To capitalise on his role in ITV celeb fest Hell's Kitchen, Al Murray is playing a summer of Sundays in the West End. But out of the frying pan doesn't, in this case, lead to a blaze of glory for Murray. He is a smart comic, whose straight-talking Pub Landlord mines a plentiful seam of knuckle-headed laughs and choice turns of phrase. But this spoof on Sun-reading boorishness yields diminishing returns when stretched across two hours or more. I wait in vain to see Murray develop the character in a surprising direction. He seems happy still to peddle the white-van-man bon mots with which his audience, after 10 years of the Pub Landlord, is very familiar.
On this occasion, he is reflecting on Britishness. "We. Were. Gods!" he cries, holding an inflatable planet Earth above his head like a football trophy. For his second act, he talks us country-by-country around the globe - and he has a disparaging remark for every one of them: "It's not San Andreas Fault, it's America's fault, for building a town there in the first place!" There's an entertaining confusion between Islam and Aslan, the lion king of Narnia. And the Landlord gives the Irish memorably short shrift: "Twenty years ago, Westlife would have been digging the M25."
There remains some discomfort, however. Teasing a German audience member about the war, notwithstanding the supposed irony, is barely funny. Presumably aware of this, Murray keeps the character at a distance. He undermines the Landlord's worldview by exaggeration, by following rightwing populism to its illogical conclusion. He also invests the character with an improbably sophisticated knowledge of world affairs.
The upshot, though, is a character that is insufficiently substantial or credible to sustain over a whole evening's viewing. The show is studded with enough diamond one-liners to amuse. And Murray can ad lib for his beloved Britain. But, if he is to keep fresh throughout a full-length show, the Landlord needs to change barrels - because this lager soon loses its fizz.
· In rep until July 18. Box office: 020-7494 5081.
