REVIEW: Fawlty Towers
By Paul Bromley
The two burning questions as the audience gathered were: will a 50-year-old well-loved sitcom draw sufficient people to fill the Congress Theatre and can such a standout TV series make a successful transition to the stage?
The answer to the first question was an overwhelming ‘yes’ as excited groups of people filed in to all areas, including the upper levels and wings. Fawlty Towers may be familiar but it’s still a seat-filler.
The staging is just perfect with a faithful recreation of the reception desk, lobby and dining room of the Torquay hotel on one level and one of the bedrooms on the upper level. Even the iconic Fawlty Towers sign is there.
There’s further reassurance that the producers have kept true to the original with the show’s theme music at the start followed by a voiceover from John Cleese asking people to turn off their mobile phones.
Everyone can then relax into the mayhem and manic capers.
Mia Austen’s telephone manner as Sybil Fawlty has perfected her character’s braying laugh to a tee. It wasn’t an impression of Prunella Scales – it was as if it was Prunella Scales on stage. The laugh brought a round of applause on its own from an appreciative audience.
A further round of applause greeted the two dotty old ladies (Emily Winter as Miss Tibbs and Dawn Buckland as Miss Gatsby) as they came down the stairs. All they had done was appear on stage and the audience was clapping.
There was also a ripple of recognition and knowing nods when reference was made to “the Germans arriving tomorrow”!
Famously, there were only ever 12 episodes of the TV sitcom and the play, written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, weaves together three episodes (The Hotel Inspectors, Communication Problems and The Germans).
If you go expecting to see the bumbling Major (Paul Nicholas from the TV series Just Good Friends) chasing a rat with his gun, hard-of-hearing Mrs Richards (a brilliant Jemma Churchill) complaining about the lack of sea view and Basil’s “herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically” response, and Manuel’s (Hemi Yeroham) oft-repeated “que?”, then you won’t be disappointed.
In fact, Manuel’s declaration that “I know nothing” provoked the loudest and most prolonged round of applause of the whole evening.
"It’s a wonderful, warm and witty way to revel in the brilliance of British comedy"
Joanne Clifton fills Connie Booth’s shoes admirably as Polly. Her dance background and time on Strictly Come Dancing is evident in some wonderful choreography with Basil (Danny Bayne) as they bob up and down around a guest in the dining room.
Danny Bayne not only looks like John Cleese but he adds to the physical comedy with his mannerisms and suppleness. Yes, he does do the goosestepping.
The first Act sets up the characters and plot lines but the play really comes to life in the second Act. With Sybil in hospital for an ingrowing toenail yet constantly on the phone to a harassed Basil, the comedy rises to a whole new level just as Basil’s already tenuous grip on managing the hotel descends to a chaotic shambles. Fire drills, an apparently talking moose head and the arrival of the German visitors bring the laughs thick and fast.
It's a nostalgia-fest for anyone who watched the TV series – and most of the audience were of an age to have seen it first time round. It’s a wonderful, warm and witty way to revel in the brilliance of British comedy for anyone new to the characters.
And the answer to whether the transition to the stage was successful? Again, a resounding ‘yes’.
:: Fawlty Towers runs at the Congress Theatre until Saturday, 11 October. Tickets available here.
:: Paul Bromley is a qualified journalist and broadcaster who worked for 40 years for regional newspapers, the Press Association and Sky News. He now works in community rail. He is a volunteer writer with Eastbourne Reporter.
