Theatre and Tonic
Charing Cross Theatre, August 18, 2026
Wooldridge's direction of Harrison is a work of art, and Harrison himself is a force of nature, throwing himself around the stage and on and off the sofa, as he presents characters in conversation with each other and, on occasion, to reflect his own joy or despondency at unexpected turns of event. This is an award-winning performance.
In short, I can tell you that with absolute certainty you will be in for a ‘top hole, smashing, wizard, evening’, which after two hours will leave you breathless and dizzy with joy at the performance you have just been privileged to witness.
Fairy Powered Productions
This is a meticulously staged production with stagecraft ingenuity to match the originality of Wodehouse's writing. Sam Harrison is so good in an extremely demanding role. A most charming, amusing and delightful escape from the outside world.
A Youngish Perspective
Harrison's portrayals are skilled and humorous, and he reenacts the stories with great vigour so that, even to an audience who probably knows exactly what will happen, it's impossible not to remain highly engaged. His character transformations are commendable, as he morphs easily from the upright Florence Craye to the doddery Uncle Willoughby and back again. A real treat is Harrison taking his bows as each individual character, which leaves the show on a comedic high.
Direction by Hugh Wooldridge is strong, allowing Harrison to completely play to his strengths. Sometimes the comedy of the words is lost amongst the desire for constant slapstick and over-dramatisation, but it is always pulled back to avoid the portrayals becoming too one-note.
Set by Caite Hevner is minimal, yet highly effective. Utilising a number of empty picture frames adorning the walls, a variety of images and videos are projected, easily transforming the space from Mayfair apartment to girls' school and back again. Most impressively, whenever Bertie is travelling, the landscape flies by to indicate motion, warranting literal pointing and audible admiration from audience members.
A highly enjoyable night at the theatre, and a chance to see some new (and old) reinventions of the classic characters many know so well.
London Born and Bred
At the centre of it all is Sam Harrison, who has the extraordinary task of playing all the roles. And what a task it is. Harrison moves between Jeeves, Bertie Wooster, the aunties, a schoolgirl, the fiancée Florence, a Boy Scout, a doddery uncle and a host of others with astonishing ease. This is not simply a question of putting on different voices, although the variety of vocal characterisation is impressive. It is in the physicality too: a change of posture, a turn of the head, a movement across the stage, and suddenly we are somewhere else with someone entirely different. Here is an actor very clearly working his craft, and enjoying every minute of it.
Caite Hevner's set and video design, Tim Mitchell's lighting and Paul Groothuis' sound work together beautifully, taking what begins as a simple room and transforming it into a succession of locations. One moment we are in a comfortable drawing room, the next in a train carriage or another corner of Wodehouse's peculiar and wonderfully privileged world. It is clever without being showy, allowing the imagination to do some of the work too.
Jeeves Takes Charge is a charming, old-fashioned evening in the best sense of the phrase: a chance to leave modern life at the theatre door for a couple of hours and spend time in the company of a very capable valet and the gloriously hopeless man who needs him.
South London
I don't know if it is the setting, the script, or something else, but Jeeves Takes Charge really does draw you in. Starting with the setting, the decision to retain the same broader stage design while switching out the portraits depending on the scene is an excellent one. It not only brings the audience in on jokes which could otherwise feel exclusionary, but the array of portraits provides a witty shorthand for the kind of scene which is about to take place.
As a one-man show, Sam Harrison is unbelievable. If you want to see a show where the star is clearly dedicated to the performance? This is it. Switching seamlessly between characters, Harrison never falters or tires of his role. He brings the same energy to the opening scene as he does to the final lines before the curtain drops.
Jeeves Takes Charge is directed by Hugh Wooldridge, with scenic design by Caite Hevner, lighting design by Tim Mitchell and sound design by Paul Groothuis. Anyone looking for a classic night at the theatre cannot afford to miss this.
The Stage ★★★★
Theatre Royal Bath, 2025
“A triumph!” — Danny Moar, Artistic Producer, Theatre Royal Bath
Alternative Christmas show is a festive hoot. This adaptation of P.G. Wodehouse's beloved posh-twit-and-his-valet stories by James Duke, Edward Duke and Hugh Wooldridge is an excellent choice for a December through to January piece of programming — not least because, in its onscreen versions, it is precisely the sort of thing many people watch at home while the Christmas tree twinkles in the background.
In its one-man format directed by Hugh Wooldridge, the entire piece depends on the skills of the performer. By turns a louche but harmless Bertie Wooster with a certain golden-retriever charm, an upright, man-of-few-words Jeeves, an exasperated ex-fiancée and several others, Sam Harrison shifts through each character in a fully embodied and often hilarious way.
He is particularly good at portraying the snotty-nosed kids he occasionally encounters, including a precocious runaway from a girls' school near Brighton and a tell-tale boy scout. And — slightly unnervingly — he can make their wide-open eyeballs really look like a pair of stick-on googly eyes.
The other impressive piece of shapeshifting comes in the form of a very clever set design… (starting life as a panelled dressing room painted blue-grey, with empty frames on the walls, it is) …constantly transformed by Caite Hevner's projections.
Impressively, comparing this show with the iconic Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie version seems redundant — some achievement, given how hard it is to picture Jeeves and Wooster without thinking of Fry and Laurie. The key to success here has been to make an adaptation in a completely different format, with a strong, versatile performer — and it stands up admirably on its own. Unlike poor old Gussie Fink-Nottle after a jug of spiked orange juice.
Bath Echo
December 21, 2024
Highlighted by The Guardian as one of the top 20 shows to watch this Christmas, Jeeves Takes Charge sees the impeccably brilliant butler keeping himself in employment by ensuring his amiably goofy young master remains unmarried, with laugh-out-loud results.
An astonishing one-man show starring Sam Harrison who morphs in a blink to play all twenty-two, much-loved characters including Jeeves, Wooster, Florence Craye, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Bingo Little, Uncle Willoughby, Aunt Dahlia and many more.
It is a tour-de-force performance, transporting audiences back to an age where work is unthinkable and keeping in with your relatives is essential.
This production is a fine showcase of Harrison's talent. His delivery and timing is glorious, making this an excellent evening of storytelling, taking the audience through numerous adventures of Jeeves and Wooster.
Directed by Hugh Wooldridge, making full use of Harrison's excellent physical comedy and the intimacy of the Ustinov, the pace never falters as we are swept along by the hapless Wooster.
The static set is transformed by projections designed by Caite Hevner, switching from town house to village hall with ease.
Any fans of Wodehouse will no doubt have already booked. If you are new to the stories, you are guaranteed entertainment of the highest quality in the safe hands of Sam Harrison.
WhatsOnStage
December 17, 2024
“Jeeves Takes Charge”, a stage adaptation of three of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves stories, brought to life by the terrifically versatile Sam Harrison, is as reassuringly cosy as tinsel and turkey… two hours of light wit and astonishing word craft…
What it has going for it in spades is the cadence of Wodehouse's glowing prose. There is something so delightfully linguistic about the whole thing, and this play gives space to enjoy a masterful writer who revels in his use of vernacular to convey a whole world.
Harrison, who is as physically dexterous as much as he is vocally agile, lands sentences with suitable relish, each of the twenty-three roles given a unique selling point, from the haughty fiancée, the drunkard friend, the spindly old headmaster to the spiteful boy scout. It's a performance that reminds you how many memorable characters Wodehouse crafted. Harrison conjures them within a few lines, bringing a fully realised character in little more than a glottal stop or a hunched-over back and a raised eyebrow.
From a technical perspective, Harrison is presenting one of the performances of the year.
Original director Hugh Wooldridge gives the work a carefully considered production, given a sheen of class through Caite Hevner's projections, delineating several settings through well-realised paintings of, among others, stern bearded headmasters and vases of colourful flowers. The whole evening offers old-fashioned delights, but it will be chiefly remembered for the pyrotechnics of its leading man.
The Stage and Television Today
Jeremy Myerson, 1980 — original production, Lyric Hammersmith
The witty, whacky world of P.G. Wodehouse may be light years away from contemporary rock. But it is due to the financial backing of rock singer Barbara Dickson's management company, Theobald Dickson, that Edward Duke's one-man show based on the great man's writings can once more be seen on a London stage.
This time Jeeves is at the Lyric, Hammersmith until July 2. And whether or not you are familiar with P.G. Wodehouse's sparkling excursions into the bright, brittle high society life of the twenties, Edward Duke's performance is a masterly piece of comic timing and multi-faceted mimicry that is not to be missed.
Transporting us back to an age where work is unthinkable and keeping in with your relatives is of paramount importance for the gentleman of leisure, Duke adopts two main personas: the amiable, brainless, goofy man-about-town Bertie Wooster, and his bachelor valet, the dourly efficient, unusually intelligent, Jeeves.
Much of the early action concerns Jeeves' attempts to keep his young master unmarried and himself in employment. And there are hilarious episodes as Wooster loses both his fiancée and a sudden desire to have children around the house due to Jeeves' cunning.
Duke himself has adapted Wodehouse's work and has assiduously chosen the choicest passages, the funniest lines. Director Hugh Wooldridge has kept the comic momentum joyfully fast but not too frantic and has admirably captured the debonair spirit with his sensitive staging and lighting, aided by the attractive period designs of Francis Butler (set) and Una-Mary Parker (costumes).
The delightful economy of Jeeves Takes Charge — one actor, a colourful but inexpensive setting and close on two hours of enjoyment — is something West End managements would do well to consider in these austere times.
And there is even a song-and-dance finale to the show as the hopelessly incompetent Bertie Wooster entertains the village fete in blazer and straw boater, a duty compelled by yet another of his ghastly aunts.