Lovers of dry British humour were sent into a feral frenzy this weekend when Ricky Gervais announced that he'd be bringing the music of The Office's David Brent to the live stage with two intimate shows at London's Bloomsbury Theatre.

But will it work? Does musical comedy ever work? And, more importantly, can Gervais translate the tension of The Office into a worthwhile live experience?

Well, yeah - he probably can. But that doesn't alter the fact that television eats comedy. As audiences grow to memorise entire scripts and jokes, it naturally kills the freeform, spontaneous feel that live comedy and stand-up once had - plus, the digital era has only made matters worse, especially for musical comedy. Obviously, the humour is always going to take priority over the quality of the song, and how can it still raise a chuckle after years of rinsing it to death on DVD box sets and Youtube?

Take Flight Of The Conchords, for instance. The best of their dalliances with music is almost certainly 'Jenny' - largely because it still seems fresh and not entirely consumed by the TV series and constant Googling. That said, the highlights of their last live tour were the unheard material and dry between-song banter - again, because it offered something new. 

Then there's Brent himself. While Gervais has perfected the art of Stewart Lee's forensic attention to detail to a mainstream Hollywood level (shattering a subject before painstakingly holding the shards up to the light and studying them like a grinning maniac) the beauty of Brent lies in his inadequacy. 

This could go one of two ways: Brent's disastrous lack of self-awareness could fall totally flat, or it could lift that inimitable skin-crawling sensation to a whole new level entirely. Both outcomes would probably prove triumphant, to be fair. Most musical comedy inadvertantly makes one cringe, but that's entirely the point here. When Brent takes to the stage, expect to cringe yourself inside out. 

Then of course, there's the fear of tickets being snapped up by beered-up tossers who just came to shout 'do the dance!'. But they can sod off. It's fair to say that what we're expecting here isn't a cabaret pastiche of 'The Best Of The Office' - there's some rubbish Channel 4 talking heads programme for that (filed next to 'Del Boy falling through the bar'). What we're expecting here is a new David Brent, free of The Office, taking on his lifelong dream and failing - with utter success. 

The songs you've heard a million times will be delivered and delivered well - but they'll be taking a backseat to the presence of Brent's smug but naiive arrogance. It's worth the hype for that and that alone, not hearing 'Free Love Freeway' for the umpeenth time. 

David Brent and Foregone Conclusion present A Work In Progress be at Bloomsbury Theatre in London on Monday 14th October and Wednesday 23rd October 2013. Tickets go on sale at 10am on Tuesday 1st October. 

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