Ray Cooney, the king of comedy and farce, returns to the stage with his 'Westminster' comedy; 'Out Of Order'.
When Richard Willey, a Government Junior Minister, plans to spend the evening with Jane Worthington, one of the Opposition’s typists, in the Westminster Hotel, things go disastrously wrong - beginning with the discovery of a body trapped in the hotel’s only unreliable sash window.
Desperately trying to get out of an extremely sticky situation, Richard calls for his secretary, George Pigden who, through Richards’s lies sinks further and further into trouble with everybody and ends up going through an identity crisis.
Things go from bad to worse with the arrival of Jane’s distraught young husband and with the addition of an unscrupulous waiter, Mrs Willey and Nurse Foster things really come to a head!
Comedy is an incredibly difficult discipline to pull of on a theatre stage. At the end of the day, it HAS to be funny. At least with a musical, if the singing's a bit off then the dancing can save it but in this instance, nobody in the audience will accept any less than hilarious.
With a cast who's pedigree in comedy speaks for itself, Out Of Order was an absolute sensation from the moment the first line was uttered.
Anybody who's seem the Fawlty Towers episode, 'The Kipper And The Corpse', will notice more than a few nods to the storyline, albeit fleshed out somewhat and with the addition of other characters.
Shaun Williamson (Eastenders, Chitty Chitty Band Bang) was incredible as Pigden and brought a real warmth to a character which made him so much more than just the 'Ernie Wise' to Willey's 'Eric Morcambe'. Sue Holderness (Only Fools And Horses) was instantly recognisable, taking the role of Willey's wife.
There was an awkward pause when she first stepped on stage, when the audience weren't sure if they should applaud her arrival in a 'it's Marlene!' moment. Fortunately, they held back and allowed a beautifully portrayed character to be born in her own right, rather than because of the actresses past work.
Arthur Bostrom, best remembered as Officer Crabtree in Allo Allo, took the role of the hotel manager - a man who always seemed to come back to the room at increasingly unfortunate times - alongside James Holmes as a waiter who knows what he wants (generally a tip!) and becomes both a liability and a necessity for the farce to continue.
What made this show for me is that there wasn't a hint of overacting. It's beauty was in its subtlety. It allowed the audience room to breathe rather than trying to force the comedy upon them - something which everyone in the room appreciated.
If you've got a penchant for laughs and an appreciation of some of the country's finest comedic talent on stage together - and let's face it, who hasn't - then Out Of Order is at the New Alexandra Theatre until Saturday 15th April.
