I'd previously seen The Comedy About Spies twice in just over a fortnight, on 30 August and 15 September 2026, and I enjoyed it a lot! It would obviously be ludicrous to go for a third time. But the play was reaching the end of its run at the Adelphi, and, well.
(I stare into the camera for slightly too long.)
Anyway, I took my housemate Tem to the Comedy About Spies matinée on 24 September 2026!
In an absolutely bonkers development, I got chatting to the person in the seat next to me, who turned out to have read my Goes Wrong fanfiction! Really made me think 'if the person who happens to be next to me has read my fanfiction, how many people in this theatre have??'
(Come to think of it, one of the fics of mine this person had read only had fifty hits! Fifty people in the world have read that fic, and one of them just happened to sit next to me at the theatre.)
Tem: Riona takes requests, by the way.
Neighbour: You should write Max/Trevor.
Me: I'm going to put Robert in there somehow.
Neighbour: Robert locks them in a room to try to get them together, and it actually drives them further apart, but Robert tries to take all the credit for it when they actually do end up together.
We'll see if I actually manage to write this!
One detail I've never previously mentioned is the play's cool opening sequence! There's a sort of spy pursuit montage at the start of the play, and seeing people physically play out a 'montage' on stage is a neat and unusual experience.
Actually, I don't think I've mentioned how cool the hotel room set is either! Most of the first half takes place in a set that's essentially a cross-section of part of the hotel: you can see four rooms simultaneously, two rooms next to each other and the two rooms above them, and they can interact in fun ways, e.g. someone falling through a hole in the floor and into the room below. It's extremely cleverly done.
Tem really wanted to see Nancy Zamit, and my seat neighbour really wanted to see Dave Hearn, so it's a bit of a shame that both Zamit and Hearn were off for this performance! I am the only winner here, having successfully seen hot hot Henry Lewis at all three of the Comedy About Spies shows I've attended.
(Tem was pleased to see Bryony Corrigan, though, and her character of Elena ended up being Tem's favourite! Xe got very invested in Elena's story of gradually learning to accept friendship again and gasped when she was shot.)
Although I really love Hearn's depiction of Lance, I was also pleased to see Niall Ransome covering the role, because Ransome had played Lance in the first show I'd seen and I'd missed him at the stage door; at least I might have the opportunity to speak to him this time! I was also interested to see Allie Dart's Janet, having heard Zamit singing the praises of her understudy. (And deservedly so; Dart made a great Janet!)
Ransome's Lance and Shields's Bernard ended up pressed nose-to-nose when Lance was trying to intimidate Bernard! I was going to observe that that didn't happen when Hearn was playing Lance, but, come to think of it, Matt Cavendish was playing Bernard on that occasion, and Cavendish is a lot shorter than Hearn. I can imagine 'getting up close to intimidate someone' is something that can vary a fair bit depending on the relative heights of the participants.
One detail that I really enjoy about Elena: when she tells Sergei to kill Bernard 'slowly', Sergei responds by veeeery sloooowly reaching his hands towards Bernard's neck. You'd expect Elena, who's generally played the straight woman to Sergei, to go, "No, you idiot, that's not what I meant." But she doesn't! She just stands there, smirking maliciously as she watches Sergei slowly approach Bernard. Because it turns out that this is, in fact, exactly what she meant by 'kill him slowly'. And that's just very funny to me.
Bernard and Rosemary have such a tricky line to walk; their relationship is very clearly on the rocks for most of the play, but the audience does need to believe in that relationship and end up rooting for them. I think they carry it off pretty well, although I'm sure some members of the audience end up feeling they'd be better off breaking up.
If Rosemary does break it off with Bernard, maybe that opens the door to the possibility of Rosemary/Woodbead. She's the only one who recognises his ability as an actor, and he's so touched by it! (I don't think I'm going to write fanfiction about Rosemary/Woodbead, a pairing I sincerely doubt anyone but me cares about, but... well, I have a firmly established track record of saying I'm not going to write things and then writing them anyway.)
My other housemate Rei, who was unable to come to the play, requested a present, so I picked up a copy of the Peter Pan Goes Wrong script and went to the stage door to have it signed (by the people I'd already met; I stole the signatures of the covers for myself). I've definitely been to the stage door too much in a short period; Chris Leask, Bryony Corrigan and Adele James all now recognise me.
Here's the rundown of my stage door encounters! Having previously asked most of the cast for their favourite Comedy About Spies character, I had 'who's your favourite Goes Wrong character?' in my pocket as a question if I didn't have something specific to say. But the first person out of the door was Henry Shields, and, as he'd been off at the last show, I hadn't had the opportunity to ask him for his favourite Spies character yet!
Henry Shields
Me: Do you have a favourite character?
Shields: In the play? Well, I do like Bernard.
As a side note: I really expected everyone to name the characters they play for this question! But, of the seven actors I've now asked, the only ones who named their own characters were Shields and Leask.
Me: Do you have a favourite character you don't play?
Shields: Ooh. (long pause)
Me: "No."
Shields: I hate everyone else. (pause) No, I do like Sergei.
Me: Sergei's very popular!
Shields: I can't compete with Chris Leask.
Chris Leask
Leask: (clearly recognising me) Hey, how are you?
Me: I'm all right, thanks! You told me last time that Sergei was your favourite character, and I have to know: is Trevor also your favourite Goes Wrong character?
Leask: No! No, it's actually Annie. Annie's great.
Me: Annie is great. And Annie is Trevor's favourite, so it makes sense!
Leask: Yeah! And Robert's so funny.
Me: He is!
Leask: Thank you for coming again! You guys were such a great audience.
He said this while gesturing specifically to me, Tem and the person who'd been sitting next to me. The three of us were such a great audience. (Leask also said he loved Tem's hair!)
Bryony Corrigan
Corrigan: Hello again! How are you?
Me: I'm all right, thank you! I think you told me your favourite character from this play last time; do you also have a favourite Goes Wrong character?
Corrigan: Ooh!
(Corrigan contemplates for so long I start to worry I'm holding up the queue. This is a consistent pattern, I'm starting to realise; if you ask Bryony Corrigan a question, she'll give it genuine thought, which is very good of her!)
Corrigan: Well, I love Annie.
Me: Annie's great! Chris said she's his favourite as well.
Corrigan: But, if you're asking about the characters the characters play...
Me: Oh, yes, that does complicate things, doesn't it?
Corrigan: I think it's the one Henry Lewis plays in the horror one.
Me: Oh, The Lodge! Yes, I love him!
I was delighted by this answer, because Albert Fortenoy, Robert's character in The Lodge, is also my personal favourite character any Cornley actor has ever depicted. I did not ask whether Corrigan shared my opinion that he is staggeringly hot.
Adele James
James: Hi! How are you?
Me: I'm all right, thank you! You told me Douglas was your favourite character in this play last time; do you also have a favourite Goes Wrong character?
James: Oh, I think it has to be Annie.
Me: Good answer! Everyone's saying Annie. (producing Peter Pan Goes Wrong) I'm afraid this is the second time I've asked you to sign a play you're not in.
James: If you're happy to have my signature there, I'm happy to sign it!
Macadie Amoroso
Macadie seemed pleased to be recognised as the actor who played the background role of the bellboy, which hopefully gave me enough points to make up for how horrendously I mispronounced her name. ("You're... Mack-adie, is that right?" "Ma-caydie.") I told her that her facial acting was great after she escaped the wardrobe fight with Sergei.
Allie Dart
Allie Dart was great in the role of Janet, and I told her so!
Me: Nancy was singing your praises last time I saw this. I asked her who her favourite character was, and she said it was you as Sergei.
Dart: Oh, last year! That was terrifying.
(Dart was not intended to be a cover for Sergei and, according to Nancy Zamit, had to learn the role in two hours.)
Me: Well, it sounds like you smashed it.
Dart: Thank you! It's lovely to meet you.
Greg Tannahill
Tannahill played Tipton, the hotel manager.
Me: Everyone in the audience is so thrilled for you when the hotel gets five stars!
Tannahill: Yes! But then he dies.
Tem: Well, maybe he dies happy.
Tannahill: Or maybe he doesn't die at all?
Tem: Sequel?
Niall Ransome
Me: This is actually the second time I've seen you as Lance! You were great. It seems like it must be hard to play the character who thinks he's in a serious spy film.
Ransome: Well, the difference between me and Dave is that I eat a lot more chocolate than he does, so it's a lot harder for me to do things like climbing through the window. But thank you!
Henry Lewis
Henry Lewis emerged from the stage door and greeted us (we were at the front of the queue) with "Hey, guys," which is a slightly surreal thing to hear from someone who looks and sounds so like Robert Grove.
Me: I love the play! Will it ever be coming back to the West End?
Lewis: I don't know; I hope so! Thank you for coming.
I've worked out the secret to a stage door interaction with Henry Lewis that doesn't make me worry I've made things awkward, and it is to keep the interaction five seconds long! Success at last. We were simply not meant to meet the most handsome man in the world; it's impossible to conduct a normal conversation under these circumstances.
At home, I gave Rei the Peter Pan Goes Wrong script and explained it had been signed by the actors of Robert, Chris, Trevor and Vanessa, along with Adele James.
Pause.
Me: AND JONATHAN'S ACTOR, I FORGOT JONATHAN AGAIN
Rei: If I ever meet this guy, I'm going to tell him you forget about him every time you meet him at the stage door.