Alan Partridge’s ‘Strategem’ tour at the London O2 reviewed by Adam Davidson

By Adam Davidson, Local Democracy Reporter

Norfolk’s most famous son, Alan Partridge, returns to London at the 02 Arena for his ‘Stratagem’ tour, described as a combination between a TED Talk and West Side Story.

The tour sees Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge return to the live stage for the first time in 13 years.

The media personality from Norfolk will be delivering ‘Stratagem’, a self-help guide to a more fulfilled life but with characteristic mishaps along the way.

Alan came out on stage full of energy with his famous catchphrase ‘Aha!’ which many in the audience joined in shouting back before the radio presenter burst into a rendition of ‘We Built this City’, followed by a rap.

The genius of creating a character that lacks any self-awareness like Alan Partridge is that the sketches or jokes can be cringe-worthy at times or just not funny, but the audience will never know if that is part of the meta-joke or just a punchline that didn’t work.

The show worked best when it relied on classic Partridge tropes like his desire to be considered trendy or reference to the ‘pedestrianisation of Norwich City Centre’ as these jokes went down well with the fans that filled the 02 Arena.

There was also a big cheer when Alan’s long-suffering assistant Lynn Belfield made a short appearance through a pre-recorded video on security cameras Alan had installed in his house to keep an eye on her.

In one of the many sketches in the show, Alan showed the audience the power of theatre as he travelled back in time to speak with his 11-year-old self and gave him words of advice to live by.

This was followed by a trip to the year 2065 as he spoke with his future ‘digitised’ self, this was less entertaining as the sketch had gone on for a bit too long at this point.

The show ended with Coogan combining his musical and comedic talent with an entertaining 80s medley, finishing with a Dirty Dancing style ‘lift.’

Whilst the show was enjoyable, there wasn’t anything particularly fresh or original that we hadn’t already seen from the character.

The 80s medley, the younger schoolboy Partridge and purposely cringe-inducing interactions with his trendy dancers are recycled punchlines and sketches from earlier series or podcasts.

However, understandably it must be a difficult creative choice for Coogan and the writers because people expect to hear the famous catchphrases and jokes, and these are guaranteed a laugh and evidently it worked as they kept the audience going for 90 minutes.

 

Photo credit: Trevor Leighton