★★★★
Like many people I’m quite sure, I raised an eyebrow – well, both if I’m being completely honest – when I heard there was to be a stage adaptation of one of Britain’s all-time greatest sitcoms, Fawlty Towers. I mean, why? Whose bright idea was it to adapt the 1970s classic comedy into a two-hour play over 45 years after its final TV outing?
Well, John Cleese as it happens. And if anybody has the right and the clout to pull it off, it’s the great JC. He has taken three of his personal favourite episodes (The Hotel Inspector, The Germans, and Communication Problems) and seamlessly woven them together to form a single narrative. Plus, there are additional gags and often-quoted lines from other episodes, but as Cleese has hinted there may be at least one sequel, he obviously held back a lot of material. After all, only 12 episodes were ever made, with a four-year gap between series, so he only has nine further episodes to pillage!
Of course, the fun is waiting for the familiar. I bet it’s a fair assumption to make that about 90% of the audience will know the dialogue virtually word for word. This didn’t make it any less funny, but there was a sense of Deja vu because you just knew what was coming up. The anticipation was palpable when Mrs Richards complained about not being able to see the sea from her room and Basil uttered the immortal put down “It’s over there, between the land and the sky”. But then, it’s probably churlish to say there is no element of surprise because of the familiarity of the dialogue. You could say that for Hamlet or Hello Dolly; if you know the material, then you know the material. It’s more about the delivery by the actors themselves.
And here we come to the cast. With a show such as this, the original TV cast is clearly embedded in everybody’s psyche. The casting director had a minefield to negotiate but Anne Vosser has done a sterling job. She hit gold with Adam Jackson-Smith as Basil. All legs and frustrated disdain, he darts about the stage (beautifully designed by Liz Ascroft) usually trying to avoid Sybil while simultaneously finding himself in one farcical situation after another. Although not strictly speaking an impersonation of Cleese, it’s pretty damn close. I mean, I think he would disappoint a lot of people (ok, everyone) if he’d decided to play Basil like John Gielgud, so you know what you’re going to get. But wow, does he deliver the goods! He’s barely off stage for the duration and doesn’t pause for breath and you really can’t take your eyes off him.
As Sybil, Anna-Jane Casey is further away from the great Prunella Scales, although she has the grating laugh and “I know……” on the phone to perfection. Unfortunately, Sybil is off stage for a great deal of Act Two having her in-growing toenail operation, but that does leave Basil alone to deal with the moose head, fire drill and Germans, not to mention Manuel. But even though she is unseen, her presence is still felt, primarily because of her constant phone calls to Basil ensuring he’s doing everything he’s supposed to be doing.
The whole cast works together like a well-oiled machine, brilliantly directed by Caroline Jay Ranger (she also directed the musical adaptation of the recent Only Fools and Horses at the Theatre Royal Haymarket). Each has their moment to shine, but a special mention to West End veteran Paul Nicholas as the Major. He floats in and out of the action with a glorious sense of bewilderment, and like Ballard Berkeley in the original episodes, it feels he’s rather underused. But when he’s there, he lights ups the stage like the star he is. Rachel Izen as the deaf Mrs Richards totally nails it, as does Steven Meo as the infuriating spoon salesman who seems to be evoking the spirit of the late great Bernard Cribbins. Hemi Yeroham as Manuel also seems rather underused surprisingly but delights the audience with his much-anticipated antics and dialogue, and the same for Victoria Fox as Polly, always the calm in the storm surrounding Basil.
So overall, an entertaining night at the theatre. Like the programme, there’s no swearing or sexual content so certainly one for those between eight and eighty. Quite how any youngsters who have never seen the TV show would take to it is another matter, however. Cleese wisely has not updated it to the present day so it’s still firmly set in the 1970s. The humour is very much of its time, even including a rather meta-Brexit reference.
But the opening night audience (which was stuffed with British comedy A-listers) LOVED it, and seeing John Cleese himself in a box laughing uproariously throughout was a treat in itself. So, if he approves of his handiwork, who am I to be picky?
Fawlty Towers The Play is at The Apollo Theatre, London, until 28 September 2024.
For more information and tickets, visit fawltytowerswestend.com
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Imagery courtesy of Hugo Glendinning.