What’s wrong with Benny Hill? Review – A living reminder of what millions once found funny | stage

TV has mined a rich collection of comedy biographies from the Golden Age – but Benny Hill has yet to receive a posthumous franchise. That’s partly the point of this stab in that direction by Mark Curry, which wonders why Hill has been so completely written off from our comedy pantheon. The reasons are widely known, of course, and are being rehearsed again here: TV’s beloved ex-man has circulated a joke that many contemporary viewers find sexist, racist and sad. One might hope for greater insight from a 100-minute play on this subject, but for all the pleasures along the way, there’s not much to add.

Carey’s manipulation of songs returns to Hill’s life from his final days as a “crazy recluse” talking to a visiting lawyer about his will. With all the other roles played with gusto by Georgie Taylor, we meet Hill’s father ‘Captain’, who sold ‘rubber johnnies’ for a living, and we find Benny writing letters to his aunt from the cafés he frequented in France. Between scenes, there’s a chatter of online voices discussing his angry legacy. Taylor plays occasional narrator as a Ben Elton-esque 1980s comedian, whose generation is here accused of cruelly — and hypocritically — casting Hill out of entertainment.

But in its closing moments, the play seems to come to terms with the idea that Hill’s comedy, about old men reveling in buxom beauties, is over. There are nods toward advocacy for his work, particularly in one sketch that teases us with racist East Asian caricatures, and lists all the other works now announced that have presented this kind of material as well. But when they might make a more substantive argument in defense of the comedian, neither Hill nor the play goes beyond a simple “the joke is either funny or it’s not” and the PC claims are getting crazy.

The play does not delve into the personal life of this “saucy boy who never grew up.” What we get is a vivid reminder of what millions once found funny, thanks to Carrey’s own performance as Hill remains elusive behind the winks, smirks, and forced quips.