Show Details
The Two Faces Of Mitchell And Webb
Show type: Tour

The Two Faces Of Mitchell And Webb


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Description

David Mitchell and Robert Webb, two medium-sized figures of the small screen return to the medium in which they were once tiny: the theatre. Join them for an evening of wondering where the camera is and forgetting to speak up, as they weave character, suspense and comedy just by titting around in front of some painted wood.


David and Robert conjure a world inhabited by gritty urban anti-heroes, pantomime space villains and alcoholic snooker commentators (all of whom look a bit like Mark and Jeremy from Peep Show but definitely aren't) and then they make them talk to each other like they're in some crazy play with nowhere near enough actors. Like TV but more exclusive, and infinitely more hassle.

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Reviews

Original Review:

Robert Mitchell and David Webb have been teetering on the brink of the big time for a very long time, but their TV shows have tended to underperform. Now it’s the time for them to underperform on stage, too – but this time, perhaps surprisingly, in terms of consistent quality rather than audience numbers.

The main problem appears to be is that their touring show seems to assume that they have a devoted audience who will greet old favourites like the lascivious snooker commentators or nonsensical game show Numberwang with a roaring cheer. In truth, though they can pull the crowds, not one sketch gets even a polite round of applause at its conclusion until almost the end of the first half.

Mitchell and Webb are not Little Britain – nor should they want to blindly follow in their grotesque footsteps. As a rule, their sketches are subtler, driven by awkwardness and doubt, rather than catchphrases, and are al the better for it.

But without that panto feeling, what you’re left with a show that pretty much recreates verbatim their previous work, with little acknowledgement they’re in a live environment now. No wonder the response is muted, it’s like watching TV in the front room. Those snooker commentators, for instance, started on the radio, and they haven’t evolved since. You can close your eyes when they’re on stage and lose nothing.

Nor are these two like comedy’s other M&W, able to step in front of the curtain and chat to the audience as a heightened versions of their real selves as Eric and Ern so brilliantly did. Towards the end of the show, they do seem to relax more, and events become more fluid, and more enjoyable for it. The duo ad-lib as they solicit Big Questions for aggressive panel show Big Talk from the audience; Robert teases David for gratuitously dropping in local Cambridge references just because he was a student here; and they have to spontaneously cope with the all-too frequent technical shambles that mean the show still has an unfortunate amateur feel a week into its run.

It would be nice to see more of the ‘real’ them outside of the tightly-scripted sketches – however good they are. And it’s a technique they’ve already harnessed on their BBC Three with the supposedly ‘unguarded’ moments between takes. But here, the costume-change gaps are filled with their able supporting cast, Abigail Burdess and James Bachman, forever trying to launch into their own vaudeville routines. It’s a decent enough joke, but does lead to the feeling that, rather than being the main attraction, Mitchell and Webb are actually guests in their own show.

For all the flaws in direction and presentation, the best sketches remain mightly impressive, especially those that deal with the petty, trivial reality behind familiar scenes – such as the henchman asking the Bond baddie to clarify his ambiguous threats to ‘deal with’ an enemy or the SS officer slowly realising that he might be the baddie in the whole ‘narrative arc’ of the war – an imaginatively clever script that remains a modern classic, no matter if you’ve heard them do it before.

Mitchell’s intolerant waiter and vicar are also highlights, as is his parody of the excited Sky Sports hyperbole heralding every mundane football clash as a apocalyptic battle, or his uptight uncle who can’t relate to his baby niece. In Webb’s canon, Numberwang is still a small delight even though it loses a lot by being done too long and too cheaply, and his take on The Weakest Link with Anne Robinson’s teasing sneer replaced by unadulterated disdain is nicely done.

Sketch shows are almost obligated to have misses as well as hits. Mitchell and Webb strike a pretty good average, but even they’re not immune to damp squibs such as a tired spoof of a TV property makeover show or the psychopathic man seeking various murderous tools in High Street stores.

But it’s the good skits you’ll remember, making this a tour you’re likely to enjoy more in retrospect than in the auditorium. Shared experience and the thrill of live performance usually mean comedy is better experienced in a theatre or club than at home, but with Mitchell and Webb, it might be the one time a DVD would be your best choice.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

Cambridge, October 25, 2006
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Comments

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I don't understand the other comments at all. I saw them in Leicester on 21st November and was really apprehensive given the bad to bland reviews I'd read. I have to say that I haven't had such an enjoyable night out in a very long time. The staging was simple, not amateur and they actually had quite a lot of polish to the whole show, especially considering there were just four performers and such a huge amount of sketches. As for the material being things that you've heard already, so what? Would you go to a Pink Floyd concert and then moan because they played tracks from The Wall and you already had the CD at home? No. Part of the fun was having some familiarity with the material and seeing it performed live in front of you. Also, their choice of material was commendable (a lot from the first radio series which has not been released for very long, rather than concentrating on a large amount of sketches from the recent TV show). It's well known that Leicester audiences are difficult to please but there was applause and cheering from a packed house throughout the whole of the show. I'm so glad that I went to see this. For me it was a completely different show to the one that people seem to be slagging off.

Ian, November 2006

Saw them at Birmingham last Sunday - given the comments here I was dreading it. Thankfully it was better than I was expecting. Yes, the vast majority of it was repeated from TV or radio, but was still enjoyable. (Python used to repeat sketches endlessly on stage - that was the fun - not sure when an act gets to that stage!) Some of the funniest parts came in the errors/unscripted bits. The responses to audience Big Talk questions were excellent. There were hilarious moments when Webb used a wrong character name in a sketch and improvised a ridiculous cover-up, which brought quality corpsing from Mitchell. Indeed, these unscripted moments were so good it is a shame that they relied so heavily on old material.

Ian, November 2006

I saw The Two Faces Of Mitchell and Webb at The Lowry on 29/10/06 and it was overall an enjoyable show. The sketches were recycled versions of previous tv and radio sketches but it worked quite well in the theatre environment. Robert Webb's put-downs are razor sharp and dealt with hecklers like an old stand-up pro. The show was evenly balanced throughout. I can't understand the other comments complaining about the poor production, I found it charming and hilarious. They didn't disguise the mistakes, they just laughed at themselves. The one major criticism is that the support act were awful. Olivia Coleman was sorely missed throughout. Her replacement, Abigail Burdess was absolutely dreadful, shouting her lines and waving her arms about like a children's tv presenter. During sketches with natural conversational dialogue, she was screaming out her lines like she didn't have a microphone and trying too hard to be noticed. Mitchell, Webb and Bachman were consistently good throughout and I would definitely recommend this show. The parts where Webb was interacting with the audience were excellent and one of the funniest things I've seen in the theatre.

Ryan Johnson, November 2006

Agree with above comments. If you see these pair then you will be spending £20 to watch a repeat. A repeat of the lamer sketches (numberwang, snooker commentators). The set design was basic too. And no thankyous or audience chat at the end - they seemed like they wanted to clear off as quick as possible. I dont blame them - it was embarrassing. They got my money this time, never again.

Sarah, November 2006

I am amazed; how can they be so so good and yet so bad at the same time? I went to see the show last night in Warwick and after watching the TV show I was apprehensive but open minded. I loved Peep Show and the radio show but the TV series was very up and down. I have to say I went through a whole series of emotions during the show. I was bored, enthralled, impressed, un-impressed, embarressed and highly amused, I felt like a human yo-yo! Some of the sketches are excellent with moments of pure genius, but interspersed with other sketches that almost made me cringe. One of the main problems I could see was they treated it like the TV show, with long costume changes and sets that didn\'t quite work due to limited space and time, and the fill in couple really jarred with Mitchell & Webb's style, it was an odd mish-mash of humour, like a jigsaw made from pieces of different sets, nothing fitted together properly. I came away thinking how can the same people write such amazing material and at the same time such obvious cliche material. They have proven they can do it and I very much appreciated the good sketches such as the SS men, the Sci-Fi show and the mime artist, so I really hope they can write more similar material and then be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. They definitely have the talent to achieve it.

J Jenkins-Jones, November 2006

Are you people crazy? I saw this show last night in Belfast and while some sketches did not work too well in all contexts overall it was one of the most enjoyable comedy shows I have seen. The review contained here is wrong as the first half did contain laughs and the second was better again. Their quick wittedness and unfaltering ability to turn anything into a joke was wonderful.

Nic, October 2006

What a complete stinker, and a wasted night out! I bought tickets for this on the strength of the radio show, however before the big night I started to worry after watching a few episodes of their new television series. The gags that worked on the radio just didn't cut it on the screen, and they certainly don't work on the stage. It wasn't just the gags though, the production was dreadful; props removed halfway through sketches, the lighting crew kept fluffing their cues, and the set was offensively low budget (They needn't have bothered using a venue as good as the Brighton Dome, a church hall would have done fine. Oh and where o where was Olivia Coleman? I'm sure she could have added a bit of charisma to this shower, however I guess she's wisely protecting her reputation by not sharing in the embarrassment of this dire affair. Anyone reading this who's contemplating buying a ticket to one of their subsequent shows is better off spending it on a Peep Show DVD, or going to the pub, or knitting a blanket...

M J Byfield, October 2006

29/10/06 @ The Lowry. What a let down! A lot of the material was repeated from that previously shown on TV. Sad to say that the biggest laugh in the first half came from ad-libs during a techical fault. In the second half the show was at it's funniest away from the script in the Big Debate when Mitchell took questions from the audience. The support act in between costume changes was so emabarrassingly bad it was almost good again. Being a fan of Peep Show, Smoking Room and The Mitchell & Webb sound, I was very disappointed.

Andy, October 2006

Saw them at the Lowry in Manchester last night and have to agree with the previous comments. The material is rehashed from the TV or radio and any new bits are below par and not worth bothering with. Really disappointed as I love Peep Show and thought their radio series was fantastic. Smacks of lazy money-grabbing. "Quick! Let's do a tour while we're popular! New material? Nah - they'll buy tickets anyway; sod it!". Also sad to report that the production is still amateurish - felt cobbled together and there were several technical cock-ups. A real let down when we know they're capable of so much more.

Dave, October 2006

i saw this in Southampton and was very disappointed. The whole show was flat and amateurish and a chore to sit through. What worked on radio worked less well on TV and doesn't work at all on stage. Add to that the fact that all the material is recycled from their radio and TV shows and you\ve got a waste of twenty quid. That Mitchell And Webb Look was disappointing but this is just plain dire. Like the other reviewer said, if youve got tickets for later shows then flog them. It's rubbish.

Jim, October 2006

If you haven't booked tickets to see this already, don't bother... if you have, cut your losses & sell the tickets to the nearest tout. Even if you sell your ticket for £10 less than the face value, the second option is preferable than turning up and watching this garbage. I am perplexed, being a huge fan of Peep Show and really enjoyed That Mitchell and Webb Sound on BBC Radio 4, I found these two incapable of cracking a smile on my sadly stoic expression on their live outing. I saw the first night and the production was hopelessly amateurish - unbelievable considering the £20 tickets and the supposedly established nature of the act. What went wrong lads. This was awful

Nick, October 2006

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