Critically acclaimed and award-winning comedian Adam Riches is set to bring his smash hit one-man show Jimmy to Park Theatre this summer. Following a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024, tickets are on sale now and are available
here.
The show tells the story of former tennis champ Jimmy Connors, and is a fast-paced, funny and intensely physical ride, deep inside the mind of an ageing, swaggering alpha. Written by Adam Riches and directed by Tom Parry, this unmissable one-man Grand Slam will take over London’s Park Theatre for a limited run. Opening on Wednesday 25th June, with previews from 23rd June the show runs until Saturday 12th July, just in time for Wimbledon!
‘Raised by women, to conquer men’
In 1974, Jimmy Connors was the greatest tennis player on Earth. In 1991 he’s getting his ass handed to him at the US Open by the younger brother of his arch-nemesis. What happened next was one of the greatest comebacks in the history of sport, when Jimmy, fueled by the ghosts of his turbulent past, winds back the clock to remind the world what happens when you rattle the cage of a geriatric tiger, one last time.
Adam consistently proves to be a dynamic force on the comedy circuit with his unique delivery and fast-paced, character-driven style. Never one to shy away from a challenge or play it safe with his craft, this year he is ready to turn Park Theatre into his own personal tennis court and deliver a riveting and zealous rendition of ‘the brash basher of Belleville’, Jimmy Connors.
This is a great story about getting old, getting angry and getting even - or as Adam puts it “a tale that I hope can capture and entertain an audience in the same way it has captured and entertained me”.
Adam Riches said: “Oh my poor body… It has no idea what it’s about to be put through again this summer. Jimmy is hands down the hardest show I’ve ever had to perform. Physically. Mentally. PHYSICALLY. When I wrote it, I honestly had no idea just how difficult it would be to balance the emotional core of the story with the relentless gallop of tennis. But Connors is such a brilliantly complicated man and such an impossibly relentless competitor, that to fully realise him enough to grip the audience tight enough for them to root for him at the end, meant giving it everything I’ve got and then some. So, buckle up London, it’s time to witness the comeback of all comebacks!”
After his success at the Edinburgh Fringe, winning the 2011 Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Comedy Show, Adam is rightly viewed as the premier exponent of innovative live comedy. In 2019 he embarked on his debut UK tour with The Adam Riches Experience, before returning to Edinburgh with the sell-out murder mystery show The Beakington Town Hall Murders. In 2023 Adam performed two shows at the Edinburgh Fringe - the premiere of the long-awaited sequel to The Guy Who… The Guys Who and Dungeons n’ Bastards, his Sean Bean hosted medieval-flavoured gameshow.
Adam became familiar to UK television audiences through his exaggerated comic parody of actor Sean Bean on the panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and has also appeared on Detectorists (BBC Four), Top Coppers (BBC Three), Horrible Histories (BBC One) and Drunk History (Comedy Central).
He can currently be seen playing Michael Ball in the award nominated, five-star comedy juggernaut Adam Riches and John Kearns ARE Ball & Boe – For Twelve Nights Only at the Soho Theatre (Apr 7 – Apr 19) ahead of three nights at the Pleasance Grand this summer (Aug 14 – 16) and one night at Soho Walthamstow (Sep 27).
