Rowan Atkinson to bring Mr Bean, Blackadder and more to West End in new show

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.

“It is 40 years since I last did a comedy sketch show in the West End,” said Atkinson. “I thought it would be fun to perform again the sketches that began it all for myself and [writer] Richard Curtis, and in which my most well-known characters originated, alongside some surprise new material written especially for this show.” He and Curtis will be collaborating once more with Blackadder writer Ben Elton and its composer Howard Goodall.

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. “Wild?” retorts Gerald. “I was absolutely livid!”

Atkinson’s stage career has also included major West End theatre productions, with an Olivier-nominated role as Fagin in Oliver! in 2009 and his appearance as the titular tutor and bachelor in Simon Gray’s Quartermaine’s Terms in 2013. 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. “All that magic, that unique accuracy and comic genius is still there for all to see,” said Curtis. “It’s such a joy and honour for me to be part of a show that will include the very best of Rowan on stage – all his voices, shapes, faces and characters. 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.