-Damian-Williams-(Tommy-Cooper)-and-Simon-Cartwright-(Bo.jpg?trim=331,0,332,0&quality=75&auto=webp&width=1000)
It’s blindingly obvious that the theatre they’re in is a portal between life and death, underlined by Cooper’s mournful line: “If I died on stage, people would laugh.” While Cooper and Morecambe did indeed die on stage when relatively young (as did Sid James, whose picture is among many late comedians on the wall), Monkhouse passed away at home aged 75 after two years with prostate cancer.
The Last Laugh features impressive impersonations of Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse and generates easy chuckles from their old gags, gurning and bits of physical business.
Bob Golding has Morecambe’s springy physicality, baffled scowls and helium titter down pat but suffers from the fact that his comedy, alone among the three, relied on a straight man, Ernie Wise.
The play feels somewhat unfair to a man who worked fiercely hard at the craft of comedy, and who passed through a purgatory of naffness to find himself reappraised and respected by a new generation of comedians.
Simon Cartwright has clearly studied Monkhouse’s suavely measured body language and delivery but his performance feels like it’s been generated by an AI trained on half-speed episodes of Family Fortunes.
-Tom-Hiddleston-(Benedick)-and-cast--Credit-Marc-Bre.jpeg?trim=102,0,103,0&quality=75&auto=webp&width=1000)
