Theatre review: The Comedy About Spies

Mischief Theatre return to the London stage, and to their trademark incredibly literally-titled shows with The Comedy About Spies, a 1960s-set espionage spoof that sees Soviet spy Elena Popov (Charlie Russell) stake out a London hotel to meet a British double agent who's going to hand over state secrets. She prefers to work alone but she's been given a partner in Sergei (understudy Niall Ransome,) who's way too invested in his own cover story as a spleen doctor. Trying to stop them making the exchange are CIA agent Lance Buchanan (Dave Hearn,) who's accompanied by his mother Janet (Nancy Zamit,) who wants to ensure he doesn't get his cover blown again like in every other mission. Meanwhile hotel manager Albert (Greg Tannahill) thinks all the suspicious behaviour is because a mystery shopper is in the building to assess him.

Theatre review: Tasting Notes

With Southwark Playhouse's Large auditorium currently experiencing a yeast infection, it might have been complementary if the Little had put on a show about beer. Unfortunately the scheduling hasn't worked out quite so on-theme, and instead we get a show about wine: Richard Baker (music & lyrics) and Charlie Ryall's (book & lyrics) Tasting Notes takes place between 7pm on Monday and 7pm on Tuesday in a reasonably successful wine bar, LJ's: The eventful 24 hours, which include the deaths of one cat and one lead character, are played out in song six times, from the differing perspectives of five of the staff and one of the customers. Hassled owner LJ (Nancy Zamit) is exhausted by having to cover for missing staff and a business that's picking up, but not quickly enough to afford some of the necessary improvements. She's essentially good-natured but her tiredness makes her snap at her staff, and to cap it all off she's about to make a grim discovery.

Theatre review: Magic Goes Wrong

Taking up half of Mischief Theatre's year-long residency at the Vaudeville Theatre is a return, after an attempt at a slightly more conventionally-structured play in Groan Ups, to the "Goes Wrong" format of their original hits and their current BBC1 show, and a "does what it says on the tin" approach of fitting as many comic disasters as they can into the running time. The usual writing team of Jonathan Sayer, Henry Lewis and Henry Shields are this time joined by Penn & Teller to create their most spectacular show yet - and one where the accidents get grislier than ever before, as Magic Goes Wrong. The format seems to be inspired by the Vegas-style magic shows that have recently been making a return to the West End, whose posters promise a whole team of magicians with superhero-style names. And so Shields' Sophisticato has organised this evening as a charity gala for the victims of disasters in magic, in memory of his father, the original Sophisticato (crushed to death by his own props.)

Theatre review: The Comedy About A Bank Robbery

I was apprehensive about whether the latest show from Mischief Theatre, of The PlayThat Goes Wrong and Lights! Camera! Improvise! would live up to their past work; within minutes the opening scene, a prison breakout complicated by cheesy wordplay straight out of a Zucker Bros movie, had proved the company knew what they were doing when they branched out - slightly - from plays going wrong. Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields return as writers and Mark Bell as director of The Comedy About a Bank Robbery, cast almost entirely with familiar faces from their farces and improv shows. The setting is 1950s Minneapolis, and gangster Mitch (Shields) has fled jail and sought out ex-girlfriend Caprice (Charlie Russell.) But he's not after a romantic reunion: Her father Mr Freeboys (Lewis) is the manager of a bank that'll be holding the enormous diamond of a visiting Hungarian prince in its vaults.

Comedy review: Lights! Camera! Improvise!

Having the set collapse on them six nights a week apparently doesn't leave the members of Mischief Theatre as bruised as they would like. So past and present cast members of The Play That Goes Wrong are spending the occasional Monday night off back at the Duchess Theatre, reviving their improv show Lights! Camera! Improvise! As the title suggests, there's a movie theme, and after Oscar (Jonathan Sayer) gets suggestions of genre, location and title from the audience, the rest of the company (Charlie Russell, Bryony Corrigan, Henry Shields, Nancy Wallinger, Henry Lewis, Dave Hearn and Josh Elliott) have to bring it to life. Tonight we got a romantic comedy called "Plenty More Fish," in which shy Gerald-the-man (Shields) has to declare his love for Susie (Wallinger) before she leaves her job at the aquarium at the end of the week. But he has competition from her ex, Tony (Hearn,) an alpha-male fishmonger whose seduction technique is inspired by an angry seagull.

Theatre review: The Play That Goes Wrong

I'd been put off by the uninspired title from seeing The Play That Goes Wrong's initial run at the Old Red Lion, but some very enthusiastic recommendations saw me give it a go as it gets a West End stint at Trafalgar 2. Henry Shields, Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayer's farce sees the chaotic Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society take on cosy murder mystery "The Murder at Haversham Manor" and be defeated by it at every turn. This framing device gets the briefest of introductions from a surly techie (Rob Falconer) whose preoccupation with finding his Duran Duran CDs will later distract him from his work; before we launch straight into the disastrous first night, and the discovery of a dead body (Joshua Elliott) that doesn't look all that dead. Especially when the other actors keep treading on him.