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# BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: Hats off to Laurel and Hardy
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/brighton-fringe-review-hats-off-to-laurel-and-hardy/
- Published: 2017-05-15T13:31:16.000Z
- Updated: 2017-05-15T13:31:16.000Z
- Description: Tony Carpenter (Laurel) and Philip Hutchinson (Hardy) overcome the first big hurdle of a tribute show in Hats Off to Laurel and Hardy at the Sweet Waterfront – they actually look and sound like the originals.
- Author: Brian Butler
- Tags: Arts, Comedy, In The South, News, Reviews, Theatre, Brighton Fringe

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web-600-5-38.jpg)

## Tony Carpenter (Laurel) and Philip Hutchinson (Hardy) overcome the first big hurdle of a tribute show in *Hats Off to Laurel and Hardy* at the Sweet Waterfront – they actually look and sound like the originals.

**Their characterisations are endearing** and life-like and they add to this atmosphere by projecting black and white film of their versions of some of the comedy duo’s best moments.

My particular favourite, when I was a child, was *The Music Box* – where they repeatedly try to move an upright piano up an impossibly steep flight of outdoor steps. Their reproduction of that film is truly side-splitting.

These elements of the show work really well along with some snappy to-ing and fro-ing in their live dialogue. What is less successful is the over-long and slightly limp narrative of *“we did this ”* and *“we did that “* – chronicling their rise to fame and their string of failed marriages..

Lucky Dog is a theatre company which specialises in telling the true stories behind famous people. Highly laudible as that is, at times in this show it feels a bit like a first year degree course lecture.

But we do get some terrific one-liners, as in : *“If I hadn’t have seen you , I wouldn’t have recognised you”.*

They hated being on tv’s **This is Your Life** at the end of their careers and as Stan says: *“we didn’t even get paid”.*

What the historical analysis does yield are facts about them that we probably don’t know – their origins, the fact that Stan was a terrific director and writer and hated acting – except with Ollie.

Or that Ollie was unhappy all his life with his weight – *“People all over the world were laughing at the fat man – I hate being fat”.*

I hadn’t realised how often they did stage and variety shows in England and Europe largely because of impresario **Bernard Delfont**.

Their sad decline and serious illnesses cast a dark cloud in the last fifteen minutes of the show, but in a touching little scene they are reunited in death. As a final voice-over says *“God Bless Our Clowns*. “

The show has ended its run at the Fringe.

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**HATS OFF TO LAUREL AND HARDY**

Presented by Lucky Dog Theatre Productions

**Venue:** Sweet Waterfront 1

**Date of performance:** May 13

**Reviewed by:** Brian Butler