LONDON (AP) — Sixty years after the release of director Stanley Kubrick’s film “Dr. Strangelove,” a stage version of the black comedy has opened in London’s West End, starring Oscar-nominated and BAFTA award-winning actor Steve Coogan.

Like actor Peters Sellers in the original version of the Cold War farce, Coogan played several roles, including U.S. President Merkin Muffley and German scientific advisor Dr. Strangelove.

“It’s physically tough, but it’s rewarding to do it. And the audience, if they laugh and they enjoy it, that’s all you can ask for,” he said after the show on Tuesday.

“Dr. Strangelove” begins with American General Ripper ordering an attack on the then-Soviet Union.

The US President begins trying to stop the fake mission and tensions rise after information comes to light that a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union would trigger the Soviet Doomsday Machine – a secret device designed to self-detonate and kill all life on the planet. Was prepared for.

British writer Armando Iannucci, whose many awards include two Emmys for his work on “Veep,” adapted “Dr. Strangelove” with Sean Foley, who directs the stage version.

Foley said, “We’ve tried to stay completely true to the tone of the film and obviously the plot, although we’ve played around with the plot a little bit.”

It aims to attract audiences who have enjoyed the film as well as those who have never seen it. The story is unlikely to lose its continued relevance.

“It’s about the US and Russia confronting a nuclear conflict that was started by a rogue general, and then a process of bureaucracy and processes that becomes unwinnable,” Iannucci said.

Also present at Tuesday’s performance was Christiane Kubrick, the widow of Stanley Kubrick, who died in 1999, as well as his stepdaughter Katharina, who said: “The theme is more appropriate and more important than ever.”

“Dr. Strangelove” plays at London’s Noël Coward Theater until January 2025 before performances at Dublin’s Bord Gas Energy Theatre.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.