Liza Pulman and Joe Stilgoe were doing very nicely, thank you, as independent performers, before joining forces for the production A Couple Of Swells, which closed after a successful tour at the end of 2024. Neither had anything left to prove, and both had demonstrated their versatility, having performed with equal success both as solo performers and in partnership with others. Indeed, Liza is still active as one third of Fascinating Aida, and I have personally seen her as both team player in FA and also in her one-woman show Liza Pulman Sings Streisand as well as in A Couple Of Swells.
Now they have teamed up on a second major production, which is touring even as I write, and on Monday, they brought the new venture, Hooray For Hollywood, into the Duchess Theatre, where I was just one of the happy bunnies basking in the top-drawer entertainment on offer. This is, by far, the best show I’ve seen this year. They began with several minutes of “special” material which more or less encapsulates what the next hour or so would bring, and contrived to namecheck both studios and stars who worked there. I would very much have liked a nod to the writer(s) who contributed this, but alas, they made no mention of authorship, and so accomplished are they that it’s more than possible they wrote it themselves.
It’s amazing, the changes they can ring with just a piano and a female voice. In fact, when one thinks of Mabel Mercer, who employed the same format but remained stock still for the entire evening, it’s seriously amazing – individual solos, duets, patter and a spot where Liza leaves the stage and Joe contrives to merge several themes and quotations from film scores into one extended mélange of showmanship. Alas, there was at least one member of the audience who remembered Victor Borge doing much the same thing, and even further back in the day, Max Bygraves and The Cowboy Cantata, but then, like the good book has it, there’s nothing new under the sun. Highlights in my case included Liza’s ballad reading of Wouldn’t It Be Luverly, the duetting on If I Only Had A Brain, and the Astaire medley.
My editor will tell you that it wouldn’t be me without the odd caveat, and though this will not break the pattern, the flaw on this occasion was neither in the performances or the material, both of which were peerless; it’s more a case of falling foul of The Trade Descriptions Act: Hooray For Hollywood implies an evening of songs composed for original musical films, but given that the playlist is culled from the film adaptations of no less than seven stage musicals, it could just as easily have entitled The Sound Of Broadway. It’s not as if there are no original Hollywood musicals from which to select, yet movies such as Gigi, Calamity Jane, A Star Is Born, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers and Holiday Inn were never mentioned. Ironically, at one point Liza referred to Rodgers and Hammerstein as “Titans of Hollywood Musicals”, yet the sole original Hollywood musical they did write, State Fair, was ignored. It’s as if patrons shelled out to see a film entitled From Russia With Love, only to find that half of it was set in Mexico.
But let me end on a positive note. Despite the above, I thoroughly enjoyed the show and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone in search of pure, industrial-strength entertainment. All I would ask is that should they join forces for a third time, which I sincerely hope they will, they deliver what it says on the tin.
Liza Pulman & Joe Stilgoe: Hooray For Hollywood. 13 April 2026, Duchess Theatre, 3-5 Catherine St, London WCB2 5LA
