The bomb? Not so much

Dr Strangelove is a damp squib but there's much else to enjoy this week in London

Steve Coogan as President Muffley with Giles Terera as General Turgidson and the company of Dr Strangelove at the Noel Coward. Photo: Manuel Harlan

I’ve been looking forward to Dr Strangelove, at the Noël Coward Theatre until January 25, for ages. I have a sort of professional crush on Steve Coogan, in the sense that I think he’s an incredible writer and actor, which is dead sexy, but I have a strong suspicion that he’s a hero it’s best not to meet. I’m even less keen to do so now that I’ve seen the show, which is one of the biggest disappointments of the year.

What’s the point, I wonder? What did they want to achieve? I get that Coogan and co-adaptors Armando Iannucci and Sean Foley (the latter directing) probably love the film, and their combined celebrity was no doubt instrumental in getting the thing off the ground. 

But if you’re going to adapt a stratospherically famous film comedy that has one very particular, highly celebrated gimmick - that its star, Peter Sellars (exactly the kind of person I can imagine these guys worshipping), plays three different roles - then you’d better a) get that absolutely right and b) be adding something by making it into a piece of live theatre. 

My new podcast with two blokes called Nick, The London Theatre Review is now live. Reviews, interviews and a bit of theatre chat (but not too much because let’s face it, what you really want to know is whether or not you should see it) can be delivered directly to you every week, wherever you get your podcasts. Just search The London Theatre Review.

Unfortunately, this slightly shambolic production feels like it only exists to give Coogan the opportunity for endless quick changes that aren’t as swifty or as nifty as they should be.