John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers – The Play today announces that it will return to the West End’s Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue for a strictly limited three-month season this summer, from 24 June – 13 September 2025, before embarking on a UK and Ireland tour until 2026.
Following a short break from its current critically acclaimed 11 month run (until 1 March 2025) at the Apollo Theatre, the production triumphantly returns to the West End due to phenomenal demand for tickets.
Tickets for the new dates will be on sale on Friday 17 January at 10.00am from FawltyTowersWestend.com and there are limited seats available for the remainder of the current residency. The UK tour will see the production play at major theatres nationwide from 30 September 2025 – 25 July 2026.
Reacting to news of the show’s West End return, John Cleese said: “I’m delighted to announce the news that the Fawlty Towers stage show will be returning to the Apollo Theatre this June. It’s heart-warming that West End audiences still think Fawlty is as funny as ever. September this year will mark exactly 50 years since the first ever episode was broadcast on the BBC but here we are, all these years later, still making theatres rock with laughter.”
Directed by Caroline Jay Ranger, this “as good as comedy gets” production (Sunday Times) originally opened in May 2024 to rave reviews. The play features many of the beloved characters from the original TV sitcom including the welcome reunion of Basil, Sybil, Manuel, Polly and The Major during an unmissable evening of “Fawltless” (Mail on Sunday) comedy. Full casting will be announced soon.
Comedy legend John Cleese, who originally co-wrote the “greatest British sitcom of all time” (Radio Times) with Connie Booth, has chosen three of his favourite original TV episodes – ‘The Hotel Inspector’ and ‘The Germans’ from series one and ‘Communication Problems’ from series two – and adapted them into a two-hour play for the West End stage.
Following a tip off that hotel inspectors may be visiting and eager to impress, Basil attempts to ingratiate himself with guests that he suspects are there to critique the establishment. The situation is further plagued by a party of Germans, the deaf and dotty guest-from-hell, Mrs Richards, whose infuriating complaints prevent him from hiding a gambling win from his ever vigilant and bossy wife, Sybil. Together they run their hotel with a little help from the unflappable Polly, and very little help at all from Manuel, the trainee waiter from Barcelona who is the butt of Fawlty’s frustration.
Fawlty Towers was first broadcast on BBC Two on 19 September 1975. The iconic TV show went on to win many awards and plaudits including two BAFTAS for Best Situation Comedy and in 2000 it was voted the best British programme of all time in a British Film Institute poll. Set in a fictional hotel in the seaside town of Torquay, just 12 half hour episodes of the iconic comedy were made.
Based on a real-life hotel owner, Donald Sinclair. John Cleese came up with the idea for the character Basil Fawlty when he stayed at Sinclair’s Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay and became fascinated with his incredibly rude behaviour.
