play within the play. The audience were treated to watching and engaging in the story and characters of the fictional play being rehearsed, which was actually a funny and traditional farce, with a story you could follow, plenty of well-timed entrances and exits and which was very much in keeping with the spirit of the genre. However, the parallel narrative of the lives, loves and inabilities of the cast and crew was equally engaging and sharply written. The interchange between the two stories was seamless as the audience switched between the two narratives with ease. Utilising the theatre as part of the set (by having the director try his best to control the stage from amongst the audience in the stalls) was a brilliant move, as it really drew in the audience, making them feel like part of the company.

    The backstage section was absolute comic genius and it is almost worth seeing the play for this section alone. This part of the play was virtually silent, as the now familiar story of “Nothing On” was being performed on stage whilst the company was falling apart off stage. The cast appeared and disappeared through various doors as the play continued whilst the crew physically fought, tied each other’s shoelaces together, hid items from each other and join forces to prevent one cast member from getting drunk. What followed was 30 minutes of simply brilliant, fast paced and perfectly directed and choreographed physical comedy. It was clear that the cast (and the director, Lindsay Posner) had worked very hard to achieve such impeccable comic timing and it was one of the finest pieces of stage comedy I have seen in a long time.

    The final section transported the audience back to sitting in front of the stage, where at the end of the run, the company and the play is falling apart. Wobbly scenery, failing props and stage fatigue all contribute to the increasingly crumbling performance. Whilst this section was enjoyable, it was here, where, after such an impressive second act, the final act paled slightly and the joke started to stretch a little compared to what had come before it, but to be fair, the second part was a very difficult act to follow.

    The cast were all first-rate, and as previously mentioned, had clearly worked incredibly hard to perform as they did. Neil Pearson was excellent as Lloyd Dallas, the frustrated director. You could feel his pain as he tried desperately to hold things together just before opening night. Maureen Beattie’s turn as Dotty Otley was also a particular pleasure. Her character could almost be a forerunner for Mrs Overall in Acorn Antiques or Mrs Doyle in Father Ted and not only was Beattie’s stage presence noticeable; her comic performance was on a par with Julie Walters performance as the aforementioned Mrs O. The very handsome Simon Bubb put in an incredibly good performance as the hapless and downtrodden Tim, a stagehand, understudy and general dogsbody. Bubb subtly generated a character that you couldn’t help but easily warm to and empathise with. The remaining cast were all incredibly good and there was no weak link in them, each of them, in their own way, deserving a specific mention. The relatively simple set was well utilised and the play as a whole had a good balance between sharp yet warm writing, likeable characters and hysterical physical comedy.

    The show was written in 1982 yet didn’t feel dated at all, giving off a real feel of a mixture of both the early Channel 4 (slightly anarchic) comedies such as “The Comic Strip” coupled with the charm of the 70’s sitcoms such as The Good Life, George and Mildred and Some Mother’s Do ‘Ave ‘Em. Noises Off had an infectious, almost naive allure which was positively delightful.
    Noises Off is currently playing at the Sheffield Lyceum Theatre before continuing its national tour.