Las Vegas clearly loves Rita Rudner. Her residency there has grossed $70 million and she sprinkled some Vegas glamour onto her first London run in two decades, sashaying on in a floor-length red frock before apologising for the delay with a topical gag: "I briefly went on strike."
From there she shifted into scripted gear and while the wisecracks were consistently smart, they never quite blew one away.
My memory of early Rudner is of a ditzy sensibility. Vegas seems to have ironed out the kinks and we got familiar takes on familiar themes, from food to shopping.
Recalling a menu at an expensive eaterie she explained that there were no prices, only pictures of horrified faces. She is such an inveterate shoe-buyer that when her credit card was stolen she let the thieves keep it - the bill was smaller.
Fans of a similar age and gender nodded in polite recognition at her menopause material and the theory that women never make obscene calls because male victims might like it. But she improved exponentially during a closing relaxed Q&A. The oddball side of Rudner returned as she remembered a pre-fame office job, "cleaning the windows on the envelopes."
Until July 8 (0844 873 3433, leicestersquaretheatre.com)
Rita Rudner
Leicester Square Theatre
Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX
