Perfect Nonsense: Goodale On Creating The Perfect Jeeves & Wooster Play

Writer Robert Goodale spoke to Official London Theatre, explaining the evolution of how he came to bring Jeeves and Wooster to the stage.  About the casting, he goes on to say

Although I had absolutely nothing to do with Stephen Mangan’s or Matthew Macfadyen’s involvement, I did suggest the two of them during the casting process. Having worked with them both at the Royal Shakespeare Company, witnessed their extraordinary comic abilities and observed how well they got on together, there was no question in my mind as to how perfect a pairing they could be. So I was thrilled when they were approached and their performances have reached a height that no one could have predicted. 

Stephen is playing Bertie to perfection as an utterly charming simpleton with a touch of the vaudevillian front man that PGW had intended. Matthew is completely inscrutable as Jeeves and hilarious and extraordinary as all the other characters that he in turn has to play. It’s fascinating watching an actor allow his characters to evolve through raw instinct rather than just pulling their stock-in-trade out of the bag.

Read the full article HERE.