Fans of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy were saddened recently when it was announced that the Hitchhiker’s Live stage show – a performance of episodes from the radio series featuring members of the original cast – was cancelled. Although the show had toured throughout the UK since 2012, it unfortunately never made its way to the United States. Bummer.
But at least you can dull the pain of this news a bit by checking out footage of another rare Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy stage extravaganza that you’ll never get to see, namely London’s infamous Rainbow Theatre production from July 1980 that was directed by Ken Campbell. Fans of Neil Gaiman’s Hitchhiker’s Guide companion book Don’t Panic will already be familiar with this, um, epic stage rendering of Arthur Dent’s adventures. For the rest of you, it is a wondrous trip back in time to see the theatrical potential of Adams’ sci-fi comedy masterpiece.
The video was created by Kevin Jon Davies, a longtime Hitchhiker’s fan and historian (he directed 1993’s great The Making of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy documentary about the BBC TV series) for a 2009 fan event as well as the Penguin Books website. Davies has recently uploaded this, and another video about the ICA theater production that you can see below:
It’s shocking that any footage of these events exists. While it clearly leaves fans clamoring for more, the bigger question at hand here is why hasn’t a large scale Hitchhiker’s play revival ever come to Broadway? (Amateur productions pop up throughout the United States from time to time). Given the success of such niche-interest productions as The Pee-Wee Herman Show and Monty Python’s Spamalot, it seems likely that Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy could find some traction on the Great White Way. Oh well, at least until then theater nerds can look at the footage featured here and geek out at the wonders of an emoting Vogon.
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