By: Jim Hutchins
Sitting in the audience at The Last Laugh you can feel the love flowing from the audience to the characters on stage. It is a joy to be this close to Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecombe and Bob Monkhouse. Laughter spills out and my face aches from smiling so much.
Set designer Lee Newby’s stage opens with Dressing Room 1, torn from Her Majesty’s Theatre, London in 1984. Johanna Town’s lighting and Callum Wills’ sound design quickly evoke not just the year but also the feel of the genre’s history crackling through to this moment. Compared to the public areas, the dressing room has definitely seen better days including touches such as old theatre seats and photos of many of the comedians who’ve gone before.
The show starts with Damian Williams, as Tommy Cooper, walking in wearing his vest and pants. He looks at the audience and within minutes the audience has erupted with genuine laughter and palpable delight.
He is pensive as he prepares to go on but is soon joined in the dressing room by Simon Cartwright as Bob Monkhouse and Steve Royle as Eric Morecambe.
This is a masterclass in comic structure and timing, and writer and director Paul Hendy carefully balances three very different styles, imagining these comedians thrown together in the dressing room before the show.
We are offered a window into aspects of their personal lives we hadn’t considered when we saw them on the stage or on screen. This staged scenario allows us to imagine the three of them bouncing off each other, reminiscing and comparing their various individual approaches and styles of comedy, while paying tribute to their own heroes in the photographs.
The laughs keep coming though as joke after joke are shared, demonstrating not just the brilliance of the original comics but also the accomplishment of the three actors channelling our comedy idols. Their own love for Tommy, Eric and Bob shines through.
This is though, a carefully crafted play which quickly connects the audience to the players and will eventually and gently lead them through to an emotional ending.
After the interval, the actors return to the stage for a question-and-answer session with the audience. There is plenty more laughter as we get to know Damian, Simon, Steve and understudy, Richard Hodder.
The hope is that Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecombe and Bob Monkhouse will be discovered and enjoyed by a younger generation who will now help to keep their legacy alive. For older generations, it serves as a reminder of happy times in the past.
The Last Laugh, produced by Jamie Wilson Productions and Emily Wood for Evolution Productions, was first performed, to sold out audiences at The Edinburgh Festival in 2024. Since then, this critically acclaimed comedy enjoyed a five-star West End run, a New York season and a UK tour on 2025.
The show returns for a UK and Ireland tour in 2026 and will be at Theatre Royal, Plymouth from 5-9 May 2026.