Dr. Strangelove Reviews Round-up – Starring Steve Coogan

"Steve Coogan triumphs in Kubrick's Cold War satire"

"Coogan finally lays the ghost of Alan Partridge to rest for a challenging four roles in Armando Iannucci's stage adaptation of the classic film"

"Director and co-adapter Sean Foley maintains the tension and the comedy throughout with remarkable nimbleness and Coogan manages the quick changes necessary with the help of a very good dresser waiting in the wings."

"The remaining cast rise to the occasion, particularly John Hopkins as the psychotic General Jack Ripper who kicks off the catastrophic chain of events while holding Mandrake at bay with a formidable arsenal of firearms, Giles Terera as the gung-ho General Turgidson and Penny Ashmore as an authentic-sounding Vera Lynn. But it’s Coogan’s triumph and he finally lays the ghost of the tiresome (for me, anyway) Alan Partridge."

"Steve Coogan displays impeccable comic timing"

"Steve Coogan shines as an array of brilliantly absurd comic characters in this faithful stage transposition of Kubrick’s anti-war masterpiece"

"Adapted from Stanley Kubrick’s near-perfect 1964 satire by Armando Iannucci and Sean Foley and starring Steve Coogan, this stage version, directed by Foley, recreates the film almost beat for beat."

"Iannucci and Foley retain the film’s subversive spirit, but downplay its nihilism, juxtaposing gloriously silly punchlines with a building sense of unease as a chain of miscalculations leads towards inevitable destruction. Foley’s breezy staging captures the absolute absurdity of this exercise in mutually assured destruction, even if the play’s momentum is frequently interrupted by the demands of a story that jumps between a quartet of main characters, all played by Coogan."

"Steve Coogan scores a quadruple cold war coup"

"Adding a fourth role to Peter Sellers’ three turns in the classic film, the comic excels in a fun yet unadventurous adaptation"

"This production achieves the dubious feat of turning an edgy, absurdist story into broad entertainment with accessible laughs, along with a few topical references and excellent performances all round."

"Steve Coogan plays the titular German scientist, a Royal Air Force captain trying to stop Ripper from destroying the world, and the US president. He betters Sellers, in number at least, by also taking on a fourth part for which Sellers initially aimed – the gung-ho pilot who rides the iconic warhead."

"The script sometimes glints with the humorous intelligence of Iannucci’s The Thick of It (there is great war jargon with words like “pre-taliate”). At other times, however, it is pedestrian or soft in its satire. This might be because the adaptation follows the film so faithfully that it feels dated, the stakes low."

"There is satire around gender parity in the room, but gender inversion in the casting might have offered up something more original and fun. Then again, if this show is anything, it is fun. And Coogan fans most certainly get bang for their buck."

"Stolid Steve Coogan star vehicle"

"The comedian plays all four main characters with aplomb, but this reboot at the Noël Coward theatre in London could have done with more creative flourishes"

"... you wish the show’s co-adaptors, Armando Iannucci and Sean Foley, had applied a few more creative flourishes to what is, all in all, a stolid remake of the classic Stanley Kubrick Cold War satire. Don’t get me wrong: this is still a decent star vehicle for Steve Coogan, who outdoes Peter Sellers by taking on four rather than three of the main characters."

"It’s a reboot that will appeal most of all to Coogan fans who aren’t familiar with the film, which celebrated its 60th birthday this year. If you do know the original, it’s fun to hear some of the slivers of extra dialogue added by Iannucci and Foley after scrolling through Kubrick’s notebooks and drafts."

"While I’ve often complained that video imagery sometimes seems to be pushing flesh-and-blood actors aside in the West End, this is one venture where a little more hi-tech trickery would have been welcome."

"Steve Coogan is terrific in Dr Strangelove at the Noël Coward Theatre"

"The London stage adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 classic is faithful to the original but doesn’t quite hit all the right buttons"

"When Foley and Iannucci began work, they saw Kubrick’s nightmarish story of accidental extinction as a dramatic metaphor for political impotence in the face of threats such as global warming. A few years on and the temperature has changed: Vladimir Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons, the shadow of global conflict looms and the possibility of some extremist pushing everything over the brink seems all too plausible."

"All this makes the show feel disturbingly timely. Yet that very context also presents a problem. Paradoxically, it makes satire hard work: it’s difficult to compete with the daily dose of madness that confronts anyone scrolling through their phone. Perhaps it’s that framework that makes this something of a hit-and-miss evening."

"... Coogan is terrific, making each of Sellers’ roles his own with honed comic timing. He’s particularly good as Mandrake, his mild manner and plummy English accent masking his rising desperation, and he’s spectacularly sinister as the ex-Nazi nuclear scientist, Dr Strangelove."

"Steve Coogan is stellar but this is a safe spin on a classic"

"Armando Iannucci and Coogan team up to bring Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War satire to the West End, but the production is constrained by aiming too hard for cinematic perfection"

"The portrait painted in Stanley Kubrick’s scathing 1964 Cold War satire, of a perverted, paranoid, trigger-happy clique steering the US towards destruction, doesn’t feel as radical six decades later, after the successive indignities of Watergate, Reagan, and Trump. Still, it’s a brilliant excuse for Steve Coogan to make a rare stage appearance, following in the footsteps of Peter Sellers to play multiple military oddballs in this story of pre-apocalyptic mayhem."

"Comedy famously ages badly but the humour here is evergreen, prickling with ingenious wordplay and sickly surrealism. Still, Sean Foley’s overly efficient production stops short of full comic mayhem. Coogan is oh-so-good and oh-so-professional, but he’d be funnier if this show let us see some of the messy vulnerability that makes his creation Alan Partridge so lovable"

"Foley and Armando Iannucci’s adaptation also plays it safe – ironically, for a story stuffed with people messing about with warheads."

"Armando Iannucci’s Steve Coogan-starring stage adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War satire is funny but frothy"

"Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a film comedy that gets treated with arthouse reverence. And for that reason, there are nagging doubts about the idea of a stage version. Is director Sean Foley in the same league as Kubrick? Is Coogan in the same league as Sellers? Can it possibly be anything like as timely as the original? What do you do about the whole black and white thing? Broadly speaking the answers are no, no, no and well what do you think? But here’s the thing: at its heart Armando Iannucci and Foley‘s stage adaptation is just very aware that Dr Strangelove is fun, funny and possessed of a play-like structure, with the action almost all taking place in two locations."

"It’s an accomplished, funny West End comedy, and even if the Cold War is over it still has some topical bite, As the US elections roll around again, the idea of a generation of American men gearing up to do something totally insane and self-destructive – with catastrophic repercussions for the rest of the planet – truly does not seem out of date at all."

"An evening of different parts"

"Kubrick’s humour doesn't always detonate as it should in Armando Iannucci's version"

"... theatre’s a fickle beast, and though this looks like a fantastic proposition – not least because Iannucci’s long-term collaborator Steve Coogan plays all four roles intended for Peter Sellers in the film – the humour doesn’t always detonate in the way it should. Coogan is brilliant as Strangelove – when he first appears on a “live” video link from NASA, which he clearly struggles not to pronounce as NAZI, the audience is mesmerised by his verbal tics and lizard-like eye movements. But as hapless British RAF exchange officer, Lionel Mandrake, he is less magnetic."

"This is then – rather like Dr Strangelove with his rebellious prosthetic limbs – an evening of different parts, some functioning better than others. And whether you’re going for retro Cold War entertainment, for the combined talents of Iannucci and Coogan, or both, what’s indisputable is the way that Coogan carries the whole production as its title character."

"Steve Coogan delighting in the war room"

"The classic film is the starting point for this new stage production"

"A black comedy about the end of the world feels an appropriate entertainment for our frightened and frightening times. And there’s no doubting the heartfelt admiration of Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1964 film contained in this faithful stage adaption by Sean Foley and Armando Iannucci."

"It’s hard to fault either the comic virtuosity of Steve Coogan who goes one better than the late, great Peter Sellers in the movie, and plays four characters including the frantic scientific genius Dr Strangelove. Yet for all the good will and the many laughs, there’s something strangely effortful about this adaptation. There’s a sense that it’s been created because it can be done, rather than bringing any particularly new satirical insight to the story."

"Steve Coogan steals the show but can’t save it"

"Sean Foley’s knockabout adaptation of Kubrick’s era-defining film is marked by a consistent refusal to take its subject seriously"

"You wait years for Steve Coogan to appear on stage, and he turns up in four roles at once."

"Foley, who as a former member of The Right Size has a background in physical comedy, serves up a knockabout production marked by a contrasting refusal to take its subject seriously. With Coogan on full power, this is not necessarily always a problem."

"Yet if Foley’s production isn’t willing to recreate the film point by point (and how could it?), then what is it instead? It’s a question the show never adequately answers, trapped between the film’s formidable legacy and an inability to recreate it anew theatrically."

"Like a stealth bomber, Coogan leaves all other performances in his wake – not even a misused Giles Terera, as the brawny chump General Turgidson, can compete"

"... the film is less a satire of geopolitical circumstance than a deadly ironic comedy of human fallibility. The laughter should come at sickening cost. Foley, by contrast, just wants you to have a good time."

"Steve Coogan’s West End gamble — can he rival Peter Sellers?"

"Taking on Captain Mandrake and co in Dr Strangelove was always going to be a risk"

"Beyond a fatal jollying-up of material that needs to be played in earnest for tension to build and absurdity to squeeze through the cracks, it doesn’t feel like there is a plan here. And it’s no insult to the mighty Coogan to say that the worst way to test the notion that he is the modern Peter Sellers is to put him in roles originated by Sellers."

"Coogan is never less than good. His costume changes are definitely fun and deftly done but he lacks his predecessor’s authority, his sincerity. Comparisons are odious but if you’re playing the same roles in the same story they’re going to be made."

"It’s topped and tailed by neat song-and-dance numbers. There’s no doubting the energy. Yet the uneven new lines and old favourites alike play too much in the same heightened register."

"In a week of underused talent, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci and Sean Foley merely recreate Kubrick’s biting cold war satire"

"Oh come on chaps, you can do – have done – so much better than this. Steve Coogan stars, Armando Iannucci and Sean Foley adapt Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove, with Foley directing. Covetable comic talents have set themselves not to invent but to replicate. What a waste of imagination."

"Coogan is well up to the challenge of multitasking – and actually adds to the tally of parts, taking on the role of the pilot who straddles the nuclear missile."

"There is no lack of accomplishment, but an extreme lack of adventurousness: a show about risk itself takes none. The wild sweep of the movie can’t be captured but the script stays close to the original with only a few tweaks"

"Steve Coogan works hard – but this is cheap and silly"

"Sean Foley, alas, is no Stanley Kubrick. This director has a dispiriting habit of reducing everything he touches to silliness, which he repeats once again here in an adaptation co-written with Armando Iannucci. Whereas Kubrick has pitch-black comedy intercutting a mood of gravitas, Foley unwisely has occasional serious moments raising their heads above cheap jokes, meaning that those unfamiliar with the film will quite simply wonder what all the fuss is about."

"If only the tone of the production were more nuanced, Steve Coogan’s considerable industry would pay greater dividends. He gives a high-octane quick-change performance in four roles"

"As Foley will not trust us to understand Kubrick’s velvet subtlety, there is much laborious underlining of points, as well as the crowbarring in of contemporary references, resulting too often in daft spoof that undercuts Coogan’s achievements."