Fawlty Towers – The Play has been such a hit that the series is being extended until at least Christmas.
The show, which opened at London’s Apollo Theater last month, is already fully booked until September.
But sources say John Cleese, who is executive producer but does not appear on stage, has been persuaded by exceptionally strong demand to expand the series further, with ticket sales per performance as high as 95 percent and many shows sold out.
A source said: ‘We were surprised by how many of the audience were young people, rather than the slightly older people who remember the show being on TV. [in 1975 and 1979].
‘There’s clearly more demand than we thought, and perhaps enough to keep the show going even longer as word spreads about how good it is.
Fawlty Towers – The Play has been such a hit that the series is being extended until at least Christmas
‘There is even talk that it could be on permanent display in London, like The Lion King or Harry Potter plays.’
Cleese, who has previously spoken about his ‘tsunami of debt’ following three divorce settlements – including one that cost him $20 million – has told friends he is thrilled to be raking in big money from his comedy creation, in which he plays played fool. , moustachioed, branch-wielding hotelier Basil Fawlty.
A source said: ‘The TV show Fawlty Towers is hugely loved, but that’s not the same as it making a lot of money. You only earn so much with reps.”
The play combines the plots of three half-hour episodes of the TV show, including The Germans, with the famous line “Don’t tell the war!” – to a show of about two hours, with an intermission.
Last week, Cleese made a surprise visit to see it, and laughed uproariously.
Afterwards, he congratulated the cast and noted that Adam Jackson-Smith – who plays Basil – performed the role “better than I ever did”.
Fawlty Towers was released almost fifty years after it became one of Britain’s best-loved sitcoms.
The original series, which ran from 1975 to 1979, followed inept hotel manager Basil Fawlty, played by Cleese, as he tried to keep his hotel and marriage afloat.
Sources say John Cleese, an executive producer, has been persuaded to expand the series further by extremely strong demand.
The strikingly similar West End cast includes Adam Jackson-Smith as Basil Fawlty, Anna-Jane Casey as his wife Sybil, Hemi Yeroham as waiter Manuel and Victoria Fox as Polly, the chambermaid.
In 2019, the show was voted the best British sitcom of all time by a panel of television experts from Radio Times magazine.
The sitcom was based on real-life hotel owner Donald Sinclair, and Cleese got the idea while staying at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay.
The original episode, The Germans, was removed from some broadcast platforms for a while due to its use of racial slurs, following the Black Lives Matter protests.
However, it returned and was reinstated with a warning about “offensive content and language.”
Cleese co-wrote the original series with Connie Booth, who was his wife at the time. She also starred in Fawlty Towers as Polly.