Yahoo News The Upstart Crow review – a sitcom ripe for a theatrical remake
Of all the sitcoms to be turned into a stage show, Upstart Crow is an obvious choice: Ben Elton’s BBC series is about Shakespeare, after all. Fans are in for a treat, as it’s basically a bumper episode, with most of the cast reprising their turns. David Mitchell makes a confident, crowd-pleasing theatrical debut as the exasperated playwright, desperately searching for his next hit.
Elton’s script, directed by Sean Foley, cheerfully mashes together elements of Twelfth Night, King Lear and Othello, as well as recycling material from the sitcom – while reminding us that Shakespeare nicked his plots, too. It all tangles together cleverly in a superior second half, before a satisfyingly daft selection of disguises, tricks and false identities are unwound. Performances may be about as subtle as pantomime, but they’re drolly self-aware: Mark Heap is terrific fun as a Puritan who cross-garters an obscene yellow codpiece to try to woo Kate, a proto-feminist wannabe-actor, jauntily played by Gemma Whelan. Plus there’s a thoroughly winning dancing bear in pursuit of a stage direction.
Alice Power’s set plays up its old-fashioned theatricality, with painted, flapping backcloths, and there’s much affectionate sending up of stage conventions (tiny masks completely obscuring an identity, and so on).
Some aspects of the humour that sailed by in a sitcom can feel more laboured over two acts: the hilarity of faux-Elizabethan naughty words (“cod-dangle”, “twatlington”) is a matter of taste, and I grew weary of jokes about how “woke” theatre will become. But then, even if you don’t like one gag, another will be along before you can say “tufting muffle”.