With a title like The Crown Jewels and a cast containing some of the cream of British comedy there are no prizes for guessing this won't be an ordinary history lesson.
Written by BAFTA award-winning creator of Men Behaving Badly and The Durrells, Simon Nye, and based on the little-known attempt to pull off the greatest heist of all time - to steal King Charles ll's crown jewels, it looks like we're in for a fun and raucous ride.
The protagonist is Colonel Thomas Blood (Aidan McArdle), an Irish rebel who, in May 1671, along with his accomplices - his son 'Hunt' (Joe Thomas from TV's The Inbetweeners), Jenny Blaine, a woman acting as his wife (Tanvi Virmani) and Robert Perrot (Neil Morrissey of TV's Men Behaving Badly fame) plots to steal the crown jewels from the Tower of London.
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After stabbing the pensioner jewel keeper, Edwards (Al Murray's additional role), Blood is apprehended and jailed.
The Merry Monarch himself is portrayed, very accurately by all accounts, by Al Murray as a narcissistic nymphomaniac, licking his lips at the ladies while holding court with the rest of the audience, ad- libbing aplenty to their delight, their initial delight anyway. After a while it starts to feel a little like a warm-up act that's been left to cool a bit too long.
The immersion aspect of the show is a brave choice however and one that on the whole seems to pay off. Murray is suitably bawdy, big-headed and bombastic as King Charles and steers the role skilfully to get the laughs.
Colonel Blood, 'Father of All Treasons' is played well by McArdle, complete with false beard and a comically bizarre hotchpotch of accents.
Adonis Siddique as the King's camp, gleaming-toothed, henpecked footman gets plenty of laughs with his good boy/ naughty boy routine, while Carrie Hope Fletcher is entertaining as the frustrated, unmarried daughter of Edward. She also shows off her impressive singing voice as Lady of the Bedchamber, extolling the virtues, for want of a better word, of his Royal Highness, while generously showering the audience with the contents of the royal potty...
Blood's accomplice Captain Perrot, played by Neil Morrissey of TV's Men Behaving Badly fame, has a smaller part than expected (no pun intended) which is a shame as many of the audience would surely like to have seen more from him.
The star of the show though has to be Mel Giedroyc. As the crown jewels keeper's wife she is comically coarse, like a 17th Century version of TV comedian Katherine Tate's 'Nan', while as the chin-wobbling French Noblewoman she strives to be a classier lady, then offering the audience a choice of sexually transmitted diseases as if they were fine wines.
The action - the attempted theft of the jewels, is fast, and oddly, seemingly subsidiary to the show.
The script itself seems very slim, a fact that the actors being skilled improvisers can't hide. The audience don't seem to mind too much however, some relishing the chance to 'join in' more than others.
If you're seeking any kind of substance or story, you may be a bit disappointed. If, however, you're up for a night of pure silliness and interaction with the cast then it may be right up your street.
