Alan Partridge Live: Stratagem

source: Alan Partridge Live- Stratagem

Alan Partridge is one of my all time favourite comedy characters. This, unfortunately must prove to be the last outing of the character. I was hoping for some classic Partridge while watching this, instead we got 5-10 minutes of pointless and quite frankly, pathetic musical numbers which made no sense whatsoever, and then the fun began. Right? Wrong. It got worse. No originality, none of the well known awkward Partridge moments we all came to love, and it just never got any better. We then got more pointless songs where Coogan tried far too hard to force some humour from quite frankly awful lyrics. The film released a few years ago (Papa Alpha) was overall poor, though did have it's moments, this has nothing, absolutely no redeeming moments. How the audience managed to stay for the whole event is something of a miracle. No one could've blamed them had they all headed out at the intermission. In closing. Please let this be the last outing of a once great character. Let it go.

Just watching it now near the end why are people moaning 😂😂😂 it's his same cringey witty same old Alan partridge 😅 maybe the ones moaning haven't seen all his old stuff who knows but I for one loved it....just the same old stuff he does so what's not to love!! Wish I had got tickets to be honest and I'd be happier if he bought back Alan in the hotel or another film like alpha papa....come on how can you not like it funny amusing cringey 😬 the typical Alan I'd love to see if Alan soon on tv...let's not wait years like last time he will always be one of my favourites him and Peter Kay.. aha love him.

Compared with Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge (1994) or I'm Alan Partridge (1997) or The Man Who Thinks He's It (1998) or even This Time with Alan Partridge (2019), this is terrible. I am a huge fan of Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge, but I almost never laughed watching this. I understand that Coogan wants to play Alan Partridge in a different way, but he "forgets" that most people who love Alan Partridge probably want to see him the way he was created, being rude to interview guests, etc. This TV special is not very funny, in part because it is too different from the classical Alan Partridge. In part, it has to do with Coogan's performance itself. His voice is strained, his hands are almost always in the air, he is constantly reading his lines on two screens on the stage floor and pressing buttons on a remote control. He is not even dressed like Alan Partridge. Pity.

There is a parody at the very start of the show of a famous musical that was highly strained, but maybe that's the whole point as this is *Partridge* after all. If you enjoy his new Podcast, 'From the Oasthouse', then you will at least enjoy some of the gags on offer here, but perhaps not all of them. I adore Partridge old and new, but even I was glad I hadn't paid to see this live! It just falls short in so many places, and I think it's a shame really because with a bit more polish it could have been superb. The songs are haphazard and plain odd in their construction and narrative. The 'plot', is really thin and falls flat very quickly. The performances are good, Coogan is quintessentially Alan, and the other cast members are basically okay. But not great. One in particular is just annoying and I was glad that section ended quickly. Old favourits make an appearance, but for what purpose I couldn't quite fathom as this didn't add anything to the show other than a cameo or two. Yet, it is still funnier and more enjoyable than 90% of the competiton, so I don't think it should be royally trounced for being simply unfunny. This seems a bit too unfair to me. The onscreen cutscenes between theatre changes are pretty funny and many of the jokes do raise a smile or two. It is more like his recent content then classic Partridge, but that is no bad thing. I am grateful Coogan and Co still continue to breathe life into this beloved character. This maybe a bit more Monkey Tennis than an episode of Swallow, but if you like a bit of Partridge then that's no bad thing.

I will start by saying that I'm a big Partridge/Coogan fan. I loved the film, podcasts and shows but this was really poor. Coogan needs to retire the Partridge character in my opinion. I feel like every new show just destroys the comedy status of the character. I watched the whole show expecting it to get better and it really didn't. The first 10 - 20 minutes showed promise but it really bombed after that. The random songs and guest appearances were odd and it just didn't flow. Even the addition on Lynne didn't really go anywhere or create humour. So glad I didn't get tickets to watch this live.

I like Steve Coogan, but this was awful. I have no idea how such a talented man can produce such unadulterated drivel. Sad really if this is the level he's descended too. I can only hope this is just a one off hiccup in his career and things will look up for his next effort, if there is one. I don't like writing negative reviews but felt the need to after suffering this for 1 hour 24 minutes. If I can save anyone else from wasting their time with this then it'll be worth the effort. Sorry Steve but I can see by the other reviews I'm not the only one disappointed with this. Hopefully your next outing will improve on it.

I had high hopes for this and all I can say is I'm glad I didn't make the effort to go and see it live (something I very nearly did) It's hard to provide a synopsis of the show as it's just so odd and confusing. One thing though is abundantly clear, with this and indeed any other modern Partridge stuff, and that is it lacks the input of Armando Iannucci. Neil and Rob Gibbons are fans first and directors/script writers second and as with all geeky fans the concept and character has become far too deep and detailed in all the wrong ways. They seemed to have evolved Alan Partridge into a quasi cool, reformed success. You do see glimmers of the old Alan we know and find hilarious peppering the show and the little pre recorded snippets with the fabulous Felicity Montague as Alan's long suffering PA, Lynn Benfield are amusing. Unfortunately for the most part though, the show is weird, disjointed, confusing and rather sadly, simply not funny. The first half of the show is palatable if not particularly amusing but the second half of the show is genuinely awkward and almost desperate in its execution. The singing doesn't work, the narrative is weak and the entire show makes you cringe but not in the way Alan Partridge should. It's a sad demise and the combination of Neil and Rob Gibbon's weak abilities and Steve Coogan's complete loss of focus for the character and dare I say it arrogance, has led to this being a complete train wreck of a show. Perhaps the saddest element of this is they've dragged the character of Alan Partridge down with them. It really needs to be watched to appreciate how poor it is - you'll be left gob smacked I promise you...

STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) is back on the road, with his new motivational talk show, Stratagem, hoping to provide a life enhancement skills seminar to help people improve their life with his guidance. He tries to appeal to a younger demographic, doing rap songs, and tries to use his system to make amends with those he's fallen out with in the past, including an Irishman who came on his show last year, but his delusional belief in himself and his system comes hilariously crashing down as always. No matter how high Steve Coogan's star may fly, Alan Partridge is the one bulwark he'll always come back to, as the recent TV incarnation This Time on the BBC showed, even if the results weren't exactly spellbinding. He'll always reinvent the character for new times and new cultural developments, and the persona has so many gallons in the tank that last year he was able to take him on a nationwide tour (which I went to!) But placed on the small screen, without the atmosphere of a stadium behind it, does it hold up? Coogan is careful to balance out the talking segments with sporadic, colourful little bursts here and there of musical, song and dance numbers (such as the aforementioned rap number), to keep the audience on their toes and give them a little jolt. He's kept the Partridge character as consistent and true to form as he's been over the years, and there are occasional bursts of hilarity that lift things up a notch, but the truth is all of it doesn't really flow smoothly together, and never really rises anything above average in terms of overall success. It shows the enduring popularity that the Partridge character generates, and how he'll always manage to find some way of fitting into any moment in time, but with this offering it's best you really don't expect too much. ***

I've always been a fan of Alan Partridge and have watched everything to date. Unfortunately the English classic does not transfer well to a live setting. I'm unsure whether it's simply that Alan should be retired after many years of service or whether Steve Coogan is simply unable to sustain an audience's attention in a live setting. The first 15 minutes were entertaining, but things very quickly became unhumorously awkward and that's the manner in which the show continued. The live audience tried hard to laugh among, but considering the O2 was full it was clear for the majority of the show that they weren't overly amused, with many jokes falling on deaf ears. Maybe an should remain on the small screen.