Friday, November 22

Tag: Bob Golding

The Last Laugh – Assembly George Square
Scotland

The Last Laugh – Assembly George Square

A standing ovation at a Fringe show speaks volumes. Paul Hendy's (writer and director) The Last Laugh deserves loud applause and whoops of appreciation. It is funny and touching. The set is perfect, the lighting spot on and the performers are wonderful.  Bob Golding as Eric Morecambe has that lovely little bounce perfected; Damien Williams channels the late Tommy Cooper brilliantly and Simon Cartwright’s Bob Monkhouse looks and sounds just like the man himself, right down to the mahogany tan. The warm-up music is a sound bath of Bernard Cribbins, which my neighbour joyously sang along with. Songs about a man digging a hole or Ernie and his horse and cart … there are few silly comedy songs these days, if any. Aimed at a predominantly baby boomer audience with money to spare and...
Twelfth Night – Stafford Gatehouse
West Midlands

Twelfth Night – Stafford Gatehouse

For those of you not around for the premiere in 1601 you missed a belter. The Bard’s buoyant and feisty tale of shipwrecked twins rent asunder amidst a fearsome tempest (not to be confused with the other Tempest by the same writer) to be finally washed up on the shores of the lyrical land of Illyria has held audiences enthralled for decades and, if this production is anything to go by, will for many more. Music is, indeed, the food of love in this sparkling new production at the Stafford Gatehouse it’s a fulsome menu of tasty titbits served by kitchen full of Michelin-starred chefs. Sean Turner’s unique interpretation of the play fizzes with invention, joy and bright new ideas - though relocating the play to a Cornish fishing village in 1958 does strip it of its usual pastoral idyll it ...