Don’t be surprised if, every now and then, you hear members of the audience muttering a line ahead of the actors. Half a century after the first episode aired, John Cleese and Connie Booth’s sitcom, a true work of genius, has become part of our mental furniture.
Is a stage version doomed to be redundant? As a fan who has watched just about every episode a dozen times since 1975, I had my misgivings when this West End run was announced. But even though Cleese’s adaptation — first seen in Australia in 2016 — can’t quite recreate the original chemistry without the man himself and Prunella Scales behind the reception desk, I’m pleased to report that this genial condensing of three episodes delivers a hugely
