I’d never seen Catherine Tate live and I did wonder how she was going to manage acting out all the different characters. I saw her being interviewed on Graham Norton a while back. She was on there promoting the Catherine Tate Show Live. At the time, she even joked saying she wasn’t sure how she was going to do it.
Her TV show hasn’t been on air for almost a decade with the exception of the Nan Christmas special, which has to be one of the best ones she’s done. So when I saw that she was going to do a show which included most of her characters live on stage, I bought tickets straight away. That was back in April. Last night, I went to see the show in Cardiff.
Here’s what I thought
For those who wonder if school girl Lauren is in the show, yes she is, despite being bumped off on the TV show. Of course, it wouldn’t have been the same without her and if she hadn’t been included it would have left us all quite “bovvered”.
Each part of her show is supported by her co-stars Mathew Horne (GAVALAAAAR…yes I know that’s from another show), Brett Goldstein and Niky Wardly who can’t help but burst into laughter at her spontaneous outrageous ad-libbing.
As with any other comedian I’ve seen, those who have turned up late or decided to go for a bathroom break are always picked on, and Catherine did the same. There are a few instances where audience participation is included but I won’t spoil these for you. Here’s a warning to anyone sat in the first few rows anyway.
Fair play to Catherine Tate, it’s difficult enough to remember each and every character (with obvious accent changes) as well as costume changes, let alone trying to remember her lines. There was one instance however where she had a complete brain fart and forgot where she was going with her story about her bowl of ‘Special K’.
During the quick costume changes, the crowd were entertained by numerous VT sketches from her other characters. Characters such as Frightened Woman (scream) and Aga Saga Woman (who’s terrified of the working classes). We were also treated to 2 new characters (2 men – one of which was Catherine), who acted out as the lighting engineers for the show.
Other VTs included guest appearances from the likes of Nick Grimshaw and Billy Connolly. Despite these pieces obviously being scripted, you could see how entertained they both were by the outrageousness of Nan, at one point having Nick Grimshaw in tears of laughter.
The only thing I was disappointed with
I had a group of people a couple of rows behind me who wouldn’t shut up. They were having a full blown conversation as if they were in their living room. Very rude and very annoying. Despite me turning around on several occasions and giving them death stares, they still carried on. Obviously, that isn’t a reflection on the quality of the show. I was just unfortunate enough to be sat near dick heads. The only thing I will say I was disappointed with was that there were no big screens! I would have liked to have seen the characters up close. I was sat right at the back of the arena. The Motorpoint in Cardiff isn’t big at all. It holds around 5000 people. I’m not sure whether or not she has had big screens in any of the other places she’s played. Next time, can we have big screens please?
Fair enough!
