Noël Coward Theatre

Paul Hendy’s transferring Edinburgh Fringe hit The Last Laugh imagines a backstage meeting between twentieth century comedy legends Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse. In case there’s any doubt, this is a nakedly nostalgic show aimed squarely at an older audience who actually remember its trio of protagonists being around. But let’s not be overly cynical. If The Last Laugh does play out a lot like a tribute show, with the trio trading improbably exposition heavy banter, then Hendy brings a lot of thought and care to the set up. For starters, there is more to the slightly gauche framing device than meets the eye. To be honest, it’s not hard to guess that this fanboy fantasy meeting isn’t all it seems – I won’t spell it out, but the ominous crackly lights and Cooper’s evident disorientation when he enters the room ought to tip you off to the fact that something is amiss. Okay, it’s mostly just an excuse for a fanboy fantasy meeting, but Hendry is a smart enough writer to make the set-up deeper than random fanfic.  He really is a fan though: not just of Cooper, Morecambe and Monkhouse, but of the generation of comedians that came before them, a few of whom we still remember (George Formby, Arthur Askey), more of whom we don’t (Rob Wilton, Sid Field). With Simon Cartwright’s suave but neurotic Monkhouse in place as a sort of walking joke encyclopaedia, the trio’s influences – and particularly those of bona fide geniuses Cooper (Damian Williams) and Morecambe (Bob...

It’s interesting to think what might have happened if then-youthful fringe troupe Mischief Theatre’s The Play That Goes Wrong had never quite made it to the West End, where it’s been sitting for a decade following a two year rise through London’s smaller venues. One wonders if Michief would have stayed together or gone their seperate way without their signature hit. Certainly it’s hard to imagine they’d have sent such a colossal volume of comedy plays to the West End in subsequent years, which have included Peter Pan Goes Wrong, The Comedy About a Bank Robbery, Magic Goes Wrong and Groan Ups, as well as a couple of improv-based shows. Their latest opus is The Comedy About Spies, which does exactly as it says on the label, being a ’60s-set farce about the scrapes that ensue when a rogue British agent steals a top secret weapon. Written by the company’s Henry Lewis and Henry Shields, you can’t ever say you don’t know what you’re getting with Mischief, but it’s nothing if not solid mainsatream comedy entertainment. Casting is TBA though the above image of the cast who did a scene at the Royal Variety Performance is probably quite a good clue (although not Alan Carr or Amanda Holden).