It seems a very simple concept for a show: celebrated accompanist/expert Neil Brand talking about Laurel and Hardy and showing extracts from their films, then in the second half showing two complete short films. However, there is more to it than that: the films have recently been beautifully restored and, projected onto a screen which (with a piano) is the entire set, are a splendid reminder of the beautifully paced mayhem of Laurel and Hardy.
There are three fine extracts from the duo in talkies. Inevitably the evening starts with The Trail of the Lonesome Pine from Way Out West, Olly displaying a fine baritone, Stan miming with ridiculous earnestness – a pity no room was found for their little dance outside the saloon from the same film. Then we are taken to the interval with the climax to the piano-and-staircase sequence from The Music Box. Finally, after Brand has said his good nights, we finish with the sequence from Perfect Day where Stan and Olly sign off with bidding farewell at length to their neighbours before they are stymied by a puncture in the first few yards.
Otherwise we are in the silent era, Brand’s engaging links keeping us well informed without delving too deeply into the troubles they encountered with Hal Roach (a hint in the separate contracts story) or the disasters that followed Stan Laurel’s abandonment of script control. It’s an engagingly sunny evening, dealing predominantly with those days 100 years ago when Hollywood was still pretty empty and a couple of incompetents had space to involve the whole neighbourhood in a custard pie fight.
Neil Brand improvises piano accompaniment for a number of extracts from their first meeting in Lucky Dog onwards, including the sublime social comedy of We Faw Down, the two miscreants attempting to con their stern-faced wives into believing they have watched a show at a theatre which (unknown to them) has burnt down.
The two films after the interval are both examples of a technique of which Laurel and Hardy were masters: piling one catastrophe on another until the whole world disappears beneath a mess of custard pie/paint/whatever messy substance you want. The Finishing Touch is the saga of building a house, from the owner’s rash decision to let Stan and Olly loose on the project to the final collapse of the house, via drenching cop Edgar Kennedy many times in whatever glutinous substance they were using.
The final film, You’re Darn Tootin’, benefits from a soundtrack by Neil Brand and assorted sound effects from the audience in telling the tale of two hopeless musicians who stir up a monster custard pie fight and end up as innocent bystanders!
A thoroughly diverting evening ends with Neil Brand dealing with audience queries such as, “Why Laurel and Hardy? Why not Hardy and Laurel?” Now there’s a question!
Touring the UK.
The Reviews Hub Star Rating
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7
