John Cleese: The Alimony Tour

Theatre Royal Nottingham
14 May 2011

Well, I suppose he was honest. At the very start John Cleese announced to us all that he was broke. Having had to pay his last wife $20 million in an acrimonious divorce settlement, he tells us that he is now forced to play ‘a backwater like Nottingham’ to try and earn himself some money and ‘feed the beast’ rather than staying at home to have a nice rest.

There then followed a savage attack on his former wife, including showing pictures of her withdrawing a rather large wad of money from a cashpoint.

The bite and vitriol ended at this point and what followed was an amiable and genial evening with Cleese, as he tells us of his family and growing up in Weston-Super-Mare, Cambridge Footlights, Python and the rest. All interspersed with photos and classic clips.

It was kind of enjoyable because, after all, there was John Cleese in the flesh. John. Cleese. All six foot and whatever of him. And you can never tire of seeing some classic Fawlty Towers clips and even the early stuff with Marty Feldman in At Last the 1948 Show.

But ultimately, the show disappointed, as there was never any real connection with the audience. Cleese said that this was ‘a show for the fans’, then why not have a 30 minute Q&A at the end, where he can come off script and open up a bit. Instead to finish off we got a montage of some of the dreadful stuff he’s been doing lately to keep the wolf from the door, including the appalling Pink Panther remakes with Steve Martin. At least he didn’t include the AA ads.

There were highlights, especially when he talked of growing up and his phobia obsessed mother. However, the career stuff was info I’ve read and seen before. An opportunity to talk about black comedy was prefaced by the Black Knight clip from Holy Grail. A classic scene, but it’s reminiscent of the earlier Python sketch, Sam Peckinpah’s Salad Days.

If Cleese wants to discuss comedy and the power to shock, then clearly he’s going to talk about Life of Brian, isn’t he? But it doesn’t even get a mention, let alone a clip.

Therefore, a curious evening. I couldn’t help feeling that the audience felt rather muted as we left, as if we all wanted that little bit more from him. A little more connection. After all we had all just contributed to his divorce fund.