Goodbye - The (After) Life of Cook & Moore

Following on from Just Like That!, the tribute show to Tommy Cooper, London's Museum Of Comedy has lined-up another show which is a perfect fit with the type of classic comedy heritage it aims to celebrate...

Goodbye - The (After) Life of Cook & Moore is a play looking at the double-act relationship between Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Created by Jonathan Hansler and Clive Greenwood, and directed by the multi award-winning Vadim Jean, the play is being staged at the museum this February in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the death of Peter Cook.

The show stars Kev Orkian as Dudley Moore, with Hansler as comedy genius Cook, and Greenwood as a host of recognisable supporting characters.

Goodbye - The (After) Life of Cook & Moore has a strange premise. The museum explains things as follows: "Dudley Moore dies and finds himself in a bar... this must be heaven? Not quite! This bizarre bar is in a comedian's limbo run by his old partner Peter Cook, and they face divine judgement for Derek & Clive...

"Not the best of friends in life, the scene is set for showdown as Peter & Dudley have to resolve their differences, confront their past and face their future in Heaven or Hell. Along the way in this darkly surreal comic fantasy, they are visited by other dead comics whose lives they influenced for good or bad, including Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Kenneth Williams and Frankie Howerd."

A previous version of the show was described in reviews as "hilarious and often moving", and "a belly laugh from beginning to end", so comedy fans will no doubt be eagerly awaiting this new incarnation.

Clive Greenwood gives us a bit more detail about the play's history: "Jonathan initially told me his idea for a play featuring comedians escaping from heaven in 2005 and sent me a draft which he asked me to comment on. He obviously liked my comments, as he asked me to co-write with him, and after a successful run at The Gilded Balloon in 2007, [promoter and museum creator] Martin Witts invited us to perform at the studio theatre at Leicester Square. We are so pleased that Martin has shown faith in us to invite us to present a new version at The Museum Of Comedy."

Greenwood emphasises the play that will be seen by audiences this February is different to the 2007 version: "It is a new production. We have a new director on board: the noted film director Vadim Jean, who brings to our play his filmic vision which has completely re-imagined our original script as an immersive comedy experience; and you can't beat being immersed in comedy can you?!"

Talking to BCG about how the play's month-long run in London came about, Hansler explains: "An extraordinary circle of events happened in my life which propelled this show together. A combination of meeting the brilliant BAFTA winning director Vadim Jean; being asked by Martin Witts to do the show at the comedy museum; finding the brilliant Kev Orkian - a Dudley who has been playing the piano since he was 4; and the kindness of the fab Hoxton Holborn where we did all our script re-structuring with Vadim... this all came together with my undying passion to keep British Comedy alive."

The team behind the show clearly have a lot of love for the subjects on which their play is based. Jonathan first saw Peter Cook starring alongside John Cleese in The Secret Policeman's Ball. Since then he has always celebrated British Comedy, particularly Peter Cook, a man who whom he helped get a celebration plaque placed outside the old Establishment Club. Clive confirms "Jonathan has an encyclopaedic knowledge of, and a great love of Peter Cook, and this is matched by Kev Orkian our 'Dudley Moore', a hugely talented comedian and musician easily on a par with Dud who happens to be his hero... and he's the right height as well!"

Giving more details on his own comedy upbringing, Clive tells us: "I vaguely remember the slightly bizarre Telegoons puppet show shown at Saturday teatime; and when at school I discovered the re-runs of The Goon Show on Radio 4, as well as Hancock's Half Hour."

It turns out paying attention to these shows was actually preparation for a career for Clive. He's played the likes of Frankie Howerd in other productions, and now takes on multiple roles in this play. "I would record myself doing Goon impressions on a cassette recorder and I found I could do those and other classic comedians voices well. This, coupled with Jonny's uncanny ability to impersonate Peter Cook physically and vocally, and Kev's musical and comedy genius as Dudley is added to Vadim's inspired vision; which has lifted our writing to a place somewhere else... Grimsby, I think! (Only joking)".

Hansler gives us an idea of what to expect of the new version: "The show is full on. It is filthy, rude, anarchic, angry, touching, funny and weird and makes no apologies for what it is... We hope, for the older members of the audience, that it will be a wonderful reminder of the great comic heroes; and for the young, an introduction to bloody funny people of a time when the world did not exist on the mediocrity of today."

Greenwood adds: "For me the key things that drew me to the script idea was the fact that so many comedy geniuses - Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey - were tortured souls, so it's a chance to explore comedy's dark side, as well as the question, 'if is there an Afterlife, what's it like?... And are there jokes?'."

Whilst Goodbye - The (After) Life of Cook & Moore has dramatic elements, Hansler is keen to emphasise: "This is not 'la di da theatre'... This is the theatre I love: the theatre of comedy. In-your-face, anarchic, up close and personal theatre... This is punk comedy!"

Just what Pete & Dud would have wanted!

'Goodbye - The (After) Life of Cook & Moore' is at The Museum Of Comedy (Bloomsbury, London) from the 3rd to 28th February 2015. For more info and tickets visit www.museumofcomedy.com