Comedy star Robert Webb is to take on the role of PG Wodehouse’s idle rich buffoon Bertie Wooster — but insists it does not mean he is losing his cutting edge.
Webb, who was in Channel 4’s Peep Show with David Mitchell, will succeed Stephen Mangan in April in the West End show adapted from Wodehouse’s stories. Fellow comedian Mark Heap, from Spaced and Green Wing, is taking over from Matthew Macfadyen as the impeccable valet Jeeves.
Webb — who was also in TV shows That Mitchell And Webb Look and Ambassadors — said the script for Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense was too good to turn down.
And it also gives him the chance to perform at the Duke of York’s Theatre after appearing in Fat Pig at the Trafalgar Studios in 2008 and in Raving at Hampstead Theatre last year.
“There’s something special about the West End and I’ve never done a play in one of those big old lovely theatres before. And it’s a very playful, entertaining script and a great night out,” he said. Webb, 41, started reading Wodehouse as a teenager, inspired by the TV series Jeeves and Wooster with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. “Sometimes it’s nice to do something that is sheer entertainment,” he said. “It makes a change from the kind of turn I’m used to.”
But he added: “Maybe I will do something extremely angry about the destruction of the North of England manufacturing base in the autumn.”
Heap, 56, whose TV roles include Jim in Friday Night Dinner, will play five characters as well as Jeeves.
Webb and Heap start in Perfect Nonsense at the Duke of York’s Theatre on April 7. It runs until September 20. jeevesandwoosterplay.com
