Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival 2016

Review by: Paul Towers, 28/2/16

Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival 2016

Once again Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival has drawn to a close. While both the city, and to some extent the county, has been awash with comedic performances  in every corner, our very own contribution to the festival here in the city’s West End has more than made its mark.

While there has been a dramatic reduction in the local venues that have got involved with the Festival it has been left to the ever remarkable Upstairs at The Western to make sure that the West End has spent February laughing.

This wonderfully intimate theatre-over-a-pub gave us a wide range of entertainment to tickle our funny bones. The month started off in cracking style with George Egg, anarchist cook. This belter of a show gave us an hour of inspired lunacy ending with a three course meal cooked on stage! A very welcome return was made by the equally lunatic Conversation Garden does a Panel Show, Leicester’s very own anarchic love child of Shooting Stars and Blankety Blank.  As the month wore on we had a couple of very talented sketch show nights and an hilarious Audience With Henry VIII, seeing as how Leicester has been in a right royal mood since Richard III was re-interred. Upstairs at The Western book-ended their comedy season with a final return visit from Conversation Garden. This wonderfully local theatre has a packed season of events running right up the middle of June including their renowned Comedy Workshops from the middle of March.

Although, as I said, many local venues dropped out of the Festival this year a couple of new places have dipped their toes in the waters and it is to be hoped they will carry on providing us with entertainment.

An unlikely venue for comedy was the Church of The Martyrs in Westcotes Drive who hosted An Evening With Paul Kerensa, a script writer for BBC’s Miranda. Almost as unexpected was the Feed Bellies Not Bins Comedy Club at The West End Centre on Andrews Street.

First published in Western Gazette

Outings

Review by: Paul Towers, 25 February 2016

Outings by Matthew Baldwin & Thomas Hescott

Seabright Productions, directed by David Grindley

Curve 25^th & 26^th February 2016

“short, snappy vignettes”

Utilising the very successful format popularised by The Vagina Monologues, four actors perch on stools and read out a collection of stories culled from various social media sources of coming out and being gay.

To begin with they are short, snappy vignettes of  that dreaded moment. Mostly they are positive; the lad who is mortified that his mother is so accepting as he was relishing the potential drama of it all. Some uplifting; a 7 year old whose response when his mother told him she was gay was ‘How cool is that?’ Some not so accepting; a woman whose Father wasted years refusing to accept her chosen path, only seeing sense almost on his death bed.

There have to be, along the way, acknowledgment of the various celebrity outings. Tellingly, one declared that we are finally getting to a point where sports stars coming out, in particular, are hardly newsworthy. Surely a good thing.

As a documentary piece it has to include a selection of less savoury, sometimes horrific stories of not so long ago. The first half concluded with a truly barbaric story of a young man who felt pressured into seeking out so-called therapies and endured some practices which, if they occurred in the Third World today, would be condemned by civilised society. Sadly these things were not uncommon in this country in the 60’s and 70’s. Thankfully, in a relatively short space of time, we have moved on in most parts of the world. Although there are States in America who still haven’t outlawed it yet.

Outings is at Curve again on Friday 26^th February.

Bookings at www.curveonline.co.uk/whats-on/shows/outings

Revan and Fennell

Review by: Paul Towers, 19 February 2016

Revan and Fennell

Upstairs @ The Western, 19^th & 20^th February 2016

“the natural successors to French and Saunders”

This is my last review of Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival 2016 and it has been worth venturing out on a cold, wet February evening.

Revan and Fennell have been touted as the natural successors to French and Saunders and, on the strength of their latest show, I can see no reason why not.

Starting off with  an appropriately political dig at the Government’s arts funding cuts, they dive straight into a low budget homage to The Lion King, complete with tatty costumes and props. The show then ploughs straight on with hilarious digs at Eastenders, poverty, weddings and cabaret singers before giving us a Broadway Musical finale.

Despite a very sparse audience this professional duo gave their all. Saturday night is almost sold out so call the box office for tickets.

Upstairs at The Western has put on a wide range of comedic shows running right up to next Saturday 27^th February and has proved once again that it has a very valid place in Leicester’s theatre scene.

http://upstairsatthewestern.com/
http://ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk/

First published on Western Gazette
and Pub Theatre Blog

Anne Reid

Review by: Paul Towers, 17 February 2016

Anne Reid – I love to sing

Curve Studio Wednesday 17^th February 2016

“stories from a national treasure”

What better on a cold and rainy Wednesday night than to snuggle down in Curve’s intimate studio space for a cosy evening of songs and stories from national treasure Anne Reid.

Ms Reid has been a working actress for more than 60 years and has a fund of anecdotes from her rich and varied career.

Born in Newcastle Upon Tyne (surprisingly) she was schooled in North Wales and went to RADA. Her big break came in 1961 when she joined the cast of Coronation Street as Albert Tatlock’s daughter and Ken Barlow’s first wife. She stayed with the soap for 10 years, off and on, before being killed off, at her own request, and leaving to do other things.

In recent years Ms Reid has been best known for roles in Victoria Woods’ Dinnerladies, the revival of Upstairs Downstairs, ITV’s Ladies of Letters and of course her current starring role in Last Tango In Halifax. Despite a long break form acting while she brought up her son, Anne Reid has hardly been out of work and her current cabaret act is a nice little filler between longer jobs.

While it has to be said that Anne Reid is not a trained musical theatre singer she has a very pleasant voice that carries a tune accurately. Her anecdotes are amusingly self deprecating but her lack of experience with telling stories on stage does mean she tends to talk over the laughs, of which there are many.

I feel that now is as good a time as any to criticise the Studio’s sound system. It needs some major rethinking. The speakers for the in house sound are up high and to the side. When a solo performer is on stage this provides a very inaccurate direction for the sound. I was sitting on the left hand side, halfway back so the sound was booming out directly in front of me while Ms Reid was centre stage. Very disconcerting. For a solo performer it would make much better acoustic sense to have the speakers lower down and closer together so the illusion of  directional sound would be more accurate.

I Love To Sing is touring for the rest of the month.
First published on Western Gazette

Beyond The Pail

Review by: Paul Towers, 15 February 2016

Beyond The Pail by Henry Dawe

Uppingham Theatre Company production

Upstairs @ The Western, 14^th & 15^th February 2016

“non-stop puns, groan-inducing jokes and silly songs”

Imagine, if you will, a world where the sun always shines, swearing is forbidden and gentlemen take Sunday lunch with the Bishop and his wife. This is the utopia that Beyond The Pail is set in as two working thespians lunch in the refined (their words, not mine) and civilised surroundings of Leicester’s Hilton Hotel.

As a pianist tinkles on his ivories the two troupers take their restaurant table to await the arrival of the doddery steward to take their orders. Their conversation turns to the various trials and tribulations of their personal and working lives. What follows is an hour and a quarter of non stop puns, groan inducing jokes and silly songs.

With the arrival of the Bishop and his wife they skilfully avoid all the expected smut and coarseness while still maintaining non stop laughter.

Written by one of the main actors, Henry Dawe, this is like a 75 minute episode of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue and so filled with silly jokes that even if you don’t quite get one (and younger audience members may miss a few references) there will be a dozen more along straight away.

This is huge fun for even the most easily offended. Your maiden aunt will be bursting her girdle and your teenage brother will be laughing into his handkerchief. If you like puns, pottiness and a bonkers plot then Beyond The Pail is definitely for you.

Full details of further shows can be found at http://www.beyond-the-pail.com/

First published on Western Gazette

Also on Pub Theatre Blog

Cat (The play)

Review by: Paul Towers, 14 February 2016

Cats The Play by Richard Hardwick and Jamie Beamish

Curve, Sunday 14^th February 2016

“the greatest musical theatre star that never was”

Cat, The Play is Hardwick & Beamish’s irreverent homage to musical theatre and especially the behemoths that are Andrew Lloyd Webber (ALW) shows. Dave, our ‘hero’ is ‘the greatest musical theatre star that never was’ and this is his story.

When Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, the musical, first burst forth onto the stage of the New London Theatre in 1981 a young Judy Dench was cast to play Grizabella. As history shows she snapped her Achilles tendon during rehearsals, Elaine Paige leapt into the breech at short notice and a star was born.

Dave had no such luck as he had a history of being written out just before opening night on a string of productions, coincidentally all written by the Lord (Lloyd Webber).

The stage is littered (Littered. Geddit? Cats, litter. Oh never mind!) with the detritus of a multitude of musical theatre roles. Into this junk yard skips Dave, still in his Cats costume, and the tale unfolds (do I have to explain every pun to you?).

Not only is the story itself hilarious but the interspersed songs are works of genius. Of especial note is the extraordinarily sacrilegious spoof of Jesus Christ Superstar which is perhaps the highlight of this tongue in cheek adulation of all things ALW.

The script is sprayed (!) with hundreds of in-jokes. For a Musical theatre geek, buff or just an appreciative audience member, this is the stuff of wet dreams. Not only are the musical numbers clever parodies of well known songs but the dialogue itself  contains numerous familiar lines from West End shows. This show is, in the words of the great Eric Idle, ‘lovingly ripped off’ from the originals.

Losing a role in Cats doesn’t seem to have done Judy Dench any harm so there is hope for Dave yet, despite his vitriol. One day even he could end up as a shoplifting national treasure!

In the hands of Gerard McCarthy this failed entertainer dances, sings and even plays a bit of piano in a tour de force which left the audience in Curve’s Studio laughing and crying.

On the off chance that you can get a ticket for the evening show on Sunday 14^th February, grab it with both hands. Otherwise get on Ryanair to Belfast Opera House for the 18^th & 19^th February

Full details of upcoming performances at http://www.davidhullpromotions.com/cat-the-play

First published on Western Gazette

Mixed Doubles

Review by: Paul Towers, 13 February 2016

Mixed Doubles by Will Close, Megan Smith, Paul Aitchison and Rose Robinson

Upstairs @ The Western, 13^th February 2016

“an hour of  slick sketches”

Sketch shows, whether on TV, radio or on stage, are notoriously difficult to get right but Mixed Doubles do a damn fine job.

With a 100% success rate this team of four writer/performers had the audience with them from the start. Most of the sketches had us laughing out loud, a few invoked awkward moment titters and several were more inventive than expected.

This quartet have an established pedigree as writers and performers and are BBC Radio 4 favourites.

With hilarious routines around The Elephant In The Room, Lady Pains and a great finale song this is an hour of  slick sketches by a group who are so comfortable with each other that they even try and corpse one another.

Mixed Doubles are touring prior to taking the show to the Edinburgh Festival later this year and won the Peoples Choice Award at Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival in 2013

More details at http://www.mixed-doubles.co.uk/

First published on Western Gazette