Frank and Colin certainly went out with style and grace. The Regent would have to be the most glamorous, gilt laden theatre in Melbourne and on their final night the theatre was further laden with an abundance of the golden stars of Melbourne’s comedy canon. This was a special night indeed. The very final time that Frank Woodley and Colin Lane would perform as acclaimed comedy duo Lano & Woodley.
When I first reviewed Lano & Woodley’s ‘Goodbye’ in April earlier this year it was their opening night. It was a great night, but I felt a little let down. Though it was packed with memories and great love from the huge audience, there was the knowledge that this was not REALLY Goodbye but the beginning of the Long Goodbye, a gruelling tour around Australia of their new show. At the time there were a couple of rough patches and their concentration was on getting their new show together, rather than the emotional impact of doing it all for the last time. For me there were also a few favourite bits that seemed like glaring omissions to a final performance, the song Punt Rd (though I guessed this might not go as well in other cities), their boppy TV theme song (also missing from their CD ‘Sing Songs’) and the amazing, hilarious sleeping bag dance which they had performed for the Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala this year as a special request (I wondered if they had ruled it out because it may have exhausted them to do it every night of their long tour).
Saturday November 11th was the real Goodbye that I will always remember; the final big shebang that fulfilled all my hopes and surpassed them too. A large part of what I saw back in April was still present, but this was a completely different show, including their costumes, now not in the flashy gorgeous suits of opening night, but back in their op-shop gear of old, something that I didn’t really notice until the end. The structure had changed, to allow for all the additions previously mentioned, lots of new banter, genuine emotion and Colin did some of his interpretive dance. Towards the end, they asked everyone with mobile phones to turn them on and hold them up like little lit torches and had a photo of themselves taken on stage with the phone lights glowing behind them.
Just when you thought it was finally all completely over – the characters of Lano & Woodley had walked off into the screen sunset, encores were completed, speeches had been made, flowers presented, the stage empty, the audience on feet, tinsel flying from the ceiling – the stage manager brought out a chair and coat stand. Lano & Woodley unassumingly came out onto the side of the stage (which was when I suddenly realised that they were wearing their old suits). They shed their jackets, Colin placed his on the back of the chair and Frank hung his on the coat stand, Frank turned to leave and Colin tapped him on the shoulder, he turned back and they looked at each other. Frank took off the hat, – the hat that had turned Frank Wood into Frank Woodley – and gently placed it on the stand. I started crying and they left the stage.
Magic.
To own a record of history, the DVD “Lano and Woodley – Goodbye – Collectors Edition”. Filmed during May of this year at Her Majestys’s Theatre, it is available at most DVD retailers.