The Footlights began their history as a club by playing the local lunatic asylum at cricket in 1883. Since then the club has become world renouned for launching the careers of many household names in drama and comedy. Until 1964 the Footlights had been entirely based in Cambridge putting on a annual pantomime and a number of smokers and club shows.
Read more about The Footlights on the main Footlights website.
the show
After Beyond the Fringe the Footlights moved away from cheap and easy audiences in Cambridge. By 1964 Footlights performed its Mayweek revue not just at the Arts in Cambridge but also at the Edinburgh Fringe. The Footlights became troubled in the 1970s due in part to unfavourable comparisons with the now famous past members, but experienced a rebirth in the early 1980s with the likes of Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Slattery, Paul Shearer and Emma Thompson
press
The years since have seen huge changes in British comedy. The mid-eighties saw the Club once more help up against its famous ex-members: still the cry went up yearly "not as good as Stephen Fry/last year". Against the mid-eighties boom in live comedy and stand-up, Footlights was once again facing a slump period. No longer one of the only touring comedy groups - now there were touring stand-ups with greater media profiles and far trendier images - Footlights suffered in comparison, and audiences declined.
venues
The 1990s saw a fresh approach: people coming into the Club had witnessed and been influenced by the comedy explosion and wanted to contribute. The reviews and audiences for the tour shows in the last nineties applauded the club for managing to keep pace with the changes and developments in British comedy, and with a nomination for Best Newcomer at the 2001 Perrier Awards, Footlights has demonstrated that there is still a place for it in the British comedy scene.
reviews