Venue:
Wyndham’s Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London
Date: 22/02/2025
Inside No. 9 was known for its last minute twists, so maybe it’s not really a surprise that after reaching the end of of its 9th and final series there was an almost immediate announcement that Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton were to bring a stage show to the West End. Fans of the show will know to expect stories within stories, a lot of laughs and clever homage to classic comedy and horror.
If you’re already know the show you will also recognise a fan-favourite episode which is played out pretty much as broadcast, and acts as a framing device for the other plots within a portmanteau show. But the stage show is much more than a simple rerun of old ground. There is a loving tribute to the history of theatre and the ghost stories associated with it, with plenty of highly effective jump scares throw in. The live nature of the event is intrinsic to the flow of the script and it’s a performance which will only work if you are fortunate enough to be in the same room.
The show opens with the funniest instruction to an audience to turn of their phones and generally behave themselves that you will ever see, but beyond that I really can’t share any more of the plot(s) for fear of spoiling it for anyone with tickets (the show runs till early April but seems to be completely sold out, so good luck if you don’t have tickets but would like them). The twists keep coming even after the curtain call, and if this is the real farewell to Inside No.9 it has been wrapped up in a totally satisfactory way.
The audience:
A usual west end theatre crowd, and some probably travelled a fair distance to be there.
It made me think..
Thanks for the review. Me and the GLW bought tickets as soon as they went on sale – can’t wait.
Booked for Thursday Mar 6 as soon as they went on sale.
Really looking forward to this
I’ll be there 4 weeks today, and very excited about it. I’ll read the review afterwards, just in case there’s any hint of a spoiler
I know you won’t see this till later, Malc, but I’ve done my best not to include spoilers, and you’re right to go into it knowing as little as possible.
We loved it – expectations were so high, and yet they still managed to exceed them. The run ends April 5th, so after that further discussion on here presumably becomes possible.
Saw it about 10 days ago.
Hugely good fun – and well worth trying to get a ticket for
Saw this last night. What a great evening.
Think the run ends next weekend (April 5th?) so hopefully we can discuss after that.
Saw it in January and loved it
They have just annouced an autumn tour for 11 venues. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Wednesday)
Thanks for the heads up @dplumbley Having seen it once and loved it I’m not sure how keen I am see it again, knowing the twists in advance (which I guess we won’t be revealing on here for a while).
Can’t we just start a new thread – Inside No 9 stage Fright – Do Not Read If You Haven’t Yet Seen?
This is great news. My only regret was not seeing it twice so that the second time I could look out for the bits I’d missed first time around. Agree with @Jaygee that we need a spoilers-ahead thread in the meantime.