Slapstick star Lee plays it straight

Comedy star Lee Evans has passionately defended straight drama, which is under increasing pressure in the West End.

The supremacy of blockbuster musicals such as Spamalot, Dirty Dancing and Wicked has led to fears that London audiences are shunning plays.

Recent early closures include Summer And Smoke and Bent while the curtain is coming down on Amy's View and Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks earlier than scheduled.

But slapstick comedian Lee Evans, whose last West End appearance was in the hit Mel Brooks musical The Producers, is attempting to boost the capital's straight theatre scene by starring in a revival of one of Harold Pinter's classic plays.

Evans is playing alongside Harry Potter actor Jason Isaacs in the 50th anniversary production of Pinter's The Dumb Waiter, which will open next month at the Trafalgar Studios in Whitehall.

Evans told the Standard he would like to see more straight drama in the capital. He said: "There should be room for everything in the West End, be that a blockbuster musical or a good straight play. I would like to see what you get on Broadway - where revenue from theatre is funnelled to new productions and new writers - happen over here.

"I would like new works to be supported and straight plays to be put on. We can only do what we can do [to support stage drama] and that's put a straight play on for the people."

Astonishingly, the No1 play on website Theatre.com's box office chart is The Mousetrap, the Agatha Christie whodunnit first staged in 1952.

But Evans said: "I'm sure that some of my audience don't know Pinter and doing this will be a good chance for them to get acquainted with his work."

Evans said The Dumb Waiter, a rarely performed menacing comedy about the identities of two hitmen, is as timely as when it had its first production at the Hampstead Theatre Club.