Well it was with great excitement that this evening LibraryGirl and I headed to the Pavillion Theatre, Worthing to see the much loved and critically acclaimed show ‘Morecambe’. My excitement stems from how wrong I was regarding the success of this show; long time readers and watchers of my youtube channel may remember my criticism of this type of show and in particular whether or not ‘Morecambe’ would have any future life following its much hyped debut at the Edinburgh Festival. I read the reviews for it in Edinburgh and was so pleased to discover it had a West End run- then the unbelievable happened- it announced a National Tour that would stop in our Seaside town of Worthing. I quickly snapped up our tickets, even before we heard of the Olivier announcement, and spent many a week thinking about this show.
When we entered the theatre and saw the set on stage, 3 pieces of set and a proscenium arch created in the background. Simple, clean and creative. The show began and I instantly started smiling, the energy that came straight out of Bob Golding was amazing. He came on stage bouncing with energy and it swept over the audience making us all feel comfortable. He quickly gave us a run down of the history of Eric Morecambe’s early life as a child music hall/variety act. This was very well received by myself and LibraryGirl, having not read the biographies of Morecambe and only knowing him from the repeats of ‘Morecambe and Wise’, as it gave us a good insight into Morecambe’s relationship with his mother and his love of comedy. It ran very quickly into the first meeting between Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise where we were introduced to ‘Ernie’. Ernie turned out to be a ventriloquist’s dummy and although that may sound like a simple solution for a single man show about a double act comedian (a dummy is technically a prop) the focus and sense of humanity Bob Golding invests in it raises it throughout the show to the point that you forget in many ways that it is a prop and it becomes a character in and of itself. It also is a very nice nod to the commonplace joke between Eric and Ernie about Ernie’s size. The way that Golding holds the dummy as well is a piece of design genius, Eric Morecambe, whilst a brilliant comedian in his own right would never have become as well loved on his own as he did with Ernie and the amount of focus and belief Golding puts into the dummy makes it a believable relationship. The props and set designer Julia Bunce did a fantastic job but it would be remiss to not mention the brilliant work from lighting designer Chris Davey. The lighting was very well used in the Pavillion; the disco ball used generally for dances at the theatre was used on occasions for the romantic interludes and the use of shadows which was very effective. The lighting very much focused on both Golding and the Dummy giving them both a level pegging in status until the story changed focus to something outside the double act. This was never more apparent than during the nightmare scene and heart attacks. The nightmare scene shone a crimson light over Golding casting dark shadows across the back of the set, the way the shadow broke up slightly because of the set proscenium arch made the shape of what looked to me like a Harlequin or a Peirrot now whether or not this was intentional I cannot say but it was very effective. The silent movie film effect for the recollection of the 1983 Christmas special’s Keystone Kops sketch was incredibly effective and it worked so well, the flashing washed out the colour on the stage and suddenly segued into the second heart attack. The way the heart attacks were lit, as well, was a great way of affecting the audience by showing how things can get derailed by a tragedy. The change in feeling when the attacks happened is enhanced very effectively by the lighting changes.
The story flowed really well and the storytelling by Golding was fantastic as he adopted voices of other characters, from agents to a brilliant impression of Bruce Forsyth, but always moving back to a very good characterisation of Eric Morecambe. The play flows incredibly well and feels like it is just naturally happening and time speeds by with plenty of belly laughs, small chuckles and smiles aplenty. The moments of high drama and touching reminiscence are beautifully written and very well handled by Golding. There are genuine moments of sadness in the play especially when he referred to his confidence taking a knock giving the audience an insight to the sadness behind Eric Morecambe’s enormous grin. Then as he talks about his father passing away, a funny story to be sure, it is not played for laughs and is chilling in the way it is linked to Eric Morecambe’s own last words. Golding’s retelling is treated with great care and thoughtful acting. His acting while describing his mother’s slow decline following his father’s passing is perfect and goes brilliantly with his setting up of their relationship earlier in the play, this is so well directed and acted there seems to be no weak part in the story telling. When we get to the end of Morecambe’s life a song begins indicating the end of the show as he picks up the Dummy he stops singing and pauses looking at little Ernie and it feels like forever before he leaves a long tearful lingering kiss on the puppets forehead- there cannot be many dry eyes in the house. The show ends on a high as the song finishes with both Eric and Ernie, another pre-dressed dummy, resplendent in their white tops and tails dance off as if these two friends are angels dancing off together.
Bob Golding is quoted in the programme as saying:
‘… nobody will ever come close to being anything like Eric. Nobody could match his timing, delivery, natural rhythm…’
I have to say that whilst it is true that nobody will be exactly the same as Eric Morecambe, Bob Golding is pretty much the closest we are ever going to get. His physicalization of Eric Morecambe is so brilliant that it had both LibraryGirl and me gasping at times because the veil had dropped over our eyes and we truly thought it was Eric Morecambe onstage. Golding had obviously studied Eric Morecambe very closely because he glides over the stage like him, stands like him and even moves when telling his jokes much like the man himself. Whilst he doesn’t really sound like Eric Morecambe Golding does very nearly match both his rhythm and his delivery and this is as close as I can believe an actor can really get to being another person. To me Golding embodied Eric Morecambe totally and drew me in so well that my disbelief was suspended to the point that I felt I was watching the great man himself on the stage showing just how good an actor Bob Golding is. The Pavillion obviously agreed with me as the audience gave Golding a standing ovation for his performance. I just wonder how good Aneurin Barnard must have been in ‘Spring Awakening’ to have snatched the Olivier away from Golding whose performance is definitely award winning.
This show had me smiling from the moment it began to the final curtain, something I have to say has never happened before in any show I have seen. It is a real feel good piece which is so entertaining it totally deserves its Olivier Award for best entertainment. A fantastic show in the perfect venue for it, a show that celebrates one of our last variety acts at an old Summer Concert Party venue where acts like Morecambe and Wise once entertained the tourists. Just a brilliant show, I wish I could go and see it again tonight.
In closing I just want to say that I have never been so glad to be so wrong and want to congratulate everyone involved in this production for just putting together such a feel good show which provides everyone with a real smile.
As ever please feel free to leave any feedback.
Xtofer
