One of the "big" names at the Fringe this was an improv show (duh!) featuring Merton and a troupe of fellow performers - Richard Vranch, Lee Simpson, Suki Webster and Mike McShane.
If you watched "Whose Line Is It Anyway" thirty-odd years ago then you know the format. The audience shout out stuff - scenarios, words, movie and theatre styles, etc - and the players make stuff up. And that was exactly what they proceeded to do. All that was missing was Clive Anderson (I bumped into him later).
That was both the strength and weakness of the show. It had all been done decades previously by largely the same people. Fine, it's amusing trying to watch the players act to Merton to convey his character is a person who adds "Sushi Chef" designer labels to Agatha Christie's spectacles in Legoland. But it all felt comfortable and nostalgic to me - Merton was exactly the same as he was all those years ago (if older and a bit rougher 'round the edges - hey, aren't we all?) and as he still grumpily is on "Have I Got News For You"; Richard Vranch hasn't changed (not too much music in the show however - no Josie Lawrence I guess); Mike McShane was brilliant if looking rather elderly, frail and ill.
So, good pleasant fun. But, for me, just a bunch of well-heeled pros running through their nostalgic stuff one more time. Audience loved it and it was great to see the likes of Merton in the flesh. But overall a bit meh ...
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