Steve Coogan to Star in Dr. Strangelove Play from Armando Iannucci

Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan will collaborate once again for a stage adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. The play is set to premiere at London’s Noel Coward Theatre on October 8th, 2024.

Marking the first-ever adaptation of a Kubrick film, Iannucci (Veep, Death of Stalin) is teaming with Sean Foley, who will co-direct the production. Like Peter Sellers did in the 1964 movie, Coogan will portray multiple roles in the play. Known in full as Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Kubrick’s Cold War satire follows an Air Force general who orders a preemptive nuclear attack on the Soviet Union.

Sellers played three roles in the film: Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, fictional President Merkin Muffley, and Dr. Strangelove, the former Nazi who serves as Muffley’s scientific advisor. Both Sellers and Kubrick were nominated for Academy Awards for the landmark black comedy.

Iannucci’s take on Dr. Strangelove is being produced by Patrick Myles and David Luff. It follows the director’s previous collaborations with Coogan, On the Hour and The Day Today, which spawned Coogan’s Alan Partridge character.

Looking ahead, Iannucci is set to skewer the wide world of superhero movies with the HBO comedy The Franchise. 

Can’t wait to get started. We’re all hoping to send people home with a smile and a scream. #DrStrangelove https://t.co/HYgRm05s1h

— Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) September 26, 2023