Joanne Clifton’s Polly stands behind the hotel reception desk with Fawlty Towers The Play writer John Cleese, the original Basil Fawlty
AFTER appearing in four American musicals at the Grand Opera House, Joanne Clifton is switching to a classic British sitcom on her fifth appearance at the York theatre from May 19 to 23.
The 2016 Strictly Come Dancing champion is on tour in Fawlty Towers The Play, playing unflappable chamber maid Polly in John Cleese’s stage adaptation, marking the 50th anniversary of the chaotic capers, escapades and close shaves in a Torquay seaside hotel that spanned 12 beloved episodes on the BBC.
Lincolnshire-born Joanne, 42, starred previously at the Cumberland Street theatre as demure Kansas flapper girl Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie in February 2017; combustible Pittsburgh steel mill welder Alex Owens in Flashdance in November 2017; prim and proper college student Janet Weiss in The Rocky Horror Show in June 2019 and feisty, convention-busting Princess Fiona in Shrek The Musical in November 2023.
“It’s one of my favourite theatres,” she says. “I love old, traditional theatres, and York has such happy memories for me. It’s one of my favourite places to go on tour – and it’s also where I signed off on my first house in Dressing Room 2.”
“I didn’t realise just how popular it is,” says Joanne Clifton of the impact of Fawlty Towers The Play, featuring three episodes from the beloved television series
Joanne is thoroughly enjoying her Fawlty experience. “I absolutely love the show,” says the 2013 World Ballroom Showdance champion. “Fawlty Towers was my West End debut, having always toured since 2017. I’ve only ever toured! It felt very strange, as it was a play as well [rather than a musical]. I never thought my West End debut would be a play, with no dancing, but I’m happy and honoured to be doing this show.”
The West End run at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftsbury Avenue, sold out and the tour has been following suit, not least at Leeds Grand Theatre in January. “The response has been amazing, selling out theatres up and down the UK, so it shows how loved the TV series was, and how many fans there are, after 50 years. I didn’t realise just how popular it is,” says Joanne.
“It could have been a massive risk, thinking you’ll never beat the original, a show so iconic that you don’t need to see the play, but it’s so well cast, and as the TV series was filmed in the studio, it feels almost like you are watching our show on set too.”
Cleese’s play brings together three of the most iconic episodes, Communication Problems, The Hotel Inspectors and The Germans, with Joanne taking on the role played by Cleese’s co-writer, Connie Booth. “Connie is American and had quite a strange accent in Fawlty Towers that I had to study really well because of it being this mid-Atlantic/British accent with a strange way of saying certain words,” she says.
The full cast in John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play, on tour at Grand Opera House, York, from tomorrow
“Polly is the one who holds it together at the hotel: she’s not the funny one, not the outrageous one, not the massive personality one, but she’s the glue , defending Basil, trying to get him out of difficult situations with Sybil.”
How has she approached playing Polly? “Well, it’s a tricky one, with something as iconic as this, you have to give the audience something they already love, as they know this character so well, but I’m not Connie Booth, as only she can do it as good as her, so we try to keep it as close to that as possible – and no dancing, no samba!
“Being a live theatre show, if anything goes wrong, we just have to deal with it, whereas you could re-shoot it in the TV studio. If it does go wrong, we just have to keep it in character.”
She is full of praise for both “such an incredible show” and her fellow cast members, led by Danny Bayne’s Basil Fawlty, Mia Austen’s Sybil, Hemi Yeroham’s Spanish waiter Manuel and Paul Nicholas’s bumbling Major. “I’ve been doing the show since last May, and there are moments when I stand at the side of the stage watching as it’s so funny,” says Joanne. “We’ve become really close as a cast, with our rituals backstage, and we all have each other’s back.”
Joanne Clifton: Making her fifth appearance at the Grand Opera House
She will be on tour until August 1. What next? “I’m doing a short tour, marking the tenth anniversary of winning Strictly with Ore Oduba. It’ll be a week-long tour that we’re calling 10 – Champions Reignited, at the end of August,” she says.
“Ten years on, multiple musicals and plays later and finally we’re coming together again ! I cannot wait! Using the words we said to each other ten years ago, let’s just go out there, have the most fun possible, and show everyone just what we can do! “
Featuring song, dance and tales in a “celebration of elite performance, defining moments and the stories behind champions who continue to inspire audiences on stage”, the tour originally was scheduled to visit Leeds Grand Theatre on August 23, but that night’s performance now will be at the Tyne Theatre & Opera House, Newcastle.
John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play, Grand Opera House, York, May 19 to 23, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.