Rowan Atkinson will return to the stage next year to play Blackadder, Mr Bean and other comic characters from across his career in a West End show, Rowan Live. The production, which will have a short run of 30 performances, is to feature new routines as well as his famous sketches from TV shows including Not the Nine O\u2019Clock News.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is 40 years since I last did a comedy sketch show in the West End,\u201d said Atkinson. \u201cI thought it would be fun to perform again the sketches that began it all for myself and [writer] Richard Curtis<\/a>, and in which my most well-known characters originated, alongside some surprise new material written especially for this show.\u201d He and Curtis will be collaborating once more with Blackadder writer Ben Elton and its composer Howard Goodall.<\/p>\n Atkinson created comedy stage shows with Curtis and Goodall when they were at Oxford University before his phenomenal success on BBC TV in the 1980s with the satirical series Not the Nine O\u2019Clock News and in the various guises of the scheming Edmund Blackadder in the era-hopping historical comedy. He had a one-man show in the West End<\/a> in 1981, at the age of 26, and another one five years later, which led the Guardian\u2019s Michael Billington to report: \u201cHe can look like a damaged cherub, an establishment smoothy, a country vicar, but underneath you glimpse devilry, anarchy and rage.\u201d<\/p>\n Rowan Atkinson in Quartermaine\u2019s Terms in 2013. Photograph: Tristram Kenton\/the Guardian<\/p>\n Mr Bean, an occasionally ingenious and mostly speechless ignoramus, brought him further success on TV and film in the 90s, proving Atkinson\u2019s gift at physical comedy and even inspiring an animated version. Atkinson perfected the character of Mr Bean on stage in the 1980s before it reached the screen and he incorporated the character in a live comedy tour as well as reprising it for the 2012 London Olympic Games opening ceremony.<\/p>\n Also in 2012, Atkinson performed at the Royal Albert Hall in a Prince\u2019s Trust gala event, We Are Most Amused<\/a>, that unveiled a new Blackadder sketch centred around the financial crisis. This time, Blackadder was the chief executive of a bank, with his series\u2019 co-star Tony Robinson downtrodden as ever as Baldrick, appearing as Blackadder\u2019s gardener. At that event, Atkinson also revived his routine as a priest who recounts how Jesus\u2019s miracles lead him into a career as a magician. His priest\u2019s vestments can be seen in a promotional image for Rowan Live, in a dressing-up box that also includes the mask of a gorilla. Fans of Not the Nine O\u2019Clock News will recognise that as a nod to the sketch in which Atkinson, as Gerald the gorilla, argues with a professor played by Mel Smith, who says the animal was \u201ccompletely wild\u201d when he captured him for an educational experiment. \u201cWild?\u201d retorts Gerald. \u201cI was absolutely livid!\u201d<\/p>\n The show will also feature sketches from Not the Nine O\u2019Clock News<\/p>\n Atkinson\u2019s stage career has also included major West End theatre productions, with an Olivier-nominated role as Fagin in Oliver!<\/a> in 2009 and his appearance as the titular tutor and bachelor in Simon Gray\u2019s Quartermaine\u2019s Terms<\/a> in 2013. Curtis said that it has been 50 years since he first saw Atkinson perform on stage: \u201cIt was instantly clear to all of us that we were watching a unique, once in a lifetime talent.\u201d Over summer, they began to assemble the new show in front of a small audience. \u201cAll that magic, that unique accuracy and comic genius is still there for all to see,\u201d said Curtis. \u201cIt\u2019s such a joy and honour for me to be part of a show that will include the very best of Rowan on stage \u2013 all his voices, shapes, faces and characters. I hope it will make people very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n The show continues a recent theatrical trend for TV nostalgia, after stage versions of Fawlty Towers<\/a>, The Good Life<\/a>, Some Mothers Do \u2019Ave \u2019Em<\/a> and Only Fools and Horses<\/a>.<\/p>\n