Birmingham Repertory theatre
The A-lister provided joyous shock on opening night, as Morecambe and Wise’s screen routines return to the boards
Regularly drawing TV audiences in the 1970s that would these days be attainable only by royal funerals or England World Cup penalty shootouts, The Morecambe & Wise Show used the conceit of pretending the studio was a theatre. A gold curtain opened on to sketches that often spoofed stage musicals.
Reversing the image, Hamish McColl and Sean Foley’s The Play What I Wrote, a West End and Broadway hit 20 years ago, returns Eric and Ernie’s screen routines to the boards. The premise is that a failing comic double act – played by Dennis Herdman and Thom Tuck, replacing the original’s McColl and Foley – lands a gig as a Morecambe & Wise tribute show; the second half is a full meticulous pastiche of the finale of a Christmas special.
