The Upstart Crow - Gielgud / Apollo

[Jon]

Is it an original story or a mash up of previous episodes of the TV series?

[NeilVHughes]

Jon an original story in the style of the TV programme.

[showgirl]

I've never seen the tv version so would this be something I could enjoy in its own right, please? Have also been noticing the lack of laughs in my recent theatregoing and would like to redress the balance.

[NeilVHughes]

Having time to reflect, the mashing up of the 3 plays it is based on is done brilliantly and could provide an opening to the plays for someone who is reticent or doesn’t believe Shakespeare is for them.

The irreverence is based on a true appreciation and worth seeing for the running gags on some of Shakespeare’s absurd plot devices especially the mask wearing Bear.

If you’ve not seen the Television series it may be worth catching a couple of episodes on iPlayer before investing but the gentlemen sat next to me had not seen it on TV and found it fun.

Interesting that they used the questionable plot device in Measure for Measure and All’s Well That Ends Well to make a point, not the most popular of plays so could be quite obtuse to a Shakespeare newbie but true nonetheless.

[talkingheads]

It has been announced that Day Seats are £25 and available from 10AM at the box office. I think I'll probably end up seeing this that way.

[Deleted]

Does anyone say ‘where would she put the coconuts?’ at any point?

[Jon]

The £29.50 tickets are a real bargain if got dress circle as a fair number were marked down from £125 premium seats.

[freckles]

Feb 14, 2020 17:45:00 GMT Jon said:

The £29.50 tickets are a real bargain if got dress circle as a fair number were marked down from £125 premium seats.

I got a couple of stalls ones from TodayTix at £29.50, should have been £142 according to the website!
Loved it. Manages to recreate the spirit of the TV series and sustain the humour over a much longer timespan. Very, very funny and clever - I think it would work if you haven’t seen the tv series, but a basic knowledge of Shakespeare plays helps get the most out of it.
Many favourite characters beautifully recreated, and a few new ones.

[bordeaux]

Five stars from Mark Lawson in the Guardian:
www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/feb/17/the-upstart-crow-review-gielgud-theatre-london

[Steve]

I LOVED this last night. Funniest thing I've seen Sean Foley do, and the funniest thing I've seen on stage since "One Man Two Guvnors" and the first two Mischief plays! You don't need to have seen the show, but you will get MUCH more out of it if you've seen or read Othello, King Lear and Twelfth Night.

Some spoilers follow. . .

What has a cod dangle but is not a man, shines but is not the sun, and is silent in a shaking sea?

Well, the first is a boy, the second is that same boy, a son who shines in his mother's eyes, and the third is that same boy sitting silently in a sea of mirth all around him last night.

"You laughed much more than I did, Mum," he said. "Well, I've read Shakespeare!" she replied.

And that's the thing. A great many jokes in this are about how the plots of "Othello" and "King Lear" fall into Shakespeare's lap (they sort of forget the fact that Shakespeare actually met a guy called Otello in the series who already gave him alot of that plot lol), and a great many other jokes are taken from "Twelfth Night," as there is some raucous "malvolioing" going on, as well as a riff on Shakespeare's habit of using supposedly-near-identical-twins-of-opposite-sexes in his comedies, also present in "Twelfth Night."

If you haven't seen or read the above plays, you can knock off one star from this assessment. And knock off a further half star if you've never seen at least one episode of the show.

As it happens, I think this play is funnier than all but one of the TV series episodes, namely the "Macbeth" episode from Season 1, and it is at least as funny as that.

At first I was upset that Mark Heap, who is a comic highlight of the series, playing Shakespeare's supposed nemesis, Robert Greene, author of the legendary play, "Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay," plays a different character in this show. After all, the series was always at it's best when Heap's Greene was scheming to bring Shakespeare down, Salieri-to-Mozart-style.

But I suppose Greene was dead by the period covered by this play, and besides, the Puritan that Heap plays is even funnier than Greene was, though in one respect, worse. Although Heap is still the funniest person on stage in this show, with his relentless over-the-top scheming and asides, huge attitude and massive sight gags, he is more peripheral a character to Shakespeare than Greene was, and thus the show has no shape, lacking an overarching villain to heighten and twist the show to a cathartic climax.

Thus the show feels more like that Ben Elton has crammed all his best jokes, from what would have been Season 4, into this play, providing more jokes per minute than ever, but failing to drive the show forward sufficiently, such that the biggest laughs come mid-show.

This is a churlish aside, leveled at such a funny show.

Besides Heap, Gemma Whelan is comedy gold, as the most brilliant woman ever, unfortunately born at a time that cod-dangles were mandatory for artists. Whelan is a national treasure in the making, in her ability to be relatable, empathetic, and then with the finest comic timing, mine huge laughs from her inner outrage.

And supporting these two comic masters, David Mitchell makes a marvellous stage debut with a more confident comic performance than I've ever seen him give, not only playing the milquetoast straight man that he often does, but also getting deliciously shirty, wild and crazy.

In addition, Helen Monks and Rob Rouse are on top of their games, as their respective characters from the show!

All in all, this may not build on itself as relentlessly as one might wish, but it is the funniest thing on stage right now by far!

4 and a half stars from me.
Deduct one star if you haven't seen or read King Lear, Othello and Twelfth Night.
Deduct half a star if you've never seen a single episode of the show.
Add the half star back if you hop on iPlayer right now and watch the Macbeth episode from Season 1.

[Jon]

Saw this tonight and enjoyed it a lot. I'm a fan of the TV series but this translates very well to the stage and while I don't think you need to have seen the series to enjoy it, you probably will get more about it if you know basic Shakespeare.

[cherokee]

On the whole I rather enjoyed this. David Mitchell, Gemma Whelan and Rob Rouse are all delightful, and funny performers. And I even liked Mark Heap - a performer who leaves me rather cold on TV: his rather massive performance style suits the stage better than the small screen in my opinion!

I've only seen one episode of the TV show so I didn't feel any prior knowledge of the characters was necessary, although obviously the more Shakespeare you know, the more the references will resonate.

It opened very strongly but I felt it lost its way rather in the second half of Act One when it resorted to just playing out the plot of 'King Lear' and basically just having the characters reciting chunks of Shakespearean text without any jokes. (Indeed the actual plotting was very contrived - including Will having to 'adopt' Kate in order to ensure he had three daughters.

Act Two put things back on track and I found the final scenes from 'Othello' rather moving. Elements of Ben Elton's writing will always irritate me a little: in this instance it's the many times 'futtock' is used instead of 'f***'. But I accept that's a personal thing. On the other hand, all the stuff with the bear was funny, as was the running gag of not being able to recognise someone the moment they put a mask on.

So a solid 3 stars for me. If you like Elton and the TV show, it's a no brainer but I wouldn't pay top whack.

[dominion99]

Given these upbeat notices there must be a transfer in the offing? the question is where and when?

[zahidf]

Feb 22, 2020 16:23:49 GMT dominion99 said:

Given these upbeat notices there must be a transfer in the offing? the question is where and when?

Its already in the west end... probably an extension if possible!

[Rory]

Can I ask, why does all the publicity call it 'THE' Upstart Crow when the tv show is just Upstart Crow. I know it's pedantic but things like this bug me! 🤣

[zahidf]

This was loads of fun, as someone who isnt a massive fan of the tv show. Great jokes, moments and performances

[Jon]

Feb 22, 2020 18:55:03 GMT zahidf said:

Feb 22, 2020 16:23:49 GMT dominion99 said:

Given these upbeat notices there must be a transfer in the offing? the question is where and when?

Its already in the west end... probably an extension if possible!

Can’t transfer due to To Kill a Mockingbird going in straight after and I think David Mitchell has commitments after April including filming the next series of Would I Lie To You?

[sherriebythesea]

Big fan of show and it was hilarious tonight

[Deleted]

Well, I am a bit torn. On the one hand I think this is really punchily priced and I have been feeling kind of resentful about it.
On the other, it’s one of my favourite shows and it has been gloriously reviewed. I also know where I like to be in the theatre, and seeing it from the back behind a leopard just annoys me.

So, a bit of reading of @theatremonkey taught me where the rake kicks in (I’m short), flexibility on dates and a little bit of working out which evenings the dynamic pricing is favouring, I managed to get £127 tickets for £87. So now I feel like I have got a bargain (even though I really haven’t) and I am happy!

[partytentdown]

Feb 22, 2020 21:42:37 GMT Rory said:

Can I ask, why does all the publicity call it 'THE' Upstart Crow when the tv show is just Upstart Crow. I know it's pedantic but things like this bug me! 🤣

I've noticed that some ads have THE and some don't... Seems they can't make up their mind!

[joem]

Does what it says on the tin. It's very funny, and tells a new story with the familiar characters (I missed Liza Tarbuck and the malevolent Robert Greene although at least Mark Heap does appear and shine as Dr Hall, Shakespeare's son-in-law-to-be).

Ben Elton does his familiar thing of creating historical characters who have the same concerns as modern people and takes the piss out of much modern posturing and virtue-than-thouness (but he still didn't feel able of showing a blacked-up actor on stage even if the joke is that it is a blacked-up actor who's going to get his come-uppance). Excellent cast throughout not forgetting the bear - I thought it was a real bear until the curtain call.

It's difficult to say if it would be as funny to someone who hasn't seen the tv show. Or to someone with a passing knowledge of Shakespeare, but in these days of gloom and doom you can forget it all for a couple of hours and have some genuine belly-laughs.

[cherokee]

Mar 6, 2020 22:44:33 GMT joem said:

I thought it was a real bear until the curtain call.

Seriously? 😂

[jay]

Unbelievably lame . Some truly terrible ‘panto-style’ performances - over-pitched played directly to the audience with EVERY WORD stressed. One actor almost completely incomprehensible. Low production values - panto back-cloths flown in and out to suggest a change of scene . Couple of drab bay-trees for the Malvolio scene . When ticket prices are this high , you at least expect a production to look decent . This looked like a budget of £80 had been splashed on it . Elton’s script had its moments - but actors had been directed to overplay almost everything -and chucking huge chunks of King Lear in not only exposed a Mitchell as a second -rate Shakespearean actor but also reeked of padding . This director has a history of mauling productions with over-blown physical comedy and end-of-the-pier naffness. When a non-speaking dancing bear gets the biggest laughs of the evening , you know that something isn’t right . There’s a really funny play to be written about Shakespeare and his efforts to write for the theatre . This wasn’t it . Save your money . Watch the Box Set.

[Jan]

Had to look up the director - Sean Foley - has a great reputation for directing comedies but I haven’t found the few things of his I’ve seen even slightly amusing. Probably just me.

[jay]

Mar 12, 2020 19:33:19 GMT @theatremonkey said:

Welcome to the board jay . Interesting review. Would comment that the cloths were a deliberate choice, I think, to reflect a simpler age of theatre. They fit in with the wooden stage surround panelling and sparse other scenery, I feel. Acting too reflects the "stand and project out" style of the times, I'd argue.