Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Andrew Schofield, Alan Stocks, Helen Carter, Michael Fletcher, Stephen Fletcher, Liam Tobin.
Sometimes there are no words that can ever justify the praise or warmth you wish to impart to people or future audiences on how good a play or performance is. You just have to watch the crowd’s reaction and listening to the cheering of those that had made their way Epstein Theatre to watch The Sunshine Boys too know that the production is just simply amazing.
From Neil Simon’s incredible script, which was first produced on Broadway in 1972, the scintillating sight of arguably three of the finest male comic actors around bouncing lines off each other with such precision and timing and the excellent support given to them by the rest of the cast made The Sunshine Boys just a joy to behold from start to finish.
Al Lewis and Willie Clark were a double act on the Vaudeville stage for over 40 years, then they just started to not speak to each other and in the end the years just went by and then 11 years later the distance of time, the remembrance of long held grudges and distaste filters over the friendship until one day they are urged to get back together and repeat one of their most famous pieces. To portray this on stage takes two larger than life personalities, two actors who trust each other almost beyond doubt and in the legendary Andrew Schofield and the incredible Alan Stocks, the parts of Al Lewis and Willie Clark could not have been in better hands.
The acerbic wit, the deep love and respect that both men once had for each other and the humour in which the play revelled in was bought to life by these two men and by the addition of Life In Theatre Production’s of The Sunshine Boys Director Stephen Fletcher as Willie Clark’s nephew and agent Ben Silverman. These three men have worked together so well over the last few years that the way they interact with each other is almost seamless. Three really isn’t a crowd, three is Mr. Schofield, Mr. Stocks and Mr. Fletcher being on stage together at the same time and giving performances that not only make the audiences laugh even before the line is delivered but also make you fall in love with the characters they are portraying.
With superb support from the outrageously talented Helen Carter as the Nurse and Michael Fletcher and Liam Tobin, The Sunshine Boys was an outstanding play and in terms of production something that perhaps only Life In Theatre could capture the very essence of.
If you have the chance to see this play more than once, grasp the opportunity, some things are just too good to only ever spend a couple of hours in the company of.
Ian D. Hall