All gone. And at what a moment. Last week I celebrated the flinging open of London theatres after lockdown – and looked forward to the moment when plays were not only about Christmas or Covid. This week, shows aiming to transplant audiences from the here and now burst into the bleak midwinter of the West End. Days later, theatres were closed down.
It is ironic as well as bitter that The Comeback should have its run cut short: its quicksilver capers pivot on the difficulty of getting an act together and put on. Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen have recently been running needle-sharp spoof zooms on Twitter, having proved that BBC Radio 4 comedy really can be funny with their show The Pin. The Comeback, crisply directed by Emily Burns, has the duo’s habitual quizzicalness and agility but with slapstick as well as puns, and a plot that tips its hat to stage glories: Owen has talked of the early influence of Michael Frayn’s mighty backstage/onstage comedy Noises Off.
The idea is that the pair are a warm-up act for two old codgers hoping to revive their golden end-of-the-pier past. Ashenden and Owen play both comic duos – putting on glittery top hats for the oldies. Ashenden is the long-faced one who says he has been in the forces (Parcelforce) and whose stolidness melts beautifully as he demonstrates how being a secret hypnotist might work (it doesn’t). Owen is skittery, twitching as if he were being besieged by an invisible tickler. He keeps coming up with new wheezes for their act – and keeps bungling the punchlines.
There is a long-running joke about props looking smaller when they are on stage (yes, yes – but this is mostly to do with a full bottle of whisky turning into a miniature). There’s a gag about a gag. And each night a different celebrity is called up from the audience. Ian McKellen and Joanna Lumley have been up there; at my matinee Danny Dyer deadpanned it with aplomb. Jokes recur and are lightly taken to pieces – so that by the end of an hour and a half audiences have been wound into the couple’s congenial minds. What a pity they were cut short. But they surely will have their comeback.
Six, written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (like Ashenden and Owen, Cambridge University graduates), was first seen at Norwich Playhouse in 2018. Most recently it was at London’s Arts theatre, until Covid closed all theatres in March. This transfer to a larger West End venue is a comeback – but also a payback: a swaggering musical version of Henry VIII’s marriages as told by his wives. Doublets and fishnets, with each woman singing her story in the manner of a pop diva. There are nods (as much as beheading allows) to Beyoncé and Adele and Lily Allen, as the women out-plaintive each other with their bad luck. Does death in childbirth trump beheading ? How high up on the pity stakes do you come for being rejected because Holbein made you look prettier than you are? “Don’t be bitter, cos I’m fitter.”
The singing is full-on and splendid, and greeted with mask-permeable roars. As Anne (“I was pret à manger”) Boleyn, witty Courtney Bowman provides some droll moments. There is finally a turn to sisterhood but really this is not the feminism to which it lays claim but girl power. Thighs, grind, stamping, lurex. Bald and bawled assertion. Gutsy but a throwback.
Star ratings (out of five)
The Comeback ★★★★
Six ★★★
The Comeback is at the Noël Coward, London; new dates to be announced
Six is at the Lyric, London; booking 9 January to 18 April 2021
.jpg?w=600)
