The world premiere of Jumping The Shark, a new comedy by David Cantor and Michael Kingsbury will tour from 28th January.
A celebration of the TV sitcom and its place in our hearts, inspired by some of the greatest comedy
writing legends – John Sullivan (‘Only Fools and Horses’) Tom Anderson (‘Cheers’), and Brian Cooke (‘Man About The House’, ‘Round The Horne… Revisited’).
Jumping The Shark is by a new comedy writing partnership – David Cantor (BBC hits ‘My Family’, ‘My Family’, ‘Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps’ and ‘Green Green Grass’) and Michael Kingsbury whose writing credits include ‘Seduced’ at The Finborough, ‘All Manner Of Means’ at BAC and ‘Contact.Com’ at the Park Theatre, who also directs.
Five strangers gather in the conference room of a small hotel in Farnham. Despite character differences, one thing links Pam, Gavin, Morgan, Dale, and Amy… they all want to realise their dreams through comedy. Frank Donohue, the finest sitcom writer of his generation, has flown in from Los Angeles to conduct a seminar teaching his five lucky disciples how to write the perfect TV sitcom. But as he reveals the tricks of the trade, their everyday lives are exposed, leading to mix ups, farcical revelations… and gut-wrenching tragedy.
The cast features several well-known TV favourites:
David Schaal is an American-born British actor, director, screenwriter, and comedian, best known as Taffy in the UK version of TV sitcom ‘The Office’, and Terry Cartwright in ‘The Inbetweeners’ TV series and spin-off films.
Harry Visinoni was Seb Franklin in ITV’s ‘Coronation Street’, a character who made his exit in May 2021 in a hard-hitting hate-crime storyline inspired by a real-life case. It went on to receive nominations for Best Storyline and Best Single Episode at the British Soap Awards.
Sarah Moyle is best known for playing receptionist Valerie Pitman in BBC’s ‘Doctors’, a role that won her Best Comedy Performance in 2019 at the British Soap Awards.
Jasmine Armfield played Rebecca Fowler in ‘EastEnders’ from 2014-2020. Since leaving the soap, she has appeared in BBC’s ‘Doctors’, ‘Casualty’, and the feature film, ‘The Loneliest Boy In The World’. Jumping The Shark marks her stage debut.
Robin Sebastian has played comedy legend Kenneth Williams multiple times on TV and on stage, including ‘Babs: The True Story of a British Icon‘ (BBC1), ‘Lost Sitcoms – Hancock’s Half Hour’ (BBC Four), ‘Horne A’Plenty’, ‘Round the Horne… Revisited’ (West End and UK tour), ‘Round the Horne – Unseen and Uncut’ (UK tour) and ‘Stop Messing About’ (West End and UK tour). His other credits include Cardinal Richelieu in ‘The Three Musketeers’ at Bristol Old Vic, Robin Craigie in a number one tour of Noël Coward’s ‘Volcano’ and Carmen Ghia in the national tour of ‘The Producers’.
Jack Trueman was Nick in ‘Fever Pitch’ at The Hope Theatre, Islington, and made his screen debut as Tom in ‘Shark Bait’.
Michael Kingsbury’s directing work includes the West End and touring hit ‘Round The Horne…Revisited’, ‘Ying Tong’ at the Ambassadors and ‘In Lambeth’ at Southwark Playhouse.
Jumping the Shark is the moment when an established and long-running TV series changes, from a relatively small change, like the introduction of a new gimmick, to a radical one, like a genre shift. The show feels the need to update in order to hold the fanbase. But it usually has the opposite effect – viewers realise that the show has finally run out of ideas. It’s reached its peak; it’ll never be as good again; it has nowhere to go but down. In other words, it’s Ruined FOREVER.
The expression was born after a defining episode of ‘Happy Days; in which Fonzie, dressed in his trademark leather jacket, jumped a real shark on water skis.
Jumping the Shark opens in Bury St Edmunds (28 January to 4 February) before heading to Southend (7 to 11 February), Portsmouth (15 to 18 February), Dartford (21 to 25 February), Crewe (2 to 4 March), Edinburgh (7 to 18 March), Tunbridge Wells (23 to 25 March) and Basingstoke (28 March to 1 April).
