WHAT a show! Matt Lucas and David Walliams brought the long-awaited stage version of Little Britain to Bournemouth's BIC on Thursday night and had the audience shrieking with laughter within seconds.
Even more impressive was the fact that, when the final curtain fell nearly two-and-a half hours later, there could only be one verdict - this production is a complete triumph from beginning to end.
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Transferring a multi-award winning comedy from TV to stage cannot be easy but somehow the Little Britain team have made it look a breeze.
You don't have to look too closely, however, to see that it is actually the result of a lot of hard work. The show has been incredibly carefully crafted. The sketches have been designed to introduce all the favourite characters, plus a few new faces, in a format that works both theatrically and technically. The end result has both pace and power. It's screamingly funny, outrageously camp, slickly directed and astonishingly well acted.
A huge effort has been made with both the content and delivery.
The sets are superb and the links, costume changes and props work like a dream - even when things occasionally go wrong.
Central to the production's success is Lucas and Walliams' ability to revisit their familiar telly characters but still keep them fresh.
The show includes Asbo Princess Vicky Pollard ( now a mum of six "by seven different men") the grotesque Bubbles De Vere and of course Daffyd, whose efforts to get arrested for being the only gay in the village help close the show with an anthemic musical number.
There are others too, including Fat-Fighter Marjorie Dawes in spectacularly cruel mood, the miniscule Dennis Waterman (very clever that one) and those cross-dressing "laydees."
Little Britain runs at the newly refurbished BIC until Sunday.
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