If you have a question regarding any aspect of Alan's work, email it to: ayckbourn@gmail.com (labelled Ask The Archivist) and we'll publish any interesting questions.
Question: I recently read Absurd Person Singular had the longest West End run of any Ayckbourn play. Which play had the shortest run?
Answer: Most people familiar with Alan Ayckbourn's plays would probably presume the answer to this was Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber's flop musical Jeeves - but it's actually not.
Jeeves opened at Her Majesty's Theatre on 22 April 1975 and received one of the worst critical maulings to have ever been levelled at an Ayckbourn play. It subsequently closed on 24 May 1975. The combination of a big budget, star cast and headline creative talents was enough to make it infamous as one of the West End's most famous flop shows.
However, the shortest West End run of an Ayckbourn play is actually held by his first London transfer, Mr Whatnot. In 1964, the producer Peter Bridge decided to bring the show to the West End following its successful world premiere at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent.
Mr Whatnot opened at the New Arts Theatre on the 6 August 1964 and was met with some reviews as vitriolic as anything Jeeves would later receive. It subsequently closed on 22 August 1964, running approximately half the time Jeeves did.
Of course, whilst Jeeves had no future until it was extensively revised by Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1996, Mr Whatnot has - unaltered - had a very long and successful life in both professional and amateur circles. Which goes to show that success - or lack of - in the West End for a play isn't the be all and end all.
To submit your question to Ask The Archivist, email Simon Murgatroyd at: ayckbourn@gmail.com labelled Ask The Archivist.
