Men Behaving Badly: Play Review – Rude Roommates Gossip Like It’s 1999 | stage

IIn a nervous theater economy, with familiar material more likely to sell tickets, nights out often leave you nostalgic for nights out. Television detectives including Morse, Barnaby and Rebus have been put on stage, as have sitcoms such as Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, Only Fools and Horses and Yes, Prime Minister.

As the second part of this latest offering moves to the West End, The Barn debuts another TV comedy: Simon Nye’s 1990s film Men Behaving Badly – about cohabiting children and women trying to grow up – whose Christmas 1998 finale was watched by 13.9 million viewers.

That’s a lot of goodwill with viewers, but delivering a show with box office success can be a problem. The crucial decision is whether the stage crew impersonates or reinterprets the screen stars. In this case, Tony Matt Hawdon and Tricia Adele Turner-Depp will get high marks for playing originators Neil Morrissey and Leslie Ash in another TV franchise, Stars in Their Eyes. However, Ellie Nunn’s Dorothy and Ross Carswell’s Gary are as different from Caroline Quentin and Martin Clunes’ versions – respectively, more elegant and more rugged – than one version of Ophelia or Hamlet is from the other, sometimes making it seem as if there are two new housemates.

Howdon is literally trapped in the impersonation because Morrissey makes an entertaining video appearance as a ghost talking from the present day to the characters in 1999 – the play is set on the eve of the millennium. But as a result, Joseph O’Malley’s production oscillates between reenactment and reenactment.

Television-to-stage plays also struggle with pacing. The two-hour cop offers naturally adequate theater, but the half-hour sitcom unit demands a stretch that could become poignant. John Cleese expertly turns three episodes of Fawlty Towers into a smooth theatrical farce. Nye’s play transcends television plots, although the dialogue occasionally hints at moments of choice.

Offers two timed hours throughout the evening. In order to inherit from his aunt’s morality, a device that emerged in the 1890s more than a century later, Gary must marry the heavily pregnant Dorothy before she gives birth. (It is unclear why the Presbyterian relative would ignore the couple’s first child.) Deb returned from Australia at the last minute, giving Tony 24 hours to convince her that they should emigrate to Melbourne and marry her.

That’s a lot of plot, but even with extended musical entertainment — wonderfully done by Neil Jennings and Valerie Antwi as landlord Ken and his girlfriend Eve, respectively — the audience goes home after 100 minutes. That’s not enough time to determine whether the scenario rebukes the boys or celebrates them for their crude sexuality. And while the female characters in the original were at least allowed to enjoy sex, a relatively feminist impulse, in this version they exist mainly to be impregnated in a project that seems like a misconception.