John Cleese: Fawlty Towers play "funnier than anything else that's on" - is he right?
John Cleese has said his stage adaption of Fawlty Towers has been successful because the TV show is “funnier than anything else that’s on these days”.
Fawlty Towers: The Play will begin at the Apollo Theatre in London’s Shaftesbury Avenue on June 24, where it will remain until September 13 before heading out on a UK and Ireland tour.
Speaking about the success of the show, which began in Australia in 2016, before moving to the West End in May last year, Cleese said: “This may sound a bit smug, but I knew the script pretty well, and we’d done it in Australia a few years before Covid. I knew the script was very, very funny, but the moment which I was so thrilled about was when I was attending by Zoom the auditions, and I could not believe how good the people auditioning were.
“We had three people who could have done Basil, we had two who could do Sybil, we had about three who could do Manuel, probably four who could do Polly, we could have taken any of them and they would have been good, we had the best of the best of the best. Once I’d seen them in rehearsal for a day or two, I thought there’s no way that people aren’t going to like this.”
The play has seen Cleese select his three of his favourite episodes from the BBC Two TV series, in The Hotel Inspector and The Germans from series one and Communication Problems from series two, which have then been adapted into a two-hour play. Set in a fictional hotel in the seaside town of Torquay, only 12 episodes of the original series were ever made.
Based on a real-life hotel owner, Donald Sinclair, Cleese came up with the idea for the character Basil Fawlty when he stayed at Sinclair’s Gleneagles Hotel and said he became fascinated with his rude behaviour.
Cleese, who is also known for his performances in the Monty Python series and A Fish Called Wanda, added: “I didn’t know whether we’d be 100 per cent full or 80 per cent, but there’s no way we’re going to be 30 per cent, because this is funnier than anything else that’s on these days.
“I’ve seen one or two of the other things that are on and they’re just not very funny.”
Looking at the broader entertainment world, is Cleese correct in this?
Comedy is, of course, a subjective matter; what one person finds funny, another might find dull - or on the other end of the spectrum, could take offence. But there has been a general discourse about the decline of comedy, with stars worried about being “cancelled” for saying the wrong thing.
On TV, the world of sitcoms has certainly taken a back seat in recent years, especially after projects such as The Inbetweeeners, Modern Family and Brooklyn Nine-Nine came to an end. No show has really steppd up to fill that void on the small screen - but there is still plenty of comedic entertainment out there.
However, the idea that other things are “just not very funny” seems a bit close-minded. Amazon’s recent series of Last One Laughing had audiences in stitches, with clips from the show going viral on social media. Some of the best moments came from old-fashioned comedy too, like Bob Mortimer’s magic show that left fans with tears in their eyes.
And on-stage, just look at things like The Play That Goes Wrong, which has theatregoers roaring with laughter.
Comedy is alive and well - John Cleese perhaps just can’t see it.