Jack Absolute Flies Again - NT

[anthony40]

Jul 14, 2022 12:32:15 GMT Steve said:

The two funniest male turns are Peter Forbes as Sir Anthony Absolute, who triumphs over his underwritten part by channeling an ever-boiling inner kettle, and James Corrigan as Bob Wingnut Acres, a wide-eyed enthusiastic Australian caricature par excellence lol.



Told ya he was good; and I'm not being biased because the character is from my home country

[samuelwhiskers]

Oh gosh I thought this was beyond dire. Walked out in the interval on press night.

The Rivals is one of my favourite plays and I loved, loved 1M2G but this was just puerile and exceptionally poorly written.

[foxa]

From what I've seen a real mix of reviews 2 - 4 stars.

[lichtie]

Mostly 3s and 4s from the ones I saw. One 5 and a snippy 2 from the Grauniad who seemed to be lamenting the lack of critique of social classes that they saw in Sheridan's original. So overall a bit like the reviews on here.

[foxa]

Yes just saw a 5 in the Daily Mail.
I think people really want comedies right now so it might do well.

[Jon]

Jul 15, 2022 10:53:14 GMT foxa said:

Yes just saw a 5 in the Daily Mail.
I think people really want comedies right now so it might do well.

I agree, I think in these times that people just want a good night out rather than a lecture.

[jr]

Jul 15, 2022 10:53:14 GMT foxa said:

Yes just saw a 5 in the Daily Mail.
I think people really want comedies right now so it might do well.

So glad I disagree with the Daily Mail

[peggs]

Well I was booked for this and much ado on 30th so that's all gone down the pan. I know they'll move tickets but I doubt I'll find a seat at right place and date again.

[lynette]

Jul 15, 2022 13:41:01 GMT peggs said:

Well I was booked for this and much ado on 30th so that's all gone down the pan. I know they'll move tickets but I doubt I'll find a seat at right place and date again.

Awful. My daughter it booked to travel to Edinburgh on 30th to tech a show. Her line might not be affected but unreliable. I hope you can reorganise the trip. I’m doing Much Ado on 17th matinee. 

[peggs]

Lost double theatre on last sat strike day too, I'm just hoping they don't call strikes when I need to travel to a festival next month or I'm stuffed.

Will go and check nt site out as soon as I have tried and failed to remember my password (was fine until they made me change it).

[mkb]

I am beyond astonished to see the negativity in the professional reviews and this thread. That was not what I expected to find when leaving the Olivier, especially given the rapturous reception with which Jack Absolute Flies Again was received by tonight's audience.

I haven't enjoyed a show this much in a long while. Maybe I'm on the right wavelength, but this for me was even funnier than the five-star One Man, Two Guvnors, side-splittingly funny in fact at times.

The whole cast were magnificent with pitch-perfect performances, and it was pleasing to discover that Kerry Howard is as brilliantly comical on stage as she is on tv. I loved the set design and painted backdrop, with its bright hues and Boys-Own-Adventure stylisation. The sequences projected across the ceilings and rear and side walls were immersive and impressive from the third row of the Stalls.

I had no complaints about the poignant ending, which felt entirely right and appropriate.

I rarely see a show more than once, but I can't wait for a return trip.

Five stars.

Act 1: 19:33-20:43
Act 2: 21:08-22:08

[david]

As the last show of my London trip and what a great way to end it. A really funny script from Richard Bean and Oliver Chris that kept tonight’s audience in stitches for the entire 2hr 40 minutes. As someone who is a big fan of the Carry On films and “Allo Allo”, it’s a show that really appealed to my sense of humour with its word play and at times physical humour and allowed me to just switch my brain off for a bit and have a very much needed night of comedy at the theatre. With so much serious stuff at the NT recently, it really made for a refreshing change to those types of productions. Certainly the show was well received by our audience tonight. It was just a nice experience to hear a room full of people laughing at the NT for the entire night again.

The breaking of the 4th wall in this production worked a treat, thanks mainly to the wonderful Kerry Howard as Lucy the maid. I would definitely agree with Steve in that whilst in OMTG, the men get the laughs, in JAFA, the humour definitely belongs with the ladies with Caroline Quentin giving an absolutely hilarious turn along with some amazing flexibility as Mrs Malaprop and who is obviously having a great time on stage with the script.

For the gents, Peter Forbes as Sir Anthony was another scene stealer and a shout out to James Corrigan as the Aussie pilot Bob Acres, another scene stealing performance (the bees and boxing scenes especially).

Whilst the humour landed well, I’m not too sure that the ending did as it was a massive tonal shift from everything that had been built up up to this point whereas I think with OMTG, the ending worked well with that play and maintained a similar tone to the rest of the play.

The dancing scenes were fun and certainly a nice nod to Caroline and Kelvin’s SCD appearances. The projections looked great from my front row stalls seat, though I imagine from further back or from the Circle they would look even better.

Rating - 4⭐️

[blobble84]

I thought this was an absolute mess. A poorly written script - mildly amusing in parts but not clever in the slightest. Laboured direction. A brilliant cast who gave it their all, but they couldn’t save it for me. Considered leaving after the first act.

[Dr Tom]

I quite enjoyed this last night with a second row Friday Rush seat. The plot isn’t perfect but there are enough witty lines and there’s a certain charm to all this. I don’t see a long life for this though, but who knows? Glad I got to attend.

[theatreliker]

Enjoyed this but agree with what another poster said - I've seen better by the same creatives involved here.

[Sotongal]

Saw this yesterday evening. Olivier about 2/3 full maybe (it was a captioned performance).

Enjoyed it though we thought the verbal sexual references may have been funnier if they’d been a bit more subtle than obvious. Likewise, there were a lot of swear words, which used sparingly can be very funny and meaningful, but used excessively lose their edge.

Family of four in front of us, parents, teenage daughter and son of about ten. Could see them cringing at times and the father and son left in the interval.

We felt it needed more work - not as funny, well written or developed as One Man, Two Guvnors.

Also, hadnt been to the NT since pre Covid and were surprised how tatty round the edges it’s getting. It used to be a great experience going to a Peter Hall production at the NT, full of expectation of seeing some big theatrical names or Productions. Times and audiences change, I guess.

[mattnyc]

Saw this about 3 weeks ago and I’m still laughing, thinking about it. Really one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time so I’m shocked people are hating it.

[vdcni]

I thought this was good overall and it was a fun night out but would agree it wasn't anyway near the level of One Man. There was so much going on that enough of it was funny and even when they overused certain points like the fourth wall breaking and the two Dudley's nothing overstayed its welcome too much as the whole thing kept moving.

As others have said Caroline Quentin and Peter Forbes were the stand outs with the younger cast members more of a mixed bag; James Corrigan's broad Aussie stereotype (even funnier when you're sitting next to your Aussie husband) and Helena Wilson as Julia the strongest.

Asked only to be hunky and northern Kelvin Fletcher just about managed it but only really came into life during the dance sequence where suddenly he was the most watchable person on stage.

And yes the ending doesn't really work that well, trying to inject realism into farce isn't easy and they didn't quite pull it off though I would say the main issue was the sequence was just too long.

[anthony40]

Being screened live and for free outdoors to the general public at the National Theatre tonight

[cartoonman]

I saw this last night. I would say it's as funny as One man two guvnors. The back projection effects were good. Every member of the cast was excellent. The dance was really well done. It is quite long but I enjoyed every minute. The ending surprised me. Well done NT on a great show. I have been theatre going for over 40 years and for laugh out loud moments this ranks as up with the very best. It might be difficult to transfer to the West End as the Olivier stage is so big and the projections might be beyond most theatres but it does deserve to do well.

[ruperto]

Yes, I saw this a couple of nights ago, and for me it was a five-star show. I absolutely loved it, though it helps if you like smut! A masterclass from Caroline Quentin, but I didn’t think there were any weak links.

[tmesis]

Another rave from me - loved it. I found it just as funny as One Man Two Governors. Nice to see The Nash splash some cash on a tip top set and at last we have a production that fills the problematic Olivier space not just well but with total confidence. Kelvin was good but the guy has no comic timing and he was shown up a bit by everyone else who were just fizzing. I also loved how the play develops at the very end - it totally worked for me and the writing and acting changed gear very effectively and skilfully at that point.

[galinda]

I’m looking to see this but the date I’m looking at is a dementia friendly performance- anyone know what that would involve? It says the performance will be slightly adjusted.

[galinda]

Thanks so much for the reply. Might try a different performance then.

[kathryn]

Really enjoyed this yesterday! Particularly liked what they did with Mrs Malaprop - I don’t think I’ve seen her actually be properly funny before.

Mixed feelings on the ending - it kind of worked in that it was touching but it did lead to a rather down ending.