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The Play That Goes Wrong
Jan. 28th, 2017 04:48 pmSome time last year I saw TPTGW was coming to Cheltenham, but SM said it didn't appeal. So when the daughter and I were meeting in London and deciding what to see, I suggested we see it in the West End. Daughter had a look, said it was coming to Coventry (where she lives) in the new year and would I like to see it as her birthday present to me and I could stay over with her. We had a plan.
Then, a few weeks ago, the daughter told me her house was too untidy for me to stay, but the hotel/gym complex two minutes down the road from her house (and where she's a gym member) had an excellent offer on rooms for January, including full breakfast, so we were staying there. Fair enough - too untidy means it's practically impossible to get in the front door.
The play, which is at the start of a seven month tour, was hilarious. It's very well scripted and acted with great precision (vital at some times) and enthusiasm. Anything which can go wrong, will go wrong - muddled/forgotten lines, misbehaving props, dodgy scenery, the need for understudies to come on partway through.
But there's never the feeling of second-hand embarrassment when something goes wrong. The running jokes remain funny, because although the audience knows what's going to happen, so do the actors, so the anticipation is in how they will be coping with whatever it is this time. And there was never a sense of stupidity - everything was a plausible accident.
So, if you want an evening's entertainment, and are anywhere near a theatre where they are touring, I can thoroughly recommend the play.
We went back to our very comfortable hotel room, and were woken at 8.20 this morning by the daughter's phone buzzing. It was her brother, whose first words were, "You're an auntie!"
Then, a few weeks ago, the daughter told me her house was too untidy for me to stay, but the hotel/gym complex two minutes down the road from her house (and where she's a gym member) had an excellent offer on rooms for January, including full breakfast, so we were staying there. Fair enough - too untidy means it's practically impossible to get in the front door.
The play, which is at the start of a seven month tour, was hilarious. It's very well scripted and acted with great precision (vital at some times) and enthusiasm. Anything which can go wrong, will go wrong - muddled/forgotten lines, misbehaving props, dodgy scenery, the need for understudies to come on partway through.
But there's never the feeling of second-hand embarrassment when something goes wrong. The running jokes remain funny, because although the audience knows what's going to happen, so do the actors, so the anticipation is in how they will be coping with whatever it is this time. And there was never a sense of stupidity - everything was a plausible accident.
So, if you want an evening's entertainment, and are anywhere near a theatre where they are touring, I can thoroughly recommend the play.
We went back to our very comfortable hotel room, and were woken at 8.20 this morning by the daughter's phone buzzing. It was her brother, whose first words were, "You're an auntie!"
