"It’s an entirely original, yet also entirely borrowed, stage comedy that is inherently theatrical yet pays explicit homage to B-movie bank robbery capers...The trust in each other and rapport of the troupe propels them to new feats of physical daring, and exquisite comic timing. There are times when the comedy threatens to become over-indulgent...It’s a show that will have you on the edge of your seat: you’ll be rocked by laughter, then held in suspense as they pull off another nail-biting effect.”
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“It’s a rare occasion when three seconds pass without a gag of some description. However, this isn’t an unambiguous plus point...This is a show that does not merely go through funny and out the other side, but right round in curved space and back into funny again. It’s the range of comic ideas that is so undeniably impressive: verbal, physical, visual, and ranging from classical to postmodern in style...It all adds up to one of those cheerfully defiant shows that refuse to let you not like it.”
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“A farce that requires some very complicated comedy staging and acting to go exactly right. It does...The show is thrillingly and daringly inventive...In a gymnastically enthusiastic cast that combines Mischief long-timers with newcomers, Lewis is outstanding...The sillier stretches of dialogue leave the show just short of ‘One Man two Guvnors’...This lung-bustingly funny play is just what the therapist ordered.”
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“Mischief Theatre’s best and funniest work yet. A genre pastiche, screwball comedy, and classic farce that’s as clean and clear as its brassy branding, it spins with a manic energy from Two Ronnies-esque wordplay through surreal set-pieces to slapstick stunts prepped to bring the house down...The entire cast is bang on the money...The best new comedy to open straight onto the West End in decades.”
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“This is the funniest show in town...The jokes, visual and verbal, are piled skyscraper-high. Many are as corny as can be but there’s such youthful relish to the playing and so much surrounding theatrical invention that even the hoariest gag earns its keep. With slick direction...you not only want to know what’s going to happen next, but how...You keep thinking this is as good as it gets – then it gets better...It deliver swag-loads of pleasure and thoroughly deserve to make a mint.”
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“This new show has also gone wrong although not intentionally...An under-funny farce dotted with some decent set pieces that are oddly unconnected to the rest of the action...The first half of Bell’s production is laboured set-up; the second sees some slightly more fruitful mayhem in the bank. There are nods to various heist movies, but it would be so much more effective if things could go wrong around a tightly coiled narrative, instead of the grab-bag of styles and references here.”
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“The funniest flat-out comedy since ‘One Man, Two Guv’nors’...This spoof 1950s crime caper is outrageously well-executed...Delivered with a ruthless devotion to getting to the joke...Bell and the company’s theatrical feast of a production use every technique going to keep this feeling home-made yet surprising and spectacular...The sour ending is more loyal to the spirit of noir than it is to the daftness elsewhere. Yet laughs this plentiful and this good are rare indeed. A joyful night out.”
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