Hartford Stage Announces Jeeves & Wooster in 'Perfect Nonsense'

Olivier Award-Winning Comedy Makes its North American Premiere at Hartford Stage

HARTFORD, CT — April 12, 2018 — Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts today announced that Jeeves & Wooster in “Perfect Nonsense,” the Olivier Award-winning comedy from brothers David and Robert Goodale, will make its North American premiere at Hartford Stage during the 2018-19 season. Original director Sean Foley will return to stage the show in Hartford.

“I saw Jeeves & Wooster in ‘Perfect Nonsense’ shortly after it opened in the West End and fell for it immediately,” said Hartford Stage Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Williamson. “Director Sean Foley and the Goodale brothers have crafted a beautifully constructed stage farce that is both true to Wodehouse and completely successful in its own right. I couldn’t be happier to be bringing the US premiere here to Hartford.”

Jeeves & Wooster in “Perfect Nonsense” will perform at Hartford Stage March 21 through April 14, 2019. A hilarious farce with inventive theatricality, the play was co-written by brothers David and Robert Goodale based upon characters created by British author P.G. Wodehouse. Wodehouse, a prolific writer who was considered to be of one of the most widely-read humorists of the 20th century, often mixed humor with social commentary. Among his many creations – including Blandings Castle, Psmith, Ukridge, and Uncle Fred and Mr. Mulliner – Jeeves and Wooster are two of his most beloved characters.

Inspired in part by Wodehouse’s 1938 novel The Code of the Woosters, the Goodale brothers’ Jeeves & Wooster in “Perfect Nonsense” is a fast-paced, slapstick comedy which cleverly skewers the Edwardian Upper Class. All goes awry when Bertie Wooster, a wealthy British gentleman with a penchant for telling stories, decides to stage a one-man theatrical show on London’s West End. Enter Wooster’s loyal valet Jeeves who, sensing disaster, valiantly steps in to help save the day.

Jeeves & Wooster in “Perfect Nonsense” premiered at the West End’s Duke of York's Theatre in November 2013 to rave reviews and won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2014. The Daily Mail hailed the play as “an inventive evening of bonkers comedy.” The Telegraph raved, “Wodehouse himself would have loved this production.”

The Hartford production will be helmed by original director Sean Foley, whose previous work in America includes The Play What I Wrote on Broadway. Foley – a director, writer, comedian and actor – is a West End favorite, helming the West End hits The Ladykillers (which earned him an Olivier Award nomination for best director) and Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw.

Mark Goucher, who had the original idea for the show and produced it in the West End with Mark Rubinstein, said, “After a wonderful season in The West End and an Olivier Award for best new comedy, I am very excited that ‘Perfect Nonsense’ will open in the US at Hartford Stage. We hope that this show will be as well received by the American audiences as The 39 Steps and The Play That Goes Wrong.”
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