Pissing heroically and changing a tyre

The latest in an occasional series of theatre reviews...

Nick Offerman : Theatre Royal Drury Lane

A trip to a new theatre (for me, I hasten to add!) - and since it was the night before my birthday, I treated myself to a seat in the stalls!  Normally, there would be no danger of me forking out the big bucks to sit downstairs but this show had a different pricing structure to most with only three price levels and the most expensive was only 50% more than the cheapest (I think the biggest differential I've seen is something like 750%).  So I thought, "let's do it" and I certainly noticed the difference in terms of my view of the stage.

I guessed that part of the reason for the pricing structure is that it was a one man show (although they've also certainly not spent any money on scenery) - so I was a bit surprised when Lou Sanders walked out on stage.  I wasn't expecting her!  And she gave us 20 minutes of acceptable stand-up, there was no real flow to it but I guess that's expected when you're warming up for someone else (and I suspect you're not allowed to be too funny either!).  She was surprisingly filthy at times though!

After which we had a 20 minute break - what was the point to that then?!?  I guess it's to let people go and get another drink - or, in the case of my neighbours, debate about whether they wanted another drink for 17 minutes and then decide that yes, another drink would be a great idea and rush to the bar.  Sigh.

All of which bought us to the reason for being there - I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting from the evening, but I've liked him for some time now.  I mean, obviously he's Ron Swanson for starters but whichever book of his I've read was very enjoyable and his turn in The Last of Us only increased my admiration for the man (more on this later) - so when they added an extra night to the UK tour, I thought I'd check him out

He makes it clear from the start he doesn't do "jokes" - he's a humorist rather than a comedian, apparently.  But it's a nicely crafted set which features plenty of laughs - he ruminates on various aspects of his life and sings some songs on various random topics.  And he comes across as a thoroughly decent fellow - he loves his wife (Megan gets mentioned a lot!), he tries not to be an asshole and he speaks up for the striking writers, pointing out that without them he wouldn't have any money.  Other topics covered were toxic masculinity (the post title refers to things you allegedly have to be able to do to be considered a man, but Nick claimed "my sisters do them both so much better than me"), digital assistants, Britishness and "eating ass" (a large part of the audience were VERY uncertain as to where he was going with that one).

He also spends some time on the roles he's most famous for - most of the discussion on The Last Of Us was around the hate mail he received afterwards, which he found depressing but also ridiculous.  And the main point he makes around Parks And Recreation was "you do know Ron's not real, right?" which seems like a pretty grounded take on the matter.  And this seems like a reasonable time to point out that if you've not seen either of these things, then you really should check them out - you don't have to watch all of The Last Of Us but you really should watch episode 3 because it's one of the best things I've seen on TV this year.  I was also intrigued to hear that Megan and him are going to appear in the next series of The Umbrella Academy as a married couple - I imagine that will be quite something!

And that's pretty much all I have to say on the evening, he gave us about 90 minutes or so which felt perfectly acceptable and everyone went home happy - well, I did anyway and I didn't spot anyone else looking too grumpy.

As I said earlier, this was my first visit to this theatre so we need to discuss that - as you'd expect from the name, it's a pretty fine theatre indeed.  The seat was comfortable enough (but not as comfortable as more modern theatres) and the sightline was good, but that's what happens when you pay top dollar, I guess.  The architecture is lovely though - lots of gorgeous detail throughout the building and it also had some very fine art in the main area by Maria Kreyn which I liked so I've included a couple of them below!

The Pillowman - a somewhat dark play
Anything Goes - very enjoyable indeed