Short, fat hairy legs... (my attempt at a review)

Hello my little reader friends,

Bit of a change for this one. As you know I've been to the theatre a few times this year and someone recently said that I should write a review. So I thought I'd give it a shot.

And here it is.

'Eric And Little Ern'
Kings Theatre, Glasgow
24.11.14

Starring:
Jonty Stephens as Eric Morecambe
Ian Ashpitel as Ernie Wise

Not to put too fine a point on it, this is the closest you're going to get to seeing arguably Britain's greatest and best loved comedy duo Morecambe And Wise short of inventing a time machine. But it will be well worth a visit to anyone 

A hospital bed would seem to be an odd place to start a play about Eric and Ernie but start there it does. And it's a poignant reminder that the two people this play is centred on are no longer with us. And in our increasingly cynical times, that they are missed. Possibly more than they ever were. It begins at Nuffield Hospital near Slough where a very ill Ernie Wise gets a visit from a rather unusual doctor...

Of course the doctor is none other than Eric Morecambe and then we realise that he has come back to help his old friend so they can perform one last hurrah. And it's this realisation that gives the play a note of sadness amongst all the laughter.

To say any more about the plot would be to give too much away and spoil the play for anyone wishing to go see it at a later date but something must be said about the performances of the two actors. While Ashpitel is excellent as Ernie Wise, it is Jonty Stephens's Eric that really makes the show. Even when he isn't saying anything, merely wandering around the stage looking bored, he is Eric Morecambe. Always ready to be the clown and, as pointed out by Wise, always in comedy mode, always 'on'. A point, the two lament, may have had something to do with Eric's untimely death. 
 
The jokes are pretty good. Some of the old favourites are played out brilliantly much to the eager anticipation of the audience. At one point a siren is heard from outside the stage 'window' and the audience almost starts to laugh before Stephens can utter the line 'He won't sell many ice-creams going that fast'.  It can hardly be a surprise to anyone reading this though, that the biggest round of applause, apart at the very end of the performance, was when Stephens utters the immortal words "I'm playing all the right notes..."

The end, as it was in the tv show and, I assume, their stage act ,was, of course, 'Bring Me Sunshine'. And the whole audience was singing along. The same audience that came out of that theatre with big grins on their faces. The audience that have just watched a fitting tribute to two comedy legends.

If you were being harsh then this show is nothing more than a tribute to an act long since gone. But that would be somewhat churlish. For this is more than that. A tribute maybe. But also a reminder of a time long gone. The jokes maybe simpler but they have retained the ability to make an audience laugh. And, in the end, isn't that all that matters.

A time long gone. You can't be there. But this show gives a glimpse of what it must have been like to have been in the company of  comedy greats.

As for this review...

Well..

What do you think of it so far?

(Audience)
"Rubbish"