Theatre News

Yes, Prime Minister confirms summer Trafalgar residency

| London's West End |

15 May 2012

As previously tipped by Whatsonstage.com, Yes, Prime Minister, the stage adaptation of the much-loved TV series, will transfer to Trafalgar Studios 1 in June.

Adapted by the creators Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, the Chichester Festival Theatre production brings the classic BBC sitcom into the modern era and onto stage for the first time.

The show premiered in Chichester in summer 2010, transferring to the West End’s Gielgud Theatre in September that year. After a national tour it subsequently returned to the West End’s Apollo before moving back to the Gielgud in September 2011.

The Trafalgar Studios run, which follows the recent national tour, opens on 6 June.

According to press material, “Comedy double act David Cameron and Nick Clegg are reportedly furious that a competing political comedy Yes, Prime Minister has moved in to the Trafalgar Studios theatre on Whitehall – less than 400 yards from their own venue on Downing Street.”

Yes, Prime Minister is produced by Mark Goucher (The Vagina Monologues, The Complete Works of Shakespeare), Wimpole Theatre (Whipping It Up, A Christmas Carol) and Matthew Byam Shaw (Frost Nixon, Flare Path, Boeing, Boeing) for Playful Productions.

The recent tour starred Graham Seed as hapless Prime Minister Jack Hacker and Michael Simkins as civil servant Sir Humphrey – the roles immortalised on screen by Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne. David Haig and Henry Goodman originated the roles on stage.