FAWLTY TOWERS THE PLAY • LONDON
★★★★★☆
Photo: Hugo Glendinning
FAWLTY TOWERS REVIEW: HILARIOUS REUNION
Fawlty Towers is considered one of the best sitcoms of all time, and that’s saying a lot in the UK, where this particular brand of wacky but clever TV comedy has been celebrating triumphs for a lifetime: Monty Phyton, Blackadder, Yes, Minister, Keeping Up Appearances, ‘Allo ’Allo, you name it.
Fawlty Towers is based on a real person that John Cleese met at the Gleneagles hotel in Torquay, where he was filming with the Monty Phyton team. As he says: The hotel owner Donald Sinclair is quite simply the most rude person I have ever met in my life.
At one point he threw Phyton mate Eric Idle’s suitcase out of the window on the grounds that there might be a bomb in it. When asked why someone would want to bomb the hotel, Sinclair replied bluntly: ‘We’ve had some staffing problems lately.
Thus, was born the idea for the series, which Cleese co-wrote with Connie Booth, who incidentally plays the maid Molly in the TV version, and whom he both married and divorced.
12 fantastic 30-minute episodes spread over just two seasons is what Fawlty Towers did when it hit TV screens throughout the 80s, led by the corny intro jingle from the show’s iconic string quartet. Can you hear it in your head?
Recently, John Cleese reportedly floated the idea of producing a series of new TV episodes but was met with such strong protests from hardcore Fawlty Towers fans that the idea was dropped, leaving this sparkling comedy jewel untouched and undiluted in its original essence.
Photo: Hugo Glendinning
Instead, Cleese has rewritten three of his favourite episodes into a play that is playing to packed houses in London’s West End. They are The Hotel Inspector, Communication Problems (the one where Fawlty wins on a racehorse and Manuel makes everything go wrong) and, of course, The Germans.
Photo: Hugo Glendinning
The cast is an astonishingly accurate portrayal of the original characters that doesn’t disappoint for a single second. Adam Jackson-Smith is dazzling as Basil, Anna-Jane Casey is a magnificent, sharp and snide Sybil, while Hemi Yeroham is a dazzling Manuel clone. Add in the Major, the older chatty ladies and a host of other familiar faces and you’ve got a party.
Photo: Hugo Glendinning
Fawlty fans will recognize most of the lines, which fly across the stage with an enchanting timing that almost only the Brits can deliver.
Like when the half-deaf Mrs. Richards complains about the view from her room and Fawlty shamelessly replies. It’s Torquay! What did you expect? Sidney Opera House? The Hanging Gardens of bloody Babylon? Flocks of antelopes dancing in the sunset? I was laughing my arse off.
Everything is as it should be, including the machine gun volley of unfairness fired at the hapless German guests. You started it! You invaded Poland!
Photo: Hugo Glendinning
Also hilarious is the scene where a moose head is lying in the reception area and the astonished, senile Major comes by while Manuel practises his English, hidden behind the counter. Hello? I speak English. Yeees. I speak English… A packed house at the Apollo Theatre near Piccadilly cracks up laughing in this scene, which is of course completely childish, but also a bit loving, and above all just hilarious because the timing is spot on and the acting is so good. It’s marvellous!
Fawlty Towers – The Play is a marvelous reunion with everything you already know. No way around five stars from Got to see this. Playing until 1 March 2025.
PS. Cleese does not rule out a sequel, as there has not been room in this compact production for all the TV series’ gems.
For example, the marvelous episode with the dead man in the room who may have eaten some date-critical kippers that Fawlty served for breakfast. Now how do you get rid of the body?
For a good laugh, check out The Play That Goes Wrong, a delightful British comedy in the same vein that will leave your diaphragm aching with laughter for days afterwards. Now in its 10th year at the Duchess Theatre as West End’s longest running comedy.
