Barbara Nice: Fun – Waterside Arts

Barbara Nice, the stand-up comedy alter ego of actress Janice Connolly, returned to the region of her birth to appear at Waterside Arts with her new tour entitled Fun.  The character of Barbara Nice cannot avoid comparisons with Victoria Wood in her housewife persona and Caroline Aherne’s Mrs Merton. This comparison is not always favourable.

A Stockport housewife, cleaner to the stars, the entire act is a caricature of a northern homemaker of thirty years ago with most of the comedy feeling like it could have been performed then too.  Even then it would have felt dated.  There are occasional more modern notes, but the majority of the show is very much based on the era of the seventies and eighties.  It is very much a woman of a certain age with a principal target audience of a certain age. 

Obviously aimed to appeal to those who found Mrs Merton amusing, the humour was loud and lacking nuance.  Relying heavily on the audience interaction and participation, the crowd at Waterside were mainly fans and willing to engage, playing musical statues at the end of Act one and What’s the time Mr Wolf outside the venue at the end of the show.  Somehow it all came over as juvenile as opposed to funny.

Using the music of the late 20th century as a sing a long collaboration between performer and house, the show mainly moves along at a decent pace, albeit with enough tangents to pad out the time.  The last twenty minutes of the first act being given over to a decision on the music to be used for the aforementioned musical statues game and the games itself does make a light-hearted close to the hour.  However, with the majority of the second act being taken up with an audience raffle, with the winners encouraged to shout, dance and show off on the way to collecting their prize, with the prizes also having a very seventies touch, it does emphasise how little material there really is.

Janice Connelly is a well-respected actor and director of the Women and Theatre group in Birmingham.  Mrs Barbara Nice is a throwback comedy routine and role that while still having some appeal to a limited audience, principally fell out of popularity several years ago.  Unfortunately for Ms Connolly, it should probably stay there.

Reviewer: Helen Jones

Reviewed: 11th October 2024

North West End UK Rating: