The Last Laugh
Closing: March 22, 2025The Last Laugh - 2025 West End History , Info & More
Noel Coward Theatre
85-88 St Martin's Ln, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4AP, United Kingdom London
Direct from a sell-out run at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Last Laugh is a brand-new laugh-a-minute play which re-imagines the lives of three of Britain's all-time greatest comedy heroes – Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse.
Filled with great gags and touching stories, The Last Laugh is nostalgic and poignant and guaranteed to be London’s best comedy night out.
The Last Laugh is written and directed by the award-winning Paul Hendy, and stars Bob Golding as Morecambe, Simon Cartwright as Monkhouse and Damian Williams as Cooper.
__Assisted Perfromances:__
Captioned, 15 March, 2:30pm
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR The Last Laugh
Gags, gurning, and a supremely lazy script
4 / 10
Hendy admittedly knows his comedy history, with the onstage trio paying tribute to Max Miller, Sid Field, George Formby and others, and acknowledging the long tradition of stealing jokes. There are some old-favourite zingers: “Des O’Connor – a hard man to ignore. But worth the effort.” But mostly it’s just a chortling, smug, snoozefest, with moments of seriousness heavily flagged by flickering bulbs and the kind of “thoom” sound effect that usually accompanies a nuclear explosion in films.
Paul Hendy’s comedy, re-imagining the lives of Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse, runs at the Noël Coward Theatre until 22 March ahead of a UK tour
8 / 10
If it occasionally slides into over-sentimentality and mawkishness, particularly in the closing moments, that feels forgivable. The memory of these comedy greats is fading fast – it’s over 40 years since Cooper and Morecambe died – kept alive largely by YouTube clips and Christmas repeats. Monkhouse’s insistence on identifying the provenance of jokes (many of them his own) seems an apt reminder of our wider debt to that generation, on whose shoulders today’s booming comedy sector stands. This is a welcome chance to remember what made them so beloved, and at a brisk 80 minutes, it leaves you aching for more – just like the comics themselves.
Review Roundup: THE LAST LAUGH at Noël Coward Theatre
by Aliya Al-Hassan - February 27, 2025
by Aliya Al-Hassan - February 27, 2025
Direct from a sell-out run at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Last Laugh is a brand-new laugh-a-minute play which re-imagines the lives of three of Britain's all-time greatest comedy heroes – Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse.
Review: THE LAST LAUGH, Noël Coward Theatre
by Gary Naylor - February 27, 2025
by Gary Naylor - February 27, 2025
Homage to much-loved comedians and their deceptively dangerous art
The Last Laugh History
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