What Have I Done? by Ben Elton review – a curious mixture of insight and rampaging ego

The Young Ones and Blackadder creator is sharp on the workings of the comedy industry – and not shy about listing his celebrity admirersBen Elton admits he has a habit of rubbing people up the wrong way. In 1975, three weeks after his arrival at the St…

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What Have I Done? by Ben Elton review – a curious mixture of insight and rampaging ego

The Young Ones and Blackadder creator is sharp on the workings of the comedy industry – and not shy about listing his celebrity admirersBen Elton admits he has a habit of rubbing people up the wrong way. In 1975, three weeks after his arrival at the St…

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Emma review – Austen’s comedy of manners gets an exaggerated Essex makeover

Rose theatre, Kingston upon ThamesAva Pickett’s modern-day adaptation of the novel adds pop music, farce and clowning but lacks gimlet-eyed observationsAn early blast of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance sets the mood of this 21st-century take on Jane Austen’s c…

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Golden Time (and Other Behavioural Management Strategies) review – a magic hour

Pleasance Dome, EdinburghKate Ireland’s warmly delivered one-woman show considers the pressures of productivity, rules and rewards at school and beyondShe has been given 60 minutes out of her audience’s day and Kate Ireland won’t waste them, she promis…

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Wodehouse in Wonderland review – less than spiffing portrait of the artist as a light comedian

Assembly George Square Studios, Edinburgh Robert Daws stars as the great comic author in this one-man show but is let down by lukewarm humourRobert Daws has lots of previous form on PG Wodehouse: he has played in various Jeeves and Woosters through the…

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‘Stupider than everyone else’: one comic’s semi-naked bid to perform dozens of Penguin novels

In a riotous show, Garry Starr dons a tailcoat, flippers and little else to re-enact a bookshelf full of classics. Would you help him bring The Jungle Book to life?Comedy smash-hits come in all shapes and sizes. You’ve got your standup, your sketch – a…

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From Blackpool to Play School: Johnny Ball on his days as a ‘bag of nerves’ comic

An emergency at Butlin’s gave the children’s TV presenter an early break. He recalls his shaky start as a standup and what he learned from Bob Monkhouse and Les DawsonAfter spending the summer as a Redcoat, I arrived at Butlin’s Metropole hotel in Blac…

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Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors review – batty antics with a Rocky Horror bloodsucker

Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonAs a gym-bunny vampire channelling Frank-N-Furter, James Daly leads a superb cast in a gender and genre-inverting romp that lacks biteBefore they took on Bram Stoker’s vampire count, co-writers Gordon Greenberg and Steve…

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Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors review – batty antics with a Rocky Horror bloodsucker

Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonAs a gym-bunny vampire channelling Frank-N-Furter, James Daly leads a superb cast in a gender and genre-inverting romp that lacks biteBefore they took on Bram Stoker’s vampire count, co-writers Gordon Greenberg and Steve…

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Sign of the four: Sherlock Holmes returns for Christmas comedy by two duos

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice have created songs for a Theatreland mystery by Humphrey Ker and David Reed. We find out how they doubled up for the detective’s ‘gory’ new caseNew songs by musical colossi Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. A script by …

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