The actor, comedian and director on bringing Stanley Kubrick’s blackest comedy to the West End stage
“Write this down!” says Steve Coogan: he is only half joking. “I’m comfortable being a bit uncomfortable and I’m not comfortable being a bit too comfortable.” The line could be straight out of Alan Partridge, the tragicomic persona around whom Coogan has built a 30-year career. In this instance, however, the English actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer is talking about himself. Specifically, why he has not only taken on his first major West End role, but four of them. At the same time.
The original Dr Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 black comedy about a nuclear standoff between America and the USSR, featured Peter Sellers playing a trio of characters: the very British Captain Mandrake, understated US President Muffley and the deranged ex-Nazi Dr Strangelove. Sellers agreed to a fourth role, the Texan B-52 commander Major TJ “King” Kong, but struggled to master the accent. Lacking the necessary agility following an on-set leg injury, Sellers relinquished the part….