The Comedy About a Bank Robbery

No, that must have been a genuine mishap as I've never seen that happen in over 50 viewings of the show. How did they manage given that both Sam & Mitch have to hide behind the curtains during the scene? I'm in agreement with you in preferring TCAABR to TPTGW.

I went up to Birmingham today to see the first Saturday matinee of the tour. After being so used to seeing the show at the Criterion it was very strange to see it in such a different theatre as the modern & much larger Birmingham Rep. Having a wider stage meant that everything was more spread-out, which did work well at some points where characters are meant to not notice things even when, at the Criterion, they're right next to them, so more space made them more plausible. Other than the extra space most of the staging was the same except for the vents scene.



A few other minor differences I spotted:
Caprice's apartment has acquired a chair, coat stand & picture over the chest.
Tony doesn't pop up at the end of the road trip.
Freeboys' portrait is a different design & in landscape format.
The 3 ensemble members have slightly more to do. 1 of the men replaces Mitch in the telephone scene. The woman & 1 of the men dance while Sam & Caprice are dancing on their date, as do Ruth & Everyone Else. The woman & 1 of the men join in the fish/seagull section of the car chase.

Now for the cast. The only person I was expecting to recognise was Sean Carey so I got one of the biggest surprises of my theatregoing life when the female ensemble member popped out of the laundry cast & it was Ellie Morris! I had grave difficulties in concentrating on the leads in any of the ensemble scenes because I was too busy gaping at her. I didn't manage to speak to her afterwards but I did speak to a few other cast members & was told that because the actress playing Ruth is off sick & the u/s has been on since the start of the tour that Ellie has joined for a bit to make sure there's cover. Today is her first day so I timed that well!

A very quick run down of the leads:

Liam Jeavons as Mitch - The most intimidating actor I've seen in the role, helped by him being one of the tallest guys on stage (this cast seems quite short overall, especially compared to the current London cast). Plays it most similarly to Matt Hunt.

Julia Frith as Caprice - Very assured considering this is her professional debut.

Sean Carey as Sam - when I saw him on for Max in TPTGW last December I told him afterwards that he'd be great as Sam & I'm glad to say that I was right! Great smile. Not quite as fluent on some of the physical parts around the bed but I'm sure that'll come with practice.

Damian Lynch as Freeboys - Different physical casting to the London Freeboys as he's slim & average height so can't physically dominate in the same way. Also didn't seem to yell as much.

Jon Trenchard as Warren - He is very much the usual casting type. All done well but nothing really new.

David Coomber as Cooper - Probably the most different portrayl. Plays it quite camp. I did wonder at a few points if he means it to be that Cooper's gay & fancies Mitch but I'm not sure about that. Does Cooper impersonating Freeboys with a plummy RP accent like an aging thespian, which is very funny.

Ashley Tucker as Ruth (u/s) - It can't be easy to have to go on as an u/s from the first show of a run but I wouldn't have known she wasn't the lead from her performance. Very good indeed. Good chemistry with her Shuck & made the bit where Ruth says goodbye to Sam at the end the most moving I've seen it.

Killian Macardle as Shuck - I thought he gave a good performance but somehow the character seemed slightly less prominent than with other actors.

George Hannigan as Everyone Else - Very good. I was pleased to see the forward roll back in the 3-way fight.

I haven't really finished but my phone battery's about to die (on a train in Cornwall) so better post this before I lose it.

Yes, I thought the limitations were dealt with well & I'm sure audiences who haven't seen it at the Criterion wouldn't realise that it's been changed. However if you do get the chance to see it in London I'd recommend it.

One thing I forgot to say in my post last night.

Yes, there were major changes made to the London production when the original cast left in February 17, however a large proprtion of these changes were then dropped in June 17 & the show reverted back to something closer to what it was when the original cast left. If you look back on this thread I detailed most of the re-writes when they were happening. Apart from the vent scene, and a few other very small changes, what is being seen on the tour is what has been seen in London since June 17.

Caught the tour at The Lowry last week. I'd forgotten just how utterly brilliant this is, I had tears rolling down my cheeks at some points. It's in a completely different league to The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong (and I say that as a big fan of both shows).

The touring cast are every bit as good as the original London cast. It's hard to believe this is Julia Frith's professional debut as Caprice, while Ashley Tucker is probably the best Ruth I've seen. Damian Lynch, Sean Carey, David Coomber and Liam Jeavons are all perfect for their roles, inhabit the characters so well and with such terrific comic timing, it's hard to believe this is only the second venue of the tour. It's the first time I've watched a Mischief show without the original cast and not missed them one bit!

Also, is it just me or does David Coomber looks uncannily like Dave Hearn?! 

The audience absolutely loved it. I've not heard a buzz around a theatre quite like that at an interval since Natalie Barnes' Don't Rain On My Parade almost took the roof off the Savoy.

Booked again for the Storyhouse in Chester in January and will probably do Liverpool too in June.

I think it's a shame that she's "only" the understudy & I'd love it if she were still on when I see the tour again in Norwich next month.


I still miss the original cast a bit.


I can't say I thought that at all but I'll doubtless now be looking at him with that in mind next time.

Dave Hearn posted on Twitter yesterday that he was en route to Glasgow for the show. Is he back in it now?

I’m meant to be seeing it on Saturday so this would be amazing news if so!

Sean Carey will be on every night show? I’m going Saturday matinee so fingers crossed!

Please keep the updates coming Dawnstar, they're always an interesting read and much appreciated! That's a shame for Yolande that she never got to join the tour but a well deserved promotion for Ashley. She was my favourite Ruth so I'm excited to see her again when the tour comes to Chester at the end of January.

No Dave Hearn at the Glasgow matinee today but still thoroughly enjoyed it! It was my second time seeing the show and the touring cast are just as strong as the ones I saw in the West End about a year ago.

We did have three show stops though owing to sound and power issues. One 5min one straight after the interval, another 10min one right before the wall scene and a third immediately after the second when it was clear that there was still no sound for FoH (apparently the side of stage’s sound was fixed so they assumed the whole theatre was). The irony of a Mischief Theatre production going wrong was not lost on us. It meant it was well past 5:30pm before the curtain went down on the 2:30pm matinee!

Enjoyed the matinee of this today. Another success from Mischief Theatre.

This cast are exceptional and the comic timing is impeccable. Although I didn't find it all as hilarious as some of the audience it is very fun. Not sure it's the sort of thing that would merit a return visit but maybe that's just me.

All of the business with the bed was wonderful.

Five very loud gunshots in the second half (not recorded ones)

Also my first visit to the Criterion. Found it lovely and the perfect size of theatre for this farce!

I'm pretty sure that the number of shots has stayed the same since the show started. The identity of one of the victims did change then change back, when all the 2nd cast re-writes were done then mostly undone, but that didn't alter the number of shots.