Cambridge Circus (comedy)
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Cambridge Circus is a comedy revue that played in London in 1963. Unfortunately the title sometimes confused audiences, as it was not actually playing at Cambridge Circus itself. (The original name of the revue was A Clump of Plinths.)
Originally a Cambridge Footlights production, the show starred John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor, David Hatch, Chris Stuart-Clark and Jo Kendall. Jonathan Lynn later joined the cast when Chris Stuart-Clark left comedy to become a schoolteacher. The revue played at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1963 before opening at West End in London on 10 July 1963. It then bizarrely toured New Zealand, where they recorded a television special and four radio shows [1] which were broadcast in November and December 1963.
A radio version of the revue was broadcast by the BBC on 30 December 1963. Originally intended as a one-off special, this went on to become a successful and long-running radio series called I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, which premiered in April 1964.
Cambridge Circus transferred to Broadway in September 1964 and finally Off-Broadway. The revue was broadcast on television in the United States when the cast made an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show during October 1964, featuring some of the sketches.[2] [3]
[edit] References
- ^ Laughter Log — New Zealand
- ^ From Fringe to Flying Circus — 'Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960-1980' — Roger Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980.
- ^ Footlights! — 'A Hundred Years of Cambridge Comedy' — Robert Hewison, Methuen London Ltd, 1983.
[edit] External links
- "A Clump of Plinths" - (later renamed "Cambridge Circus")
