Leeds Grand Theatre – until Saturday 10 January 2026
Reviewed by Adam Craddock
5*****
Tonight I had the pleasure to be invited along to my first review of the year, Fawlty Towers: The Play at Leeds Grand Theatre. John Cleese is one of my absolute favourite performers of all time and, whilst I am more expert on Month Python, I have a great fondness for Fawlty Towers. After reading the program and the director’s notes I was pleasantly surprised by the premise of the play. Rather than taking an easy route and just doing a compilation of the greatest hits, Cleese has sat down with the 10 episodes and picked 3 of his personal favourites, adapting them as if they were all happening simultaneously over one weekend.
Danny Bayne starred as the iconic Basil Fawlty. As well as having more than a passing resemblance to a younger Cleese, Bayne has the brilliant energy and physicality needed to pull off this iconic character. Whether it be his goose stepping or his charades game for dragonfly, Bayne really does embody this character and delivers on the most dangerous risk of this show, someone else playing Basil! Mia Austen was great as Sybil Fawlty, with a cracking laugh and again, a very respectful nod to the source material. Whilst not having much to do in Act 2, she still was extremely strong when required. Joanne Clifton was brilliant as Polly Sherman, with her apparent mastery of the Spanish language being mightily impressive and some brilliant delivery to her dialogue.
Greg Haiste was fabulous as Mr Hutchinson, the highly irritating spoon seller. His pompous manner was excellent and delivered exactly on this part what was needed. Adam Elliott was fair as Mr Walt, again he really gave a brilliant physical performance, in particular during the chaotic dinner scene. Jemma Churchill was brilliantly awful as Mrs Richards, the deaf and pompous visitor who finds fault in everything. Neil Stewart was hilarious as “The Major”, another slightly senile older character who distrusts all Germans and pursues a rat with his Lee Enfield, what’s not to love! The absolute highlight of the show for myself and my partner however was Hemi Yeroham as Manuel, the constantly put down but ever cheerful waiter from Barcelona. Yeroham was absolutely fantastic and had my partner bent over in stitches with his frenetic physical comedy and flawless delivery of the dialogue. This for me was quintessentially perfect casting! Bravo!
The set was absolutely fabulous, split over two floors and showing off various rooms weighing the hotel. Most of our action takes place in the reception as you would expect, but the whole set was used very effectively. The sound and lighting were both fine to me, no real noteworthy events either way. The costume and hair/makeup teams need to be congratulated for their efforts too, there for me is no chance this happens to be this close to the original without them!
Overall, I would highly recommend you check yourself in to a trip to Leeds Grand to pick this fabulous show up while it is in town. For nostalgic laughter then this is definitely the show for you.