Alan Partridge: Stratagem Review

Alan Partridge: Stratagem. Steve Coogan’s most loved alter-ego takes to the stage in a multi-media, motivational extravaganza, steering us through the minefield of modern-day issues such as diversity and mental health. But is it any good?

Alan Partridge is my hero

Disclaimer. I love Alan Partridge. My favorite comedy character of all time, who’s frequently reduced me to giggling tears since the early ’90s. Why? Because, deep down, there’s a bit of Alan in everyone. That combination of awkwardness, that need to be cool, to be loved, but not fitting in. Alan faces the world like a desperate man-child without a filter, saying things we wish we could get away with. There are often times when he’s a disgusting, sexist, racist human being, but others where he has a heart of gold.

Despite the bravado, Alan is a lonely, fallible, vulnerable, messed up guy, scarred by the trials of a failed marriage and career. But what really endears me (and millions of others) to him is his refusal to conform, to give up, and to have a laugh at another’s expense along the way.

Alan’s (or should I say Steve’s) unique blend of cringe-humour has influenced me to the extent where sometimes I can’t help but slip in the odd Patridge-ism in real life situations, with predictably uncomfortable results. Ahaaaaaaaa!

Alan Partridge: Stratagem. The Golden Ticket.

It may sound strange to a lot of people, but even though I’m heavily into music and guitar, I don’t really do concerts. It just never appealed to me to watch someone else on stage, unless, of course, it was Queen (impossible now) or more recently, Alan. So when I got offered the chance to see Alan Partridge: Stratagem on my own doorstep, I couldn’t refuse.

So let’s just say this from the off. As an avid Alan Partridge fan. I’m happy. I got to sit for 2 hours laughing at Alan in the flesh. I got to fulfill an ambition. This isn’t a mashup of characters, this is pure Partridge, start to finish.

But I say again, is it any good?

Never meet your heroes

In a word. No. I had a thoroughly enjoyable night out, had some laughs, and ticked one off the bucket list. I got to be silly and embrace all things Partridge, but the fact is, anyone less than a superfan is going to hate this, and even for the die-hards like me I couldn’t help wonder what the point of it all was, or when the next belly laugh was going to arrive.

In fairness to Steve Coogan, he’s giving people what he thinks they want: Two hours of Alan. It was funny watching short snippets of his terrible TV shows and interacting with Michael and Lynn, but in this setting, the joke is kind of on us.

Cast of Characters

To list the ones I care about, We have Felicity Montagu as Alan’s meek, long-suffering p.a.: Lynn, young Alan (played by a female member of his backing dancers), old Alan, and Martin Brennan.

Lynn

House sitting for Alan via live security camera, these are a couple of clunky and it has to be said quite tedious intermissions treading the same territory we’ve seen many times. It seems Steve thought that simply ticking the Lynn box would be good enough. It wasn’t.

Young Alan

The first in a couple of pervy interplays. Young Alan forms part of the show’s time-traveling theme, with a female dancer as ‘Young Alan’, kitted out in a skimpy school uniform which predictably throws Alan off his threadbare script.

Old Alan

Also played by Steve as a Max-Headroom style computer-generated being from the future and obviously where most of the show’s money has been spent. Again this doesn’t really work, despite the sight-gag of his interchangeable legs (cue the semi-naked dancers again).

Martin Brennan

The highlight of the show for me, mostly because Martin (also played by Steve) doesn’t take any of Alan’s shit and provides one of the show’s most memorable exchanges in his unreasonable family dinner negotiations…

… and me, and the wife.

A special mention has to go to Emma Sidi, who gets a 10 on 10 for effort, playing two wildly different characters (a chavvy member of the audience and a Strategem graduate), who both bring Alan down a peg or two, it’s just that neither brings out any real laughs.

Alan Partridge: Stratagem – What’s not to like.

Quite a lot unfortunately. The problems are, there’s too much filler, I hated the dancing/musical parts, but mainly there were a lot of characters I missed.

No Michael, no Sonia, or sidekick Simon to name just three. I know it’s not always possible to get the staff to please everyone, especially for a tour, but some backing dancers, Lynn and Emma Sidi doesn’t cut it for me.

Even my favourite parts: Alan being Alan, seemed to frequently miss the target. Newcastle Arena had swathes of empty seats, and at times it felt as though Steve was rushing through to get out of there.

Then there’s the most obvious fact that the show doesn’t make a jot of sense. It’s billed as Alan promoting his Stragagem theory, designed to improve all our lives but this never goes anywhere other than time-travelling, singing and dancing, and running out of time on the topic of the first ‘g’, which I’ve forgetten anyway.

Walking home, I thought again. Isn’t that the point? Isn’t that the joke? Isn’t it supposed to be terrible? In some ways, this is about as pure/undiluted Partridge as you’ll ever get. So yeah, it is terrible, the music is rubbish, it’s uncomfortable and unpolished, just like any Alan Patridge production should be.

The problem is, over those two hours, laughs and classic Partridge moments, were few and far between.

I felt a little for Steve on the final curtain call. He’s described Alan as an Albatross around his neck, but with Stragegem he’s tried to give the audience what he thinks they want, but you could tell he knew it had fallen flat with them.

Be careful what you wish for.