Back to the future

When Robert Newman appeared with David Baddiel at Wembley Arena at the height of the comedy-asrockand-roll hysteria in 1993, one sketch was the academic spoof entitled History Today. Yesteryear now has a starring role in his intellectually ambitious yet accessible No Planet B: The History of the World Backwards.

As in Martin Amis's Time's Arrow, Newman creates a universe turned upside down. This is a great premise for satire.

Nelson Mandela enters prison a Spice Girls fan and comes out a terrorist, Columbus is the last white man to leave America. There is a further serious subtext. Newman is obsessed by capitalism's oil fixation and the narrative leads inexorably to the pre-petrol age.

Other highlights include a fine-tuned Paul McCartney impression and some relentlessly lo-fi music, with our frock-coated guide strumming a mean ukulele.

This is clearly not your conventional stand-up gig. But, compared to Newman's previous post-Baddiel political shows, there is no hint of a niggle that this is more lecture than light entertainment. No, Planet B is never as earnest as it sounds - there is even a pithy Elephant Man gag that Jim Davidson might envy.

Until 15 July.

Information: 020 7328 1000.

Robert Newman: No Planet B - The History Of The World Backwards