ROWAN ATKINSON TRIBUTE SHOW

While watching the Rowan Atkinson Tribute Show and seeing director Stephen Carnell chuckling along with the rest of the audience, a man who’s seen the nuts and bolts of every sketch over and over again, you know it’s going to be a good one. Sitting in the cabaret-style seating of the Bordello Theatre at the Kings Cross Hotel, in front of a minimalist set with high expectations, the audience won’t be disappointed. The show is a tribute to the Rowan Atkinson in Review productions of the eighties, featuring a selection of the best and most relevant sketches that came to embody the English comedian. Star of the show, Gabriel McCarthy nails the physicality and elastic facial expressions of Atkinson’s trademark style and it’s impossible not to laugh out loud when he inhabits the various eccentric characters. There have been some slight changes to adapt to a modern, Aussie audience, lines were added, the English accent is removed and some sketches were cut entirely but the essential elements of Atkinson’s style of comedy are truly timeless. “Thirty years after Rowan Atkinson did this show live in London, it’s as fresh and as funny as ever,” says Carnell. “Rowan’s humour is as timeless as Greek Tragedy.”

Sep 26-Nov 28 (Wed only), Bordello Theatre, Level 4, Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross, $25, rowantribute.eventbrite.com.au