It has been announced that Monty Python star Terry Jones will direct the world premiere of Jeepers Creepers, a play about the life and career of comedian Marty Feldman at the Leicester Square Theatre next year.
Written by Feldman’s best-selling biographer Robert Ross, the production will star David Boyle (Being Sellars, The Fool Who Dared to Dream) and Rebecca Vaughan (Austen’s Women, Elizabeth) in a four week season at the Leicester Square Theatre from the 18th January to the 20th February 2016.
Having written for some of the nation’s favourite comedy programmes such as The Army Game and Round the Horne, Marty Feldman finds himself thrust into the limelight with sketch show success on the BBC and commercial television. Then Hollywood comes knocking with the role of Igor in the Mel Brooks film Young Frankenstein. But while his wife Lauretta takes to the new glamorous lifestyle instantly, Marty struggles to come to terms with the level of his fame.
Can he get through his struggle with the help of the love of his wife and the joy of the gift of laughter?
Jeepers Creepers charts one of the most powerful and complex partnerships in comedy, seeing through the unique perspective of Feldman himself.
Directing this show is very personal to Terry Jones as he wrote and worked with Feldman on It’s Marty, during the late 1960’s. Talking about the subject himself, Jones said: ” When I joined the writing team for The Frost Report, the first person to say ‘Hello’ and make me feel welcome was Marty Feldman. He was one of those very kind and very funny people who helped all the Pythons along the way. It’s lovely to be able to say a belated ‘Thank you’ by bringing him back to eye-popping life – sort of! – on the London stage.”
Jeepers Creepers will open in the lounge at Leicester Square Theatre from the 18th January to the 20th February 2016.