Good Evening

OPENING: November 14, 1973

CLOSING: November 30, 1974

Seen: September 1974

LOCATION: Plymouth Theatre

Anyone who has spent any kind of time with me knows that I have a love for British sketch comedy. When I was in middle school, a few of my friends and I performed Monty Python’s Angry Parrot sketch. Since then, I can’t tell you how many times I have visibly rolled my bad ankle, only to lighten the situation for my horrified friends by uttering “Tis but a flesh wound.”

This is where my dad and I differ. I’m not sure if it’s the pacing or if he just doesn’t find the jokes funny, but I will never be throwing “Your mother was a hamster” jokes in his direction.

So imagine my surprise when I was searching through his Playbill box and the next one on deck was the two-hander British comedy sketch show Good Evening.

Good Evening was the product of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, cast members of the wildly popular comedy revue Beyond the Fringe. Beyond the Fringe was ground breaking in it’s ruthless skewering of politics and public figures. It originated at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but it was so popular that it transferred to the West End and then to Broadway. Once the run finally posted closing notices, it returned to London to film it’s final performance.

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were both young and somewhat fresh out of university when they teamed up with the other members of Beyond the Fringe, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller. Out of this motley quartet, only Cook had any kind of professional theatrical experience. But it didn’t seem to matter; to this day, Beyond the Fringe is still seen as the standard for sketch comedy, British or American.

After Beyond the Fringe finally completed it’s run, the group split up. However, only Cook and Moore really continued in the entertainment industry, usually with each other. But one thing is clear: the two men fancied themselves comedians and weren’t done with the medium. So this time, without the help of Miller and Bennett, they created a new piece which they titled “Not Only…But Also And Goodbye Again”. They tried it out in Australia in 1972, touring and tweaking it as they entertained the masses. By 1973, Cook and Moore were ready to take the leap and their show, now titled “Good Evening”, opened at the Plymouth Theatre on November 14, 1973.

The response was immediate. Clive Barnes, who we have already established was a tough critic to please, admits in his review that he was unable to contain his laughter on opening night. Walter Kerr, another tough critic to please, also sang its praises.

Concord Theatricals does have Good Evening available as a piece to perform, but I almost feel as though performing this pieces from a script does not do it justice. Cook and Moore, while they wrote the script (And each other’s Playbill bios), did not always stick to it. They seemed to have they innate knowledge to know that while some improv can improve a show on occasion, they were doing a show that was not billed as an improv show, so therefore they always needed to bring it back to the script eventually. It truly feels as though this was a show that you could see multiple times and you would see a different show each time. Highlights included a sketch about a one-legged Tarzan and The Peach and the Frog (I don’t know what it was about, but apparently it had the stoic Barnes gasping for air with laughter)

And they didn’t really on improv to keep things spicy – on August 8th, 1974, they very deliberately rushed through Act I so that the intermission curtain could be drawn at 9. Theatre Kids, I know many of you reading this – and myself included in this – are too young for this date to mean anything, but for my older American readers, you may recognize that date as the night that Nixon resigned. And that’s what Moore and Cook rushed the show for – the audience at the Plymouth that night were treated to and evening with Cook, Moore, and Nixon.

Good Evening ran for just over a year, unheard of for a play, let alone a sketch show, at the time. It was so successful that it even had to change theaters near the end of it’s run. I hate to make assumptions, but I feel as though this one is valid – it switched from the Plymouth to the Lunt Fontaine. I can only image that it would switch from one of the smaller Broadway houses (1,079 seats) to one of the larger houses (1,519 seats) meant that the demand to see Cook and Moore before they left town. This is where my father saw it.

After Good Evening closed, the duo went their separate ways. Cook kept one foot in the entertainment industry, but mostly focused on the several business he had in England. He did make an appearance in the iconic film The Princess Bride in 1987. He died at the age of 57 in 1994. Moore went on to have a prolific film career working almost consistently before he passed in 2002.

Good Evening is the epitome of what good comedy should be. At it’s core, it was two guys having fun. And that’s what improv and comedy should be – fun. Maybe my dad did like it, I’ll never know.

But I’m sure I would have.

CAST: ORIGINAL

PETER COOK
DUDLEY MOORE

Barnes, Clive. “Theater: Good Evening”. New York Times, November 15, 1973. https://www.nytimes.com/1973/11/15/archives/theater-good-evening-zany-peter-cook-and-dudley-moore-return-the.html?searchResultPosition=3

British Broadcasting Company. “Comedy: Beyond the Fringe.” October 28, 2014. https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/beyondthefringe/

British Comedy Guide. “Beyond the Fringe.” Accessed February 2023. https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/beyond_the_fringe/

BroadwayWorld. “Good Evening – 1973 – Broadway Tickets, News, And More.” Accessed February 2023. https://www.broadwayworld.com/shows/Good-Evening-2765.html

Franks, Lucinda. “To Cook and Moore, It’s A Good Evening.” New York Times, March 19, 1974. https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/19/archives/to-cook-and-moore-its-a-good-evening.html?searchResultPosition=4

Internet Movie Database. “Dudley Moore” www.imdb.com. Accessed February 2023.

Internet Movie Database. “Peter Cook.” www.imdb.com. Accessed February 2023.

Kerr, Walter. “’Why Is Good Evening’ So Very, Very Funny?” New York Times, November 18, 1973. https://www.nytimes.com/1973/11/18/archives/why-is-good-evening-so-very-very-funny-a-very-funny-good-evening.html?searchResultPosition=5

Phillips, Mecandlish. “City Mixes Rapt Attention and Indifference.” New York Times, August 9, 1974. https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/09/archives/city-mixes-rapt-attention-and-indifference-one-flashing-bulletin.html?searchResultPosition=1

Statista. “Number of Seats at Broadway Theaters In New York, United States, As of January 2023, By Venue.” https://www.statista.com/statistics/1286797/number-of-seats-broadway-theaters-new-york/

Wattsbath, Stephen. “Beyond ‘Beyond The Fringe’.” The New York Times, October 24, 1965. https://www.nytimes.com/1965/10/24/archives/beyond-beyond-the-fringe.html?searchResultPosition=2