The Comedy About a Bank Robbery

[Deleted]

Saw this tonight. What can I say, I love it. Definitely the best Mischief show to date.

Seat C22 in the stalls is amazing. It's sold as restricted view but you don't miss a thing! And it cost me just £21.50.

There was a guy in the audience laughing in the weirdest way, he even made Chris Leask break character for a moment (btw isn't he the cutest thing ever?).

[Dawnstar]

Jan 7, 2018 22:19:58 GMT @eldermillan said:

Seat C22 in the stalls is amazing. It's sold as restricted view but you don't miss a thing! And it cost me just £21.50.

There was a guy in the audience laughing in the weirdest way, he even made Chris Leask break character for a moment (btw isn't he the cutest thing ever?).

My personal preference is B22, which I've occupied so many times I feel I should have one of those adopt-a-seat plaques for it, but C22 is my 2nd choice. The amazing bargains that some of the barely-restricted view seats offer are definitely one of the reasons I've been able to notch up so many TCAABR viewings.

Who, Chris or the laugher in the audience?

[Deleted]

Jan 8, 2018 13:48:16 GMT Dawnstar said:

Jan 7, 2018 22:19:58 GMT @eldermillan said:

Seat C22 in the stalls is amazing. It's sold as restricted view but you don't miss a thing! And it cost me just £21.50.

There was a guy in the audience laughing in the weirdest way, he even made Chris Leask break character for a moment (btw isn't he the cutest thing ever?).

My personal preference is B22, which I've occupied so many times I feel I should have one of those adopt-a-seat plaques for it, but C22 is my 2nd choice. The amazing bargains that some of the barely-restricted view seats offer are definitely one of the reasons I've been able to notch up so many TCAABR viewings.

Who, Chris or the laugher in the audience?

Chris

[herculesmulligan]

I see this is off on tour trch.co.uk/whats-on/comedy-bank-robbery/

[Dawnstar]

Yes. There's now an (imcomplete) list of venues & dates on the website www.thecomedyaboutabankrobbery.com/uk-tour/

[Dawnstar]

New cast announcement www.broadwayworld.com/westend/article/New-Cast-Announced-For-The-West-End-Smash-Hit-THE-COMEDY-ABOUT-A-BANK-ROBBERY-20180201 5 people staying on, 2 moving over from The Play That Goes Wrong & the rest are newcomers to Mischief.

[Dawnstar]

@theatremonkey Next time I'll remember to post the disclaimer "Other articles are available"! I just linked to the first one I read. They have the same blurb anyway.

[samuelwhiskers]

Forgive random question but does anyone know where the original TPTGW team (Dave, the Henries, Nancy, Charlie, etc.) are now? Movie Night? They have so many shows and transfers I've lost track!

[basi1faw1ty]

Thanks for the advice on the seats, folks! Just grabbed C22 for £24 on a Sunday afternoon to top off my London trip nicely .

[Dawnstar]

Feb 2, 2018 14:17:57 GMT samuelwhiskers said:

Forgive random question but does anyone know where the original TPTGW team (Dave, the Henries, Nancy, Charlie, etc.) are now? Movie Night? They have so many shows and transfers I've lost track!

5 of the original West End TPTGW cast did MMN: Jonathan, Henry S, Henry L, Dave & Charlie. Rob, Nancy & Greg didn't. Rob was doing panto in I think Ipswich, Greg doesn't do the improv shows & Nancy is involved in rehearsing the new TCAABR cast among other things.

[The Lost]

Sad to see lots of the TCAABR lot moving on, I feel like this show has had far more cast changes than it should have, but I guess there've been a few people leave and join at times other than the annual cast change. Thrilled most of all that Holly Sumpton is staying on, mainly because I majorly fancy her but I will definitely try and catch the last show for everyone else. I wonder if anyone can tell me (Dawnstar perhaps), was Leonard Cook original cast of TPTGW? I think I saw him as Trevor in the show's first year, and then as one of the leads the year after, possibly in Henry Lewis' role? And then he left, and came back again... I think? It's so hard to keep track of where everyone drifts off too, they really need a Mischief Theatre historical list of productions and casts like they have for Wicked. I definitely saw him as front of house at the Lyric Theatre a year or so back too, but I'm not too sure that counts

[Dawnstar]

Feb 2, 2018 19:42:38 GMT The Lost said:

Sad to see lots of the TCAABR lot moving on, I feel like this show has had far more cast changes than it should have, but I guess there've been a few people leave and join at times other than the annual cast change. Thrilled most of all that Holly Sumpton is staying on, mainly because I majorly fancy her but I will definitely try and catch the last show for everyone else. I wonder if anyone can tell me (Dawnstar perhaps), was Leonard Cook original cast of TPTGW? I think I saw him as Trevor in the show's first year, and then as one of the leads the year after, possibly in Henry Lewis' role? And then he left, and came back again... I think? It's so hard to keep track of where everyone drifts off too, they really need a Mischief Theatre historical list of productions and casts like they have for Wicked. I definitely saw him as front of house at the Lyric Theatre a year or so back too, but I'm not too sure that counts

Holly & Mark Hammersly joined as understudies during the original cast run & then there was a semi-cast change at the end of November with 4 cast members leaving so yes, I guess there have been more cast changes than your average West End show with its once a year cast change. Leonard was an understudy in the original West End cast, covering Trevor, Dennis, Jonathan & Chris (I saw him go on for all but Chris). He then got promoted to full-time Robert for the second West End cast. He left for the duration of the third cast's run, which was when he was ushering at the Lyric, before returning to play Robert again with the fourth cast. Incidentally Chris Leask also did a stint of Lyric ushering between his TCAABR appearances. There was a period of maybe about 9 months where I couldn't go & see Showstopper without bumping into one or the other of them! If there's interest I can put together a run-down of all the casts of the Mischief shows, as I've seen them all.

[Dawnstar]

Dave Hearn was back in TCAABR tonight due to Sam Fogell being off injured & Jack Whittle on for Warren. I did a very last minute dash down to London. It was great to see Dave as Sam again. Not to in any way denigrate replacement casts but there's something about seeing original cast members in all the Mischief shows. They always make everything look so natural & right. It was my first time seeing Jack as Warren & I thought he did a good job, especially as the character is 3 times his real age!

[Deleted]

Dave! I adore him. Was it an emergency cover situation?

[Dawnstar]

Feb 15, 2018 20:58:10 GMT @eldermillan said:

Dave! I adore him. Was it an emergency cover situation?

Yes. Sam Fogell is injured, Niall Ransome on leave & Jack Whittle needed as Warren. Jack has tweeted that he's back to Sam tonight so I don't know if they've recalled Niall for Warren or what. Basically the whole thing stems from Mark Hammersly getting injured at the beginning of January so the cast has been 1 man down since. (We're kind of doing this discussion on the wrong thread! Don't know if mods can move?)

[martello736]

Feb 2, 2018 20:09:30 GMT Dawnstar said:

Feb 2, 2018 19:42:38 GMT The Lost said:

If there's interest I can put together a run-down of all the casts of the Mischief shows, as I've seen them all.

I know this was a while ago but I would definitely find this very interesting! EDIT: Oops, tried to delete the rest of the two posts and messed it up, but I think it's clear I was trying to quote you Dawnstar


I saw the show tonight for the first time with the new cast, I thought it was in really strong shape overall and was just as funny as the first time I saw it. Jack Whittle was on for Sam (and was on the last time I saw the show too) but other than that it was a full cast.

It was great to see Leonard Cook and Chris Leask in Mischief again, both are fantastic in their respective roles. Leonard had big shoes to fill as Sean Kearns was a really good Freeboys, but I think he lived up to his performance even if he didn't quite manage to pass for the right age as effectively. Jenna Augen was good as Ruth but she doesn't quite have Tania Mathurin's presence or vocals, and as a result I felt that I didn't really connect with her character until the final scene. Peter McGovern and Jack Baldwin as Warren and Shuck were really good, Peter's head slamming in the bank scene in act 2 didn't seem very realistic but I think he actually hit his head at one point so it makes sense he was being careful after that. I can't say I was massively keen on Matt Hunt as Mitch, his diction was very variable and especially at the beginning jokes weren't landing as they should have and it was a struggle to decipher a lot of what he was saying. This improved later on but there were still lines frequently lost to mumbling. I preferred Samson Ajewole's Cooper to his predecessor (not sure of his name), he was great at playing up the stupidity, and I think having a POC as Cooper adds to the hilarity of the Three Boys Freeboys scene when nobody can tell apart three people who look nothing alike. Jack Whittle is a great Sam and doesn't at all appear like an understudy. His chemistry with Holly Sumpton is fantastic and really natural too, the two of them bounce off each other brilliantly and their scenes are the highlight of the show for me.

Holly Sumpton was my favourite cast member last time and definitely remains so this time. Her comedic timing is second to none and she's so captivating when she's onstage that it's hard to watch anyone else. She really owns every scene she's in and her physicality is brilliant, I was aching from laughing so hard in the scene where she mimes to Sam personal information about her dad. She seems to have a great voice from the little we hear of her singing a lullaby so I think she would be great as one of the Mischief Movie Night cast (I also only just realised that scene is a repeat of Nancy's character singing the Darling children to sleep over loud noises in PPGW).

There were a couple of mishaps during the show. The old fashioned microphone they sing into during the musical interludes stopped working during Warren's first solo, so after that they used a regular handheld microphone for the rest of the show. I was really impressed at how effortlessly they solved the problem, although the sound balance was a little off and the singer tended to drown out the backing music and anything else going on onstage. There were a couple incidents of what appeared to be corpsing / ad-libbing during the show, they seemed organic but I'm not entirely convinced they were as years of panto have taught me that these interactions tend to be very carefully choreographed. When Chris was playing the very old man at Caprice's apartment (I forget his name) he broke character and said something about "made myself laugh there" and went to carry on before laughing again and saying "this is meant to be a short bit, damn it" or something along those lines. Jack (Whittle) also broke character and laughed during the "Simon" bird bit but I can't imagine that was natural as surely that bit wouldn't be funny any more after playing the role so many times.

Really enjoyed the show on the whole and can't wait to see it again soon. Will have to book the tour when it comes near me as it'll be great to see totally different takes on all of the roles.

[Dawnstar]

Apr 14, 2018 23:44:06 GMT martello736 said:

EDIT: Oops, tried to delete the rest of the two posts and messed it up, but I think it's clear I was trying to quote you Dawnstar

I did compile a list at the time but didn't post it as I never got a reply to my post but I can do so. I'll just need to do a bit of an update as TPTGW & TCAABR have both had cast changes in the interim.

I haven't said anything about the new cast, as I reckoned everyone is probably sick to death of me going on about TCAABR/Mischief in general, but I can't resist replying to a few of martello736's comments. martello736 I missed you by a few hours as I was at the matinee yesterday.

Apr 14, 2018 23:44:06 GMT martello736 said:

It was great to see Leonard Cook and Chris Leask in Mischief again, both are fantastic in their respective roles. Leonard had big shoes to fill as Sean Kearns was a really good Freeboys, but I think he lived up to his performance even if he didn't quite manage to pass for the right age as effectively.

I found it interesting that at the first cast change they tried to cast actors who were more age-appropriate for the characters as Freeboys, Shuck & Ruth but then went for younger actors this time round. Having seen 6 actors as Freeboys, 2 older & 4 younger, I really don't mind either way, since they've all been god at acting the role.

Apr 14, 2018 23:44:06 GMT martello736 said:

Jenna Augen was good as Ruth but she doesn't quite have Tania Mathurin's presence or vocals, and as a result I felt that I didn't really connect with her character until the final scene.

The first time I saw Jenna I got quite a shock, as her take on the role is very different, but having now seen her 4 times & so got used to her I'm really enjoying her performance. Yes, her voice is very different to Tania's & she sings noticebly higher harmonies in places in some of the ensembles numbers.

Apr 14, 2018 23:44:06 GMT martello736 said:

I can't say I was massively keen on Matt Hunt as Mitch, his diction was very variable and especially at the beginning jokes weren't landing as they should have and it was a struggle to decipher a lot of what he was saying. This improved later on but there were still lines frequently lost to mumbling.

That's interesting to read. I haven't found that personally but that may be because I know the show so well that my brain can automatically fill in any lines that my ears miss.

Apr 14, 2018 23:44:06 GMT martello736 said:

I preferred Samson Ajewole's Cooper to his predecessor (not sure of his name), he was great at playing up the stupidity, and I think having a POC as Cooper adds to the hilarity of the Three Boys Freeboys scene when nobody can tell apart three people who look nothing alike.

Assuming you last saw the show between 29th November and 25th Feberuary then it would have been Laurence Pears as Cooper. I personally find Samson's very outgoing Cooper almost a bit too much for the role. It doesn't seem realistic that someone so full of personality would allow himself to be bossed around so much by Mitch. Of course ever since the opening scene was re-written in previews there's been a problem with inconsistencies in Cooper's character - he says "I tell Tony everything" and is back-slapping & hugging the other guards but then in Act 2 says none of the other guards liked him - which can't help the actors who play him.

Apr 14, 2018 23:44:06 GMT martello736 said:

Jack Whittle is a great Sam and doesn't at all appear like an understudy. His chemistry with Holly Sumpton is fantastic and really natural too, the two of them bounce off each other brilliantly and their scenes are the highlight of the show for me.

I said almost exactly the same thing after yesterday's matinee. Usually if I see a show because of an understudy then I mostly focus on that character but I kept on kind of forgetting to focus on Jack because he blends in so well with the rest of the cast that one forgets he's an understudy. He has been on quite a few times, which must help, but I saw his second Sam show back in December & he was extremely good even then, though I do think his & Holly's chemistry has improved noticeably since then. I've also seen him on for both Warren & Mitch & he gave very good performances in both those roles but Sam is definitely the role he's naturally best suited to. In fact it's perhaps the best natural understudy-role match I've seen in this show since I saw Gareth Tempest understudying Mitch with the original cast & when Sam Fogell (who is also excellent in a very different way) leaves I really hope Jack gets promoted to lead. Yesterday was the first time I'd seen Jack's Sam opposite Matt's Mitch and I enjoyed seeing the contrast between the former's younger, more vulnerable & appealing Sam & the latter's older, hard-bitten Mitch.

Apr 14, 2018 23:44:06 GMT martello736 said:

Holly Sumpton was my favourite cast member last time and definitely remains so this time. Her comedic timing is second to none and she's so captivating when she's onstage that it's hard to watch anyone else. She really owns every scene she's in and her physicality is brilliant, I was aching from laughing so hard in the scene where she mimes to Sam personal information about her dad. She seems to have a great voice from the little we hear of her singing a lullaby so I think she would be great as one of the Mischief Movie Night cast (I also only just realised that scene is a repeat of Nancy's character singing the Darling children to sleep over loud noises in PPGW).

I saw her on for Ruth over a year ago, when she was 2nd cover with the original cast, and yes she does have a great voice. Obviously she's better suited to Caprice in terms of age but she gave a really good, sassy performance as Ruth. Yes, it is rather. I remember commenting when the show was new that one of Mischief's requirements for their female members seemed to be that they could sing loudly enough to be heard over power tools!

Apr 14, 2018 23:44:06 GMT martello736 said:

There were a couple of mishaps during the show. The old fashioned microphone they sing into during the musical interludes stopped working during Warren's first solo, so after that they used a regular handheld microphone for the rest of the show. I was really impressed at how effortlessly they solved the problem

Oh dear, I wonder what went wrong this time? They had the same problem a few months ago when apparently there was a flood in the restautant above which dripped down through the ceiling & damaged the microphone & the back-up so they had to spend a couple of weeks using a handheld mic.

Apr 14, 2018 23:44:06 GMT martello736 said:

When Chris was playing the very old man at Caprice's apartment (I forget his name)

Irving.

If anyone other than me is keeping track of understudies, Chris made his Freeboys debut on Friday. It only took 2 years! (Okay, he wasn't in the show for 9 months of that.) I thought he did a very good job, though I found it kind of surreal seeing him in a different role after seeing him as Everyone Else somewhere in the region of 30 times & from what he said afterwards I think he found it strange at times too.

Sorry, this has ended up rather longer than I intended.

[martello736]

Thank you for replying and clarifying / sharing information Dawnstar , I won't quote your quote as that'll lead to a message that takes an hour to scroll through

It's interesting to hear your thoughts and how much we agree on, especially with regards to Jack. It's a shame we just missed each other too. I didn't realise but now you point it out the character of Cooper is written quite inconsistently, hopefully that's something they will clear up in future revisions.

It's almost definitely not possible to talk about Mischief too much so you shouldn't feel conscious about posting too much, it's a shame that the Mischief show threads aren't busier generally, more people should appreciate their brilliant work. I would definitely love to see the cast / production breakdowns, future comedy historians will thank you for immortalising Mischief's legacy

[greeny11]

I revisited this show last Sunday, about a year since I'd last seen it - I'd forgotten just how funny it is a piece. I'm a big fan of The Play That Goes Wrong (which I'd seen at the matinee earlier), and this is equally funny. My two favourite parts are the part where Sam is pretending to be Caprice's father, then the 3 Freeboys mayhem in act 2. The cast were fantastic, I would point out standouts, but that involve mentioning every single person on that stage! We did have one understudy, Samuel Thomas for Everyone Else, who was very impressive.

[Dawnstar]

Apr 15, 2018 14:08:29 GMT martello736 said:

It's interesting to hear your thoughts and how much we agree on, especially with regards to Jack. It's a shame we just missed each other too. I didn't realise but now you point it out the character of Cooper is written quite inconsistently, hopefully that's something they will clear up in future revisions.

I doubt it. Since it's not something that has been addressed in the intervening goodness-knows-how-many re-writes I can only assume the writers aren't bothered by it.

Apr 15, 2018 14:08:29 GMT martello736 said:

It's almost definitely not possible to talk about Mischief too much so you shouldn't feel conscious about posting too much, it's a shame that the Mischief show threads aren't busier generally, more people should appreciate their brilliant work. I would definitely love to see the cast / production breakdowns, future comedy historians will thank you for immortalising Mischief's legacy

I don't know if you were reading this thread since its inception but for large parts of the time but I have been pretty much doing a prolonged monologue! I'll put the TCAABR casts in a separate post below & put the TPTGW & PPGW casts on the relevent threads (if I can find the long-dormant PPGW thread!).

[Dawnstar]

As requested by martello736, the TCAABR casts so far.

NB: I've listed both 1st & 2nd covers but, while all the 1st covers have been on (barring a couple in the current cast who undoubtedly will go on in the future), not all the 2nd covers went on. If anyone particulary wants to know who did & didn't go on then I can tell you.

West End original cast 31st March 2016-5th February 2017

Mitch Ruscitti – Henry Shields
Caprice Freeboys – Charlie Russell
Sam Monaghan – Dave Hearn
Robin Freeboys – Henry Lewis
Warren Slax – Jonathan Sayer
Neil Cooper – Greg Tannahill
Ruth Monaghan – Nancy Zamit
Officer Randall Shuck – Jeremy Lloyd
Everyone Else – Chris Leask (also 2nd cover Freeboys)
1st cover Mitch/Sam/Warren/Everyone Else – Gareth Tempest
1st cover Freeboys/Cooper/Shuck/Everyone Else – Steven Rostance
1st cover Caprice/Ruth – Ellie Morris
2nd cover Warren/Sam/Cooper – Mark Hammersley*
2nd cover Caprice/Ruth – Holly Sumpton*

*Mark Hammersley & Holly Sumpton joined the cast June 2016.

West End second cast 7th February-28th November 2017

Mitch Ruscitti – Gareth Tempest
Caprice Freeboys – Hannah-Kate Boyce
Sam Monaghan – Steffan Lloyd-Evans
Robin Freeboys – Sean Kearns
Warren Slax – Mark Hammersley
Neil Cooper – Miles Yekinni
Ruth Monaghan – Tania Mathurian
Officer Randall Shuck – Chris Pizzey (also 2nd cover Freeboys)
Everyone Else – Jeremy Lloyd (also 2nd cover Shuck)
1st cover Mitch/Sam, 2nd cover Warren/Everyone Else – Sam Fogell
1st cover Freeboys/Cooper/Shuck, 2nd cover Mitch – Mike Bodie
1st cover Warren/Everyone Else, 2nd cover Cooper/Sam – Niall Ransome
1st cover Caprice, 2nd cover Ruth – Holly Sumpton
1st cover Ruth, 2nd cover Caprice – Paula Kay

West End third cast 29th November 2017-25th February 2018

Mitch Ruscitti – Gareth Tempest
Caprice Freeboys – Holly Sumpton*
Sam Monaghan – Sam Fogell (also 1st cover Mitch)***
Robin Freeboys – Sean Kearns
Warren Slax – Mark Hammersley/Niall Ransome**
Neil Cooper – Laurence Pears
Ruth Monaghan – Tania Mathurian
Officer Randall Shuck – Jeremy Lloyd
Everyone Else – Chris Leask
1st cover Freeboys/Cooper/Shuck, 2nd cover Mitch – Mike Bodie
1st cover Warren/Everyone Else, 2nd cover Cooper/Sam – Niall Ransome
1st cover Sam, 2nd cover Warren – Jack Whittle
1st cover Caprice, 2nd cover Ruth – Lydia Fraser
1st cover Ruth, 2nd cover Caprice – Paula Kay

*Charlie Russell returned to the role for several performances in December 2018.

**Mark Hammersley was injured in January 2018 so Niall Ransome took over for the rest of the run with Jack Whittle as 1st cover.

***Dave Hearn returned to the role for 2 performances in February 2018.

West End fourth cast 27th February 18-current

Mitch Ruscitti – Matt Hunt*
Caprice Freeboys – Holly Sumpton
Sam Monaghan – Sam Fogell**
Robin Freeboys – Leonard Cook
Warren Slax – Peter McGovern
Neil Cooper – Samson Ajewole
Ruth Monaghan – Jenna Augen
Officer Randall Shuck – Jack Baldwin
Everyone Else – Chris Leask (also 1st cover Freeboys)
1st cover Sam/Mitch/Warren, 2nd cover Freeboys/Shuck – Jack Whittle
1st cover Everyone Else/Shuck, 2nd cover Mitch/Cooper – Samuel Thomas
1st cover Cooper, 2nd cover Warren/Sam/Everyone Else – Jean-Luke Worrell
1st cover Caprice, 2nd cover Ruth – Sarah Gage
1st cover Ruth, 2nd cover Caprice – Lydia Fraser

*Gareth Tempest returned to the role for 2 performances & Henry Shields for 1 performance in March 2018.

** Dave Hearn returned to the role for 3 performances in March 2018.

[martello736]

Thank you Dawnstar! This is really interesting and I look forward to reading the TPTGW and PPGW breakdowns.

[timothyd]

Loved loved loved this. Inventive, great actors, hilarious!!!!

[basi1faw1ty]

Finally got round to seeing this this afternoon. I had tears streaming down my face, and there were points where I couldn't breathe for laughing so hard.

Mischief Theatre, you've done it again!

Also I may or may not be in love with Matt Hunt.

[Dawnstar]

May 20, 2018 20:30:52 GMT basi1faw1ty said:

Also I may or may not be in love with Matt Hunt.

Possibly due to the tight jeans. I'm sure his are tighter than any other Mitch's!