Dr Strangelove

Noel Coward Theatre | ★★★✩✩

The time is right for a comedy about war. With the stuff breaking out, or threatening to, across the world like acne, Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 satirical film starring Peter Sellers arrived when the world was living with the anxiety of a Russian v America nuclear armageddon.

Steve Coogan is one of the few comedy acting talents capable of stepping into Sellers’ shoes, and also the footwear of Strangelove, hapless RAF officer Captain Mandrake, ineffective U.S. President Muffley and the role that not even Sellers took on, Major T.J. Kong, the US air force cowboy pilot who, in one if the film’s most famous scenes, straddles a nuke as it plummets towards Russia.

The script, which for the stage adaptation has been co-written by Armando Ianucci and director Sean Foley, goes for gags rather than characterisation. More problematic is that Foley’s direction and the need to allow Coogan his quick changes too often keep the star up stage sometimes barely visible behind the long table in Muffley’s war room.

Yet Coogan is priceless. The black-gloved pneumatic hand that keeps betraying Strangelove’s past by rising to a Nazi salute is very funny. In this new age of anxiety about the bomb, there is a palpable sense of relief at being able to laugh at our fears. Go see and feel better.