SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

runamokprods While some of the sketches have dated badly, and others lack the invention of the best, this is the only way to see a version of the 4 man theatrical revue 'Beyond the Fringe' which has got some inspired pieces of absurdity and satirical lunacy. A huge success in the early 60s, 'Fringe' had a major influence on Monty Python, and by extension much of modern comedy. A very young Peter Cook and Dudley Moore teamed up with leading British playwright and screenwriter to be Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller, who went on to, among other things, produce and direct some stunning versions of Shakespeare for the BBC. But here they playfully skewer many of societies sacred cows, with everything from a tremendously funny send up of Shakespeare, to Dudley Moore doing some amazing comic work at the piano, to a very, very funny interview piece with Moore interviewing Cook as a head of Scotland Yard about the Great Train Robbery. Cook is hysterical as the obviously incompetent official, and you can hear the kind of absurdist wordplay John Cleese or Graham Chapman would be doing as some officious character just a few years later. The DVD transfer of this black and white TV special is pretty awful, hard to see at times, clearly damaged at moments, sound levels all over, etc. But it's more than worth it for the brilliant wit on display, and the opportunity to see this piece of comedy history.

tavm So after decades of reading about the comedy revue that jump-started the careers of the comic duo Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, I finally watched on DVD that revue that also featured Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller: Beyond the Fringe. Not everything that was depicted in this now-legendary event was funny, in fact, many of the references to certain historical or cultural happenings were dated to me but there were still a few skits that were quite hilarious to me like the beginning one about America, "The Great Train Robbery" with Cook making it clear that it's not a reference to a train being stolen, another Cook sketch in which he's a coal miner who wanted to be a judge and who writes about nude women on the side, and then there's "One Leg Too Few" in which Cook interviews Moore jumping on one foot as he auditions for the role of Tarzan! That one I recognized immediately since I first watched this sketch on a rerun of "Saturday Night Live" that they hosted when I was a teen. Still quite hilarious to me. Also loved seeing Moore at the piano especially as he makes faces to us or when he performs a pretentious version of "The Colonel Bogey March". Bennett can be a bit droll here especially when he plays a vicar delivering a sermon about the part of a sardine can you can't reach into and Miller can occasionally amuse when he mugs furiously. So on that note, I'd recommend Beyond the Fringe for anyone who's into satire especially of the British kind.

dbborroughs If you want to laugh then see this show. This is sketch comedy at its finest, as Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett, Dudley Moore and Peter Cook riff on pretty much everything under the sun from religion, Philosophy, music, the end of the world and being a miner. Its a wild mix of nothing is sacred humor with a very clever edge.If you want to trace the history of British comedy one would start with the music halls move on to the Goons stopping at this show before moving on to people like the Goodies, Monty Python and Eddie Izzard. These are the guys and this is the show that began, in part the draining of the colleges and setting them to work for places like the BBC. Python took the anarchic sketch comedy found here and welded the insanity of Spike Milligan and the Goons. If you need more proof consider that a good number of bits from this show ended up in the Secret Policemen's Balls that were staged by the members of Python for Amnesty International. They used the material because its funny.Historical importance aside this is a very funny show. Certainly there are bits that have dated since it was first performed but on the whole the show remains relevant, and above all funny. If you like to laugh see this show.

John Esche I snapped up this video the moment it was released as one of the rare Original London (and Broadway) cast performances recorded complete as it was done on stage (recorded at its final London performance). It was also the source of two hilarious LPs from Capitol Records that saw many of us through our college years.The classic revue - which later led to such heady intellectual fare as TV's THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS - is just as good as remembered and makes one long for the days when comedy wasn't afraid to make you think....THE FRINGE still had its share of buffoonery with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore embarking on their long careers as clown princes, but the BRIGHTEST of the bunch, Alan Bennett, is an even greater reason to spend an evening BEYOND THE FRINGE (the title an oblique reference to the famed annual Edinburgh Cultural Festival and its burgeoning "Fringe" Festival of entries which could not be booked into the main festival venues).Bennett would soon leave the performing field (mostly) to concentrate on an even longer and more fulfilling writing career. As I write this, I'm still in the heady glow of one of the early Broadway performances of what may be Bennett's masterpiece, THE HISTORY BOYS, which transferred from London with most of its cast in tact after being filmed for later release. If half as good as it is on stage, THE HISTORY BOYS will be another movie/video to be cherished and the ultimate "Bennett Double Feature" as it expands the intellectual gamesmanship Bennett first started to develop in BEYOND THE FRINGE to full mature power.A Brit recently told a newsman en-route to interview Bennett that "in England he's a God!" High praise indeed for a country which has also given us such relatively recent cultural deities as Tom Stoppard (ROSENCRANCZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD and Shakespeare IN LOVE) and Michael Frayn (NOISES OFF and COPENHAGEN), but also well merited.It all started BEYOND THE FRINGE.