Saturday 30th April 2022
Steve Coogan’s ghastly creation Alan Partridge was to me growing up what Monty Python and The Young Ones was to my dad. The various incarnations of North Norfolk’s most famous son have influenced everything from the way I talk to the kind of comedy I consume. I would say that in an average week I will quote Partridge at least once, whether consciously or subconsciously, so seeing Coogan perform the character live has always been a bit of a dream of mine, and he didn’t disappoint…
Coogan takes to the stage against a backdrop of big screens and backing dancers and bursts straight into a barely comprehensible rap song – the night’s only misstep. From there it’s all gold. Partridge begins by informing the crowd that they are not there ‘to clap and whoop like Ainsley Harriet at a nativity’ and also announces that Sheffield is his ‘second favourite city… after Los Angeles’. A packed Sheffield arena is in good spirits throughout with Partridge offering inspired one-liners. Now, I wrote many of these one-liners down on my Notes app for the purposes of this review, but my iPhone has somehow lost them. A catastrophic technological failure. But, dear reader, I shall persevere anyway.
The conceit here is that Partridge has come up with his own TED Talk style self help programme entitled Stratagem – a programme he himself has used to get back onto his feet following the breakup of a relationship and the death of his dog, Seldom Partridge. Using the ‘magic of theatre’, our hero travels back in time to speak to himself in the past, the hilarious reveal being that when his younger self throws off ‘his’ hoody, it is revealed that it was actually a slender, suggestively dressed lady the whole time. As ever, Coogan wrings every ounce of pathos out of Partridge’s pathetic need to be loved, and this moment is particularly effective in this regard. As is the subsequent travel forward through time to meet an aged Alan still rallying against the (now total) pedestrianisation of Norwich city centre. That one line, along with a number of pre-recorded segments featuring Alan’s faithful PA Lynn (wonderfully played by Felicity Montague, as ever) are the most obvious moments of fan service, but happily, nearly everything else we see here is brand new material (as co-written with Neil and Rob Gibbons).
Later, Coogan brings back fan favourite Martin Brennan, Alan’s Irish alter-ego, in a magnificent back-and-forth that sees Martin demanding that more and more of his family are to be fed at a restaurant that evening. The subsequent musical number is genuinely hilarious, as is pretty much everything this ambitious arena show attempts on the night, and the evening finishes with a ridiculous medley of 80’s rock ballads that is much funnier in person than on paper.
And so, Coogan and Alan, forever entwined, deliver an uproarious evening of comedy, song and disaster. Needles to say, Dr. Alan Gordon Partridge once again has the last laugh.