By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK: *****

WHEN?: Saturday 12 October, running through 25 January 2025 RUNTIME: 135 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

‘A-ha!’ Steve Coogan’s beloved creation Alan Partridge may not be in this hilarious tweaked version of the classic 1964 political satire but the spirit of his character’s comedy genius is quite literally everywhere.

• Read on for reasons including how this is the West End’s funniest comedy

Like the late Peter Sellers in the Stanley Kubrick original, Coogan plays multiple roles including RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake who is trying to persuade John Hopkins’ Trumpian take on General Jack D. Ripper that he should recall the planes he has sent to Russia to drop nuclear bombs in a ‘pretaliation’ strike.

In the War Room at the Pentagon Giles Terera’s (Passing Strange, Young Vic) disbelieving General Buck Turgidson is briefing Coogan’s sceptical President Merkin Muffley who can’t quite believe that this obscure ‘Plan R’ can have been enacted without his knowledge as they try to reverse it.

Tony Jayawardena’s (Nye, National Theatre) brilliant Russian ambassador Bakov is summoned to the War Room to help the President and his assembled advisors and generals to field increasingly irate calls from Muffley’s Russian counterpart as the world teeters ever closer to nuclear conflict.

Throw in Coogan as the hilarious wheelchair-bound and titular Dr Strangelove who is struggling to control a mechanical arm that keeps trying to complete a full Nazi salute against his wishes and it’s not difficult to see how the source material also known as How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb is considered to be 1 of the best comedies ever made.

We see co-writer Armando Iannucci (Pandemonium, Soho Theatre) in this theatre’s entrance at the show’s close and feel like congratulating him because it is a triumphant take on celebrated source material at a time when in the last 60 years the world has never felt closer to full-on war.

It’s a rare theatrical performance by Coogan, the recipient of 4 BAFTAs and 2 Oscar nominations, but he’s utterly electric and we can see from our 6th row seats that occasionally sometimes even his fellow cast members can’t help themselves but dissolve into fits of laughter at the hilarious genius of what they are witnessing first hand.

We don’t believe there was a standing ovation at this preview matinee but that is not to say that this production was undeserving of 1 but sometimes theatre is so absorbing that an audience needs a moment to compose itself and reflect fully on the strength of what it has just witnessed.

Coogan is 1 of the best things about the recent controversial film Joker: Folie a Deux but he’s on much safer, if inflammatory, ground here.

Fans of the Kubrick film will be amused by the occasional tweaks including, we think, references to Stoke and ‘Lie-cester’ as possible destinations for a nuclear bomb and the surprise appearance of Penny Ashmore as Vera Lynn singing We’ll Meet Again towards the show’s close just when you think things couldn’t become crazier.

We thought Matthew Warchus’ not-for-everyone recent take on Juno And The Paycock was the West End’s current funniest comedy but Coogan’s energetic and sidesplitting brilliance just changed our mind. Dr Strangelove? Not strange at all – and we loved it to bits.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy DMT Tickets
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