A “new play” – inverted commas not mine, as I’m quoting the show’s programme – this is more of a “love letter”, as the same programme puts it elsewhere. Exploring the lives and times of Tommy Cooper (Damian Williams), Bob Monkhouse (Simon Cartwright) and Eric Morecambe (Bob Golding) (in order of appearance), it’s not quite a warts and all portrait of the trio. There are acknowledgements of hard times, which are sometimes given broad brushstrokes: every comedian comes up against a tough crowd at some point, and every comedian on the touring standup circuit has to put up with living out of a suitcase for extended periods and becoming overly familiar with certain motorway service stations.
A tribute show, which essentially is what this show is at the end of the day, there are two main categories of patrons to satisfy (well, three, if you count patrons who have been dragged along by a friend or relative): those who knew Cooper, Monkhouse and Morecambe, or at least their public personas, very well, and those who did not, for whatever reason. The show does well to satisfy both camps. For instance, at one point the conversation turns to whether it’s possible to have two funnymen in a double act, or if for every Morecambe there’s a Wise. Morecambe apologises to Monkhouse for even broaching the subject of when he (Monkhouse) was in a double act: if you know the story, you know why the apology was made, and if you don’t, it’s explained anyway, with subtlety and sensitivity.
Elsewhere, Monkhouse’s almost punctilious approach when it came to identifying who wrote what joke came across as inadvertently topical, at a time when much of the creative industries sector has expressed concern (to put it lightly) over government proposals to allow artificial intelligence programs to use copyrighted material without permission unless the owner opts out, which is seen by some quarters as a fundamental change in copyright law. I would not wish to be so presumptuous as to assume what Monkhouse would think, even if the portrayal of him in this show has him carrying around large books full of his comedy material.
The actors are extremely well cast here, bringing (back) to life some previous household names. The initially frustrating slow start was fully explained by Williams’ Cooper later on (I would have said more about that, but the usual cautiousness not to give it all away kicked in). The flickering lights were a tad overdone, I thought, though there were some astute observations about the price of fame and fortune and why it is that they, and people like them, were so driven and determined to work at their craft and entertain the masses.
Some intriguing insights into the differences between what Cooper called ‘funny’ and ‘funny funny’ added another layer to an amusing evening. It might be easy for some to dismiss a show of this nature as an unnecessary venture into an era that has gone and will not return. But it was a pleasant reminder, or otherwise a pleasant revelation, that there was a time when ‘eff, cee and effing cee’ was never required to draw laughs from an audience, and the comedic appeal was more than sufficiently universal that it would be unlikely they would be cancelled even by today’s supposedly over-sensitive standards. The dialogue was very, very contrived, but that doesn’t matter too much when a show is as entertaining and engaging as this.
Review by Chris Omaweng
Direct from a sell-out run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The Last Laugh is a brand new laugh-a-minute play which reimagines the lives of three of Britain’s all-time greatest comedy heroes – Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse.
Filled with great gags and touching stories, The Last Laugh is nostalgic and poignant and guaranteed to be London’s best comedy night out.
Eric Morecambe – Bob Golding
Tommy Cooper – Damian Williams
Bob Monkhouse – Simon Cartwright
Written and directed by Paul Hendy
Set Designer – Lee Newby
Lighting Designer – Johanna Town
Sound Designer – Callum Wills
Composer and Musical Arranger – Ethan Lewis Maltby
Wigs Designer – Craig Forrest-Thomas
Costume Designer – Amy Chamberlain
Casting Director – Kate Roddy
THE LAST LAUGH
Noël Coward Theatre, 25 February to 22 March 2025
Then continues on UK tour to 23 August 2025
