This week, Manchester’s Opera house is home to ‘The Last Laugh’ – a comedy play championing three of Britain’s trailblazing comedians, Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse. Three wildly loved and remembered comedians that paved the way for comedy acts today.
This is a very special play. An hour and 20-minute memoire of each comics life, personality with their best jokes threaded throughout. With something like this, it could be very easy to miss the point and make the whole thing purely about the acts, and the silly jokes – however this was significantly more poignant than I ever could have imaged. This not only focused on the, as described, ‘characters’ these comedians had to portray, but the people behind them and the difficulty of navigating laughs regardless of how you/they feel as people.
This is a very clever put together piece. One set, three places, and three stellar actors. Set in what you would imagine at the start as the dressing room of a night such as ‘Night at the Palladium’ or something on the line of. Three comedians who’ve done it all, telling jokes, singing songs, telling stories and opening up to each other – Truly beautiful. The ending of the show, not to spoil it, brought a tear to my eye. The point where you realise none of these comedians are with us anymore, and the whole play that was the case. ‘Don’t die out there’ starting off the realisation to the audience as all comics are supposedly they are performing at ‘different shows’ and in fact we’re all reliving their final preparations before they passed away – and something very special happened, with Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse, looking at a Tommy cooper with the words ‘You won’t die out there Tommy, You will never die’. In a flash, Tommy Cooper on his own – looking at the paper that reads ‘Tommy Cooper Dead’. Theatrical brilliance all round. A brilliant script, a brilliant cast and the perfect show.
Each of these three men are artists. I was not watching Damian Williams, Bob Golding and Simon Cartwright – I was watching Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse. The embodiment of these legendary comedians was unbelievable, down to small inflections, little movements, laughs – everything. This was exactly how you would imagine these three would have been in a dressing room together and hats off to all three of them. You can’t split the talent, they were all 100% in their own right and they deserve every plaudit for bringing three greats back to life in the best way possible.
‘The last laugh’ is only on at the Opera House until Saturday 2nd so make sure you are not missing out on this laugh a minute, nostalgic masterclass. Tickets available at:
https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/the-last-laugh/opera-house-manchester
