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
