Bleak Expectations - Criterion

[Rory]

[willjam39]

So glad this has had a new life after its watermill run

[Rory]

[Steve]

Saw this tonight, and I liked it half the time, but LOVED it whenever John Hopkins and/or Marc Pickering were on stage: those two have funny bones!

Some spoilers follow. . .

For my tastes, this has a lot of good laughs, but I felt this was less funny overall than "The Windsors," and significantly less funny than "Upstart Crow." I put this down to it being a Radio sitcom to Theatre conversion, a less perfect fit than the aforementioned TV sitcom to Theatre conversions.

Radio is often funny precisely because you can't see things, so you imagine the most extreme version of what you're hearing. For example, on the Radio, I had imagined the anvil that Pippa carts around as much much bigger than the paltry anvil we see on stage. Further, there were no underwater swimming squirrels savaging anybody in this version, for example. The result is less material that is oven ready for instant laughs.

One thing the Watermill gets dead right here, though, is getting John Hopkins back on stage in a comedy role. They struck gold with him in their comedy, "Ben Hur," and they do so again here: his breathless bombastic swaggering villain, Gently Benevolent, is everything you could wish from a breathless bombastic swaggering villain, and easily got the most laughs per stage minute. His sheer lingering sadistic glee at using a kitten for an inkwell was belly laugh hilarious!

I still laugh at the thought of Hopkins's cuckolding lover in "Adrian Mole," so thoroughly did Hopkins commit to macho passion and bombastic swagger. He's a comedy actor who simply isn't used enough, I think.

Almost as funny as Hopkins is Southwark Playhouse comedy stalwart, Marc Pickering. If Hopkins feels like he jumped straight out of every Python movie, all of which he would have enhanced, Pickering feels like he jumped out of every John Waters movie, all of which his camp gleefulness would equally have enhanced. Pickering luckily gets lots of stage time, as he plays multiple monstrous characters from the same family, ala Alec Guinness's portrayal of every member of the D'Ascoyne family in "Kind Hearts and Coronets," many of whom share the same fate as Pickering's characters lol.

Nina Wadia is extremely game as this week's narrator, but she never commands the part the way Richard Johnson did (well, she's only in it a week lol). I think the guest actors lined up who would most likely replicate that absurd patrician pomposity would be Robert Lindsay and Stephen Fry. Wadia was funniest when referring to herself as Nina Wadia and the fact that Pip Bin has so successfully changed his race and sex while growing up lol.

For fans of the original Radio show, however, I think booking Tom Allen could be something of a coup, as he played the original young Pip Bin, and there would be something simultaneously nostalgic and new about seeing him now play the older one. For me, had I not simply been booking based on available slots, I would have found the prospect of Julian Clary as the narrator the most enticing, as he's so good at improvising rude remarks. And if not Clary, Lee Mack is equally wonderful at throwing in funny followups to redeem moments he gets no laughs. I'm sure every narrator will have their plus points, but those are my thoughts lol.

Dom Hodson revives his Watermill lead role as Pip Bin, and he is a glorious straight man, uttering every absurdity with bright faced sincerity. And, despite her small anvil, Serena Manteghi was irrepressibly up for laughs.

Overall, the laugh-meter ticks away at 3 stars, but jumps to 4 stars whenever Hopkins and/or Pickering are on stage: so 3 and a half stars from me.

PS: At this early stage of previews, the run time was 2 hours, 25 minutes (beginning late at 7:45pm and ending at 10:10pm). It will inevitably get shorter as the show hones itself.

[anthony]

Genuinely tragic.

About a fifth of the audience left at the interval - they were smart. I stupidly thought it would get better.

[dlevi]

I went in thinking, at least it'll be mildly amusing but it wasn't. There was one genuine laugh in the first act. A few smiles and a lot of desperate mugging on the part of the actors ( except the guest narrator Dermot O'Leary who clearly couldn't give a f***! Lots of people made their way onto Picadilly Circus at the interval. The show was ineptly staged and never rose above the stoned-friday-night-university-level. I can't believe it'll make it through it's announced run.

[profquatermass]

There's offers for it everywhere - it's a long run for something that is selling so badly already. Was there really a demand for it? I quite like the radio show but not in a 'I must catch up if I miss it' sort of way

[kjb]

I have tickets for this with Stephen Fry as the Narrator in August. I'm seeing so many offers though, I'd be surprised if it is still running by then...

[Rory]

Not sure about this marketing...


Saying the word 'bleak' over and over may not be as amusing as they think it is.

[stevej678]

Closing early on 13 August.

[Jan]

I see the omnipresent Stephen Mangan was due to narrate this at some point. Everywhere I look at the moment there he is: Pointless, Have I Got News for You, the art thing on Sky, Private Lives. He must need the money.

[willjam39]

So which guest star isnt getting to perform if closing early?

[Dave B]

Jun 27, 2023 7:35:38 GMT willjam39 said:

So which guest star isnt getting to perform if closing early?

Ben Miller and Nish Kumar

[willjam39]

Shame as think Ben Miller is a great performer.

[Jan]

Jun 27, 2023 7:54:36 GMT willjam39 said:

Shame as think Ben Miller is a great performer.

That balances out Nish Kumar then. 

[evilmat360]

Hugh Dennis has replaced Jo Brand for the 11th-16th July performances.

[starlight92]

TodayTix are doing a 24-hour offer of £15 tickets...is this worth seeing at all for that price? Seen mixed to negative reviews.

[iwanttix]

I actually loved this when I saw it a few weeks ago. We decided on the day to see an evening show since we were already in London for a matinee and Julian Clary being the guest star sold it to us.

The humour is my level and the fact that the actors corpsed a few times just made it funnier.

[jr]

Worse thing I've seen in ages. After 20 minutes I wanted to die. Left at interval.

I don't know anything about the writers/director/producers but it reeks of public schoolboys with contacts. Otherwise I cannot understand how this rubbish was ever produced.