Rowan Atkinson playing Blackadder, Mr Bean and other characters in West End show
Rowan Atkinson will also perform new and famous sketches from Not the Nine O’Clock News in his West End show, Rowan Live, next year.
Rowan Atkinson will play some of his iconic characters on stage next year.
The 71-year-old comedy legend will reprise roles, including Edmund Blackadder and Mr Bean, as well as perform new and famous sketches from Not the Nine O’Clock News, in the West End show, Rowan Live.
It will run at the Gillian Lynne Theatre from February 8 until March 13.
Per The Guardian, Rowan said: "It is 40 years since I last did a comedy sketch show in the West End.
"I thought it would be fun to perform again the sketches that began it all for myself and [writer] Richard Curtis, and in which my most well-known characters originated, alongside some surprise new material written especially for this show."
The pair will collaborate with Blackadder's writer Ben Elton, 67, and its composer Howard Goodall, 68, for the production, directed by Raz Shaw.
The BBC period sitcom, created by Richard, 69, ran for four series in the 1980s, as well as three specials, including one that was broadcast on New Year's Eve 1999.
Rowan portrayed the lead character and antihero Edmund Blackadder, and Sir Tony Robinson, 80, appeared as his dogsbody, Baldrick.
In December 2024, Richard teased some Blackadder plans "in the next few years".
He told the Metro newspaper's 60 Seconds column: "Well, oddly, Rowan and I have a plan for something we might do which would just be a bit of fun sometime in the next few years.
"I'd love to work with Rowan one more time on something."
In April that year, Ben said he is game for making a Blackadder play, but only if Richard is "interested".
He told The Sun newspaper: "A Blackadder play, if Richard was keen on it, I’d be interested.
"Not an adaptation of episodes, it would be an original play.
"When I wrote Upstart Crow, I did three series and three Christmas specials for TV, which was a load of writing, but I’m proud of the fact I then did an original play.
"If we were to do that with Adder, it would be the same."
As well as Blackadder, Mr Bean became a huge international success after it aired on ITV in the early 1990s, spawning two feature films and an animated series.
Rowan reprised the hapless funnyman for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, and nine years later, Richard said Mr Bean could make another long-awaited return to screens.
The filmmaker, who co-created the sitcom with Rowan, told the ITV documentary, Happy Birthday Mr Bean: "Old Bean is what we’re now thinking of doing. He’s always had a kind of grumpy selfishness which might adapt well."
Rowan has not ruled out playing the character again, saying: "I still like him, I still find him funny and think I can still perform him. Never say never."
However, the entertainer previously admitted he finds playing Mr Bean "stressful and exhausting".
Rowan explained: "It’s easier for me to perform the character vocally than visually.
"I don’t much enjoy playing him. The weight of responsibility is not pleasant. I find it stressful and exhausting, and I look forward to the end of it."
Not the Nine O'Clock News aired on BBC Two from 1979 until 1982.
It saw Rowan, Pamela Stephenson, now 76, Griff Rhys Jones, now 72, and the late Mel Smith perform satirical sketches on then-current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy sketches, re-edited videos, and spoof TV formats.
And in April 2024, the show's writer Richard Sparks said he would love to see the programme return after fellow satirical show Spitting Image was revived on BritBox in 2020.
He was quoted by the Daily Star newspaper's Hot TV column as saying: "You could easily do a new series today.
"It's simply satire. You just take the news and mock it.
"There are shows like that around, and they revived Spitting Image.
"So there is room for good satire and good comedy."
