Bringing sunshine
The spirit of Eric and Ernie is visiting us this Christmas, writes DIANE PARKES
THE Play What I Wrote became a theatre sensation on the West End, Broadway and on tour. Premiered 20 years ago and written by Sean Foley and Hamish McColl, the show is an homage to the great comedy duo Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise.
Now artistic director at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Sean is reviving the show for Christmas and is promising audiences a great night out. Coming hot on the heels of the theatre’s hugely successful productions of East is East and What’s New Pussycat? Sean feels this is the perfect time to bring The Play What I Wrote back for audiences.
“Landmark dates matter for shows just as they matter to us as human beings and 20 years is a significant anniversary of the original production. I co-wrote and starred in it originally and now I’m going to direct it.
“It’s great to revisit that material. It was, and is, a truly great piece of comedy theatre. When I was thinking of what to do for the Christmas show for the Rep this year, The Play What I Wrote just felt like the right one.
“It’s such a feel-good show and, just like What’s New Pussycat?, it’s great entertainment. What we are experiencing is that people really need to be entertained right now. They really need that release of joy. That’s what hopefully The Play What I Wrote will give to people.”
The Play What I Wrote is inspired by Eric and Ernie but is not simply a tribute show.
“Hamish and I were approached by West End producer David Pugh who wanted us to make a show about Morecambe and Wise,” Sean
recalls. “We initially said ‘no, that’s a crazy idea. It’s like the poison chalice in a way. They are so revered and loved, they were the best, you can’t go round pretending to be Morecambe and Wise’ – thinking he was asking us to be a tribute show. David said he didn’t want a show like that but could we come up with an idea and see if it flies?”
And so The Play What I Wrote was born – and while Eric and Ernie are an integral part of the story, they are not the main characters.
“The show which we came up with was actually about us – Sean and Hamish who were a faltering double act and wishing they could be as good and as successful as Morecambe and Wise,” says Sean. “It’s about aspiration. There’s the mountain – now get to the top of it.”
Sean and Hamish were given a little extra help by no less than Eddie
Braben, who wrote material for The Morecambe and Wise Show.
“What Eddie did for us was brilliant,” Sean says. “We would ring him up and say ‘we can’t think of a gag for this bit’ and he’d say ‘I’ll be with you in a moment boys’. He would put the phone down and then 20 minutes later the fax would come through with the gag he had written.
“It was glorious and a proper link back to the original Morecambe and Wise Show because he used to write the whole show. His gags are dotted around our show.
“The Play What I Wrote was about inhabiting that style of comedy and coming up with material that people felt was from Eric and Ernie.”
So much so that many audiences believe they are watching archive jokes.
“I can’t tell you how many times people have come up to us after a show and say ‘I loved that bit, I remember seeing that on the original TV show’, and we’d think ‘well you didn’t see it because they never did it, we wrote it’. Of course, we never said that to them!”
One of the key elements of the original Morecambe and Wise Show was the ‘play within a play’ in which Ernie attempted to stage a serious drama. It was famous for featuring huge names of the day including Vanessa Redgrave, Laurence Olivier, Peter Cushing and Glenda Jackson.
Sean and Hamish were keen to recreate this element in their production and The Play What I Wrote features a surprise star guest in every performance. Celebrities who have taken part in the past include Kylie Minogue, Ralph Fiennes, Dawn French, Sting, Daniel Radcliffe, Ewan McGregor, Glenn Close and Roger Moore.
“It’s a genuine surprise when whoever it is walks out on stage and the audiences love it. We had so many stars join us both in London and on the touring version.”
Sean is not revealing which stars will feature in this Christmas production but he is determined they will be big names.
“I will certainly be asking some of those original brilliant people who’ve starred before. But also there’s a new raft of stars who have emerged in the past few years. It could be anyone.”
The Play What I Wrote plays the Rep from November 27 to January 1. See www.birmingham-rep.co.uk. The Rep is offering 1,500 tickets for £5 for key workers.