With the possible exception of Mike and Bernie Winters, the history of showbusiness is not exactly littered with stories of devoted, brotherly double acts who pined deeply for one another at the end of long and contented careers. Eric Morecambe used to hate receiving awards because it meant that Ernie Wise got one as well. It is even rumoured that Rod Hull detested Emu.
Yet even the most acrimonious showbusiness partnerships seem to be sweetness and light compared with the former Sunshine Boys, Willie Clark and Al Lewis, a cantankerous pair of old vaudeville stagers who have not exchanged a civilised word for over a decade, but are forced to endure one another's company for one last televised hurrah.
Neil Simon's prodigious output essentially divides into two categories: the first containing successive, sentimental rewrites of his Brighton Beach upbringing; the second featuring successive, sentimental rewrites of his 1965 hit, The Odd Couple. The Sunshine Boys, written in 1973, belongs to the latter category: it is basically The Odd Couple with the addition of a few arthritic music hall routines which don't appear to have been all that funny the first time round.
Political correctness was hardly on the agenda of the American vaudeville circuit of the 1940s, and Maggie Norris's production seems to go out of its way to make excuses for the sequences which require a blonde woman to behave in a way that makes Benny Hill's Angels look like Camille Paglia. Katrina Lindsay's chic set is animated by an evocative video design by Mic Pool, which surrounds Willie and Al with flickering images of the good old days. Yet, though the smart, technological overlay keeps the more embarrassing aspects of vaudeville wrapped in a veil of irony, it can't disguise the sense that Simon views it through rose-tinted spectacles.
Nobody writes bickering blokes like Simon however, and Malcolm Rennie (Willie) and Lou Hirsch (Al) give full measure to the rhythmic insults of the script. There is enjoyable support from Dylan Charles as Willie's nephew, who remains chipper in the face of his uncle's belligerence. But the comedy more frequently lumbers than springs, and Willie's recurrent heart trouble tends towards an inevitably gloomy conclusion. The boys may once have brought sunshine into people's lives, but you would do well to take an umbrella.
· Until May 19. Box office: 0113-213 7700
