While Phil Porter’s inoffensive stage version can’t hope to scale the film’s comic heights, it has its enjoyable moments.
Set in Rio during New Year’s Eve, criminal fugitive Holland’s (Miles Jupp) celebrations are interrupted by the arrival of Farrow (Guy Burgess) who has come from England to find him.
Mistaken for a film director, Farrow is persuaded to stay as the British expats act out the story of Holland’s criminal adventure, which included melting down the gold and smuggling it out of the UK as Eiffel Tower souvenirs.
The cast – particularly posh girls Lady Agnes (Tessa Churchard) and Audrey (Victoria Blunt) relishing their Cockney geezer roles – are extremely watchable, even when the amateur theatricals of the play-within-a-play threaten to capsize the story.
