John Cleese’s ex-wife Connie Booth says she is “looking forward” to a new stage production of iconic TV comedy Fawlty Towers, but will keep a low profile when it opens in the West End.
Connie, who co-wrote the series with star Basil Fawlty, plans to sneak in to see the new stage show featuring Torquay’s most chaotic hotel with other audience members.
Her second husband, renowned American theater critic John Lahr, told MailOnline: “She’s going to see it, probably not on opening night, but she’ll be there.”
The American actress declined to comment on the new production, with Lahr adding: “I understand that people are interested, why wouldn’t they be?” Connie doesn’t do interviews. She usually doesn’t do it anymore.
A source added: “She’s looking forward to seeing him, but lately she likes to keep a low profile and stay out of the spotlight.”
John Cleese’s ex-wife Connie Booth says she is “looking forward” to a new stage production of iconic TV comedy Fawlty Towers – but will keep a low profile when it is launched.
Connie, who co-wrote the series, plans to sneak in to see the new stage show featuring Torquay’s most chaotic hotel with other audience members (pictured in 2017).
Connie, 83, married comedy legend Cleese in 1968 and the couple wrote the TV series, which was named the best British comedy of all time in a 2019 Radio Times poll.
The couple, who have an eldest daughter, Cynthia, divorced in 1978 before the second and final series of the BBC2 program was screened the following year.
American actress Connie, who played waitress Polly in the series, left the industry in 1995 and went on to work as a psychotherapist until her retirement.
She lives quietly in a £2.5 million terraced house in north London with her second husband, a former acclaimed critic for The New Yorker and son of American actor Bert Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion in the iconic Hollywood film The Wizard of Oz.
Cleese, 84, has adapted three of his favorite episodes of the show for the new production which opens at the West End’s Apollo Theater on Saturday (May 4).
He says he has “written a great ending, which will bring together the endings of all three episodes.”
Connie is jointly credited with co-writing the television series from which the new play is adapted.
The stage production stars Adam Jackson-Smith as the inimitable Basil, while Anna-Jane Casey takes on the role of Basil’s long-suffering wife Sybil, played in the series by Prunella Scales.
From left to right: Connie Booth as Polly, John Cleese as Basil Fawlty, Prunella Scales as Sybil Fawlty and Andrew Sachs (kneeling) as the hapless Spanish waiter Manuel in a promotional photo.
The former co-stars recreated the shot after meeting at a Fawlty Towers event in 2009.
Victoria Fox will play Polly, while singer and actor Paul Nicholas, who starred in the BBC comedy Just Good Friends and will play the bumbling Major Cleese, added of the new production: “What a thrill to bring Fawlty Towers to the West End for the first time “. time: almost 50 years since the program was first recorded, in December 1974.
Last year, Connie said she had no idea Cleese was writing a reboot of the TV show, this time with her daughter Camilla Cleese. He plans to return as Basil and will star alongside Camilla, his daughter with his late second wife, American model and actress Barbara. Trentham.
Connie said: ‘I would have liked to know more about the project from John rather than reading about it in the papers.
‘Because a previous American reboot of Fawlty Towers had failed a few years ago, I was surprised that another one was being planned.
“I was even more surprised to read that John intends to write and act alongside his daughter Camilla.”
Connie married comedy legend Cleese in 1968. The couple welcomed daughter Cynthia (pictured with her parents) before divorcing in 1978.
But Connie is said to have wished the couple well with the revival set in the Caribbean and exploring how the hapless Basil manages to navigate the modern world.
It has not been announced which channel the revival will be broadcast on, but Cleese said last year: “I’m not doing it with the BBC because I won’t have the freedom.”
“I was very lucky before, because I worked for the BBC in the late 60s, 70s and early 80s.
“That was the best time because the BBC was run by people with real personalities who loved the medium and who operated with confidence, which was good because there wasn’t as much competition.”