Steve Coogan stars in the first ever adaption of Stanley Kubrick’s iconic Dr. Strangelove, as the world premiere stage production prepares for a strictly limited run at London’s Noël Coward Theatre from 8 October 2024.
This jet-black comedy masterpiece, about a rogue U.S. General who triggers a nuclear crisis, is brought to the stage by acclaimed, BAFTA and Emmy Award winner Armando Iannucci and Olivier Award winner Sean Foley, in an explosively funny satire of mutually assured destruction.
Coogan, who will play multiple roles in the production, said: “The idea of putting Dr Strangelove on stage is daunting. A huge responsibility. It’s also an exciting challenge, an opportunity to bring this timeless classic to a new audience. Knowing that I will be part of a creative team led by Sean Foley and Armando Iannucci means I will be working with the best people. Sean is a master of stage comedy and Armando and I started working with each other over 30 years ago. We made some memorable comedy together so it’s great to be collaborating with him once again.”
__Assisted Performances__
Audio Described Performance - Thursday 21st November 7.30pm
Captioned Performance - Thursday 28th November 7.30pm
BSL Signed Performance - Thurday 5th December 7.30pm
Coogan, in fact, outdoes Sellers in playing four parts to his three. That necessitates some lightning-fast quick-changes and the odd creaking plot mechanism to get Coogan offstage. But the knowingness of the latter fits the tone of Foley’s assured production, which easily flips between Airplane!-style genre-busting farce and alarmingly resonant commentary on humanity’s reckless self-destructiveness.
Yet if Foley’s production isn’t willing to recreate the film point by point (and how could it?), then what is it instead? It’s a question the show never adequately answers, trapped between the film’s formidable legacy and an inability to recreate it anew theatrically. Hildegard Bechtler’s set exemplifies the problem – there’s the odd nod to the original, notably the War Room’s circular overhead light, but it settles mainly for perfunctory designs in regulation 1960s grey: the War Room, the office, in the second act a vast bomber jet, past which fly projected imagery of the Russian tundra. A designer such as Bob Crowley might have found a way to translate Ken Adam’s original stark chiaroscuro into a fresh theatrical language; instead we get dull bright lighting that flattens everything it touches.
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