LENNY: Starring Eddie Izzard as Lenny Bruce

'LENNY' opened at the Queens Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London on 27th July 1999 and ran until 16th October 1999.

The play followed the life of 1960's American comedian Lenny Bruce (born Leonard Schneider) through his turbulent career.

Bruce was renowned for striving to break down the barriers and prejudice of language by using words that were (and still are) generally taboo such as 'nigger' and 'cocksucker'. His theory was that by using these words more, their perceived meanings would become less extreme. After all, they are only taboo because you put the meaning to them.

Bruce found himself constantly up against the law for his thoughts, and eventually died from a morphine overdose on August 3rd, 1966, aged 41.

Eddie Izzard delivered a superb performance, as did the rest of the cast. In particular the section of Lenny Bruce's stand-up routine at the end of the first half had me in stitches - my jaw ached from lauging. Eddie was the perfect choice to play Lenny - he was able to bring to life Lenny's routines with real enthusiasm, and there was a lot of himself in there too. Nobody else could have done it that well.

I did find the second half a bit slow, but the interludes of stand-up more than made up for it. Lenny Bruce was such a revolutionary character, and nobody could see what he was trying to do at the time. A tragic story, made into a great play.

And yes, you did see Eddie completely naked. More than once.

< Text on programme reads:

Eddie Izzard has been in a 
number of things and some 
of them have gone quite well
(but not all of them)