Cambridge Circus (comedy)

The Cambridge Footlights Revue is an annual revue by the Footlights Club - a group of comic writer-performers at the University of Cambridge. Three of the more notable revues are detailed below.

The 1963 revue, entitled "A Clump of Plinths" (later retitled Cambridge Circus), played at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1963 before opening at West End in London on 10 July 1963. Unfortunately, the revised title sometimes confused audiences, as it was not actually playing at Cambridge Circus itself. "Cambridge Circus" then toured New Zealand in July and August 1964, where they recorded a television special and four radio shows which were eventually broadcast in November and December 1964.

Following their successful New Zealand tour, "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.

The show was written by, and starred, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, David Hatch, Bill Oddie, Chris Stuart-Clark and Jo Kendall. Also in the original cast was Tony Buffery, who later became an experimental psychologist. Jonathan Lynn also later joined the cast. As well as writing and acting in the revue, Bill Oddie also wrote the music for the revue, and an album of sketches and songs, produced by George Martin, was released by Parlophone in 1963. Graham Chapman took over from Tony Buffery when he left the revue to pursue an academic career. Likewise, Jonathan Lynn took over from Chris Stuart-Clark when Stuart-Clark left to become a schoolteacher.

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