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Two weeks after opening in the West End, the stage adaptation of Cool Hand Luke has announced that it is to close. Despite initially selling tickets for performances at the Aldwych theatre until January 2012, the production, which stars Hustle actor Marc Warren in the title role, will finish on 19 November after only 67 performances.
Emma Reeves' adaptation of Donn Pearce's 1965 novel follows second world war veteran Luke Jackson (Warren), who rebels against the authorities of the Florida jail in which he is imprisoned for drunkenly vandalising parking meters. After establishing himself among his peers through petty gambling, at once point consuming 50 eggs in 60 minutes for a bet, Luke's repeated efforts to escape make him a symbol of resilience amongst his fellow inmates.
Pearce's novel was famously made into a film starring Paul Newman in 1967, a role that won Newman an Oscar nomination; his co-star George Kennedy won the best supporting actor category.
After its official opening on 3 October, Cool Hand Luke was widely dismissed by critics, though several reviews praised Andrew Loudon's handling of the famous egg-eating scene. The Guardian's Michael Billington described it as "an oddly undramatic evening", while Charles Spencer in the Telegraph wrote, "I cannot see any good reason why anyone would want to stump up West End prices to see this second-rate stage version of a film that is readily available on DVD for less than a fiver."
Curiously, Cool Hand Luke is not the first stage adaptation of a famous prison film to suffer early closure in the West End. Two years ago, a production of The Shawshank Redemption at the Wyndham's theatre closed three months ahead of schedule after similarly negative reviews. In a case of cops and robbers, it was replaced by Stephen Daldry's production of An Inspector Calls.
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