Rowan Atkinson will return to the stage next year to play Blackadder, Mr Bean and other comic characters from across his career in a West End show, Rowan Live. The production, which will have a short run of 30 performances, is to feature new routines as well as his famous sketches from TV shows including Not the Nine O’Clock News. Atkinson created comedy stage shows with Curtis and Goodall when they were at Oxford University before his phenomenal success on BBC TV in the 1980s with the satirical series Not the Nine O’Clock News and in the various guises of the scheming Edmund Blackadder in the era-hopping historical comedy.
He had a one-man show in the West End in 1981, at the age of 26, and another one five years later, which led the Guardian’s Michael Billington to report: “He can look like a damaged cherub, an establishment smoothy, a country vicar, but underneath you glimpse devilry, anarchy and rage.” Mr Bean, an occasionally ingenious and mostly speechless ignoramus, brought him further success on TV and film in the 90s, proving Atkinson’s gift at physical comedy and even inspiring an animated version. Atkinson perfected the character of Mr Bean on stage in the 1980s before it reached the screen and he incorporated the character in a live comedy tour as well as reprising it for the 2012 London Olympic Games opening ceremony. Also in 2012, Atkinson performed at the Royal Albert Hall in a Prince’s Trust gala event, We Are Most Amused, that unveiled a new Blackadder sketch centred around the financial crisis.
This time, Blackadder was the chief executive of a bank, with his series’ co-star Tony Robinson downtrodden as ever as Baldrick, appearing as Blackadder’s gardener. At that event, Atkinson also revived his routine as a priest who recounts how Jesus’s miracles lead him into a career as a magician. His priest’s vestments can be seen in a promotional image for Rowan Live, in a dressing-up box that also includes the mask of a gorilla.
Fans of Not the Nine O’Clock News will recognise that as a nod to the sketch in which Atkinson, as Gerald the gorilla, argues with a professor played by Mel Smith, who says the animal was “completely wild” when he captured him for an educational experiment. Curtis said that it has been 50 years since he first saw Atkinson perform on stage: “It was instantly clear to all of us that we were watching a unique, once in a lifetime talent.” Over summer, they began to assemble the new show in front of a small audience. I hope it will make people very happy.” The show continues a recent theatrical trend for TV nostalgia, after stage versions of Fawlty Towers, The Good Life, Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em and Only Fools and Horses.
Rowan Live will be directed by Raz Shaw and runs at the Gillian Lynne theatre from 8 February to 13 March. That theatre is currently home to My Neighbour Totoro, which ends on 3 January.
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