Firstly, we should make one thing absolutely — pun intended — clear. Joanna Lumley has not added stand-up comedian to a CV that already includes modelling, acting and globetrotting. Instead It’s All About Me is, as the title suggests, a chat show minus the interviewer, covering the bullet points of a colourful life.
And boy, it’s a veritable fusillade of bullet points. Hence the breathless gallop through the decades.
Failing to get into Rada, waving to Paul McCartney — “he didn’t wave back” — as the Sixties swung. Being a Bond Girl, Ken Barlow’s love interest and then action woman in The New Avengers. And, naturally, Ab Fab.
Not bad just for starters. Lumley (pictured) is certainly entertaining, even if sometimes this feels not so much like a performance, more like an audition to be cast as the world’s chirpiest dinner party anecdotalist.
No #MeToo revelations here. Lumley says she was “born happy” and there is little said to smudge the golly gosh smile.
The format shifts towards Graham Norton mode after the interval when TV producer Clive Tulloh reads out audience questions.
These are often cues for pre-planned clips and memories. Lumley stunned by the Northern Lights, less stunned almost meeting Donald Trump at Claridge’s.
While the first act is excellent, the post-interval Q&A starts testing the patience, as Tulloh whizzes through a record-breaking number of enquiries. Someone asked if she cuts her own hair: “I can’t resist sharp scissors,” she quipped.
If only she used them to trim back her second half.
Nov 11, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, WC2
