Theatre producer of the longest running comedy of all time, No Sex Please, We’re British, who was also a great talent spotterThe elegantly rumbustious West End theatre producer John Gale, who has died aged 95, made his name and his fortune when, in 197…
Continue ReadingSoho Theatre, LondonWhether singing or crawling cleavage-first over the shoulders of her crowd, the eccentric diva asks what an artist should do in such ominous times‘I do think in 90 mins,” says the kamikaze cabaret performer Meow Meow, “we can really…
Continue ReadingSydney comedy festivalThis one-hour musical about the former NSW premier is a crowd-pleaser – if you’re happy to settle for jokes that are convenient rather than cleverFive years ago, locked in our homes and isolated from our loved ones, we invented ne…
Continue ReadingReading Rep theatreThree generations of soon-to-be-weds unload their emotional baggage into the Thames in Camille Ucan’s comedyJerome K Jerome was not kind about Reading in Three Men in a Boat. Sculling along the Thames, his narrator observes how the t…
Continue ReadingFrancesca Moody and Gary McNair’s innovative DIY solution to Covid restrictions will be revamped for a series of in-person, one-off showsWhen the 2020 Edinburgh fringe was cancelled due to Covid-19, producer Francesca Moody and theatre-maker Gary McNai…
Continue ReadingRiverside Studios, LondonHumour abounds in this Star Wars-themed cabaret, as Boba Fett bumps and grinds while Han Solo and Chewbacca share a Backstreet Boys numberMight there be an overlap between sci-fi fans – I speak as one myself – and audiences who…
Continue ReadingBloomsbury theatre, LondonProfundity is in short supply in this celebration of received thinking about wrinkles and randy husbands – but McCartney makes the familiar shine‘Give me a shout if you’re here on a girls’ night out!” There’s no point pretendi…
Continue ReadingChichester Festival theatreThe standup brings his easy stage command to the role of a penniless nincompoop who tricks his way into authority in Gregory Doran’s productionA satire by a Ukrainian-born writer in which Russians trust a chancer who cruelly …
Continue ReadingTron theatre, GlasgowA quick-witted trio star in three plays, in roles ranging from an Ulster unionist Homer Simpson to a pandemic prophetIf you were the gambling kind, you would have hedged your bets on A Play, a Pie and a Pint. What chance of surviva…
Continue ReadingDropping the droll, self-obsessed character from his early standup shows, the comic and TV star is swapping millennial irony for the sincerity of songThere was a time when comedians weren’t just about the jokes, they were about the crooning, too. I saw…
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