I’m having so much fun — I’ll be back, says Danny DeVito

It's been 40 years since Danny DeVito was last on stage, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and he has never played the West End before.

But at the age of 67, the Hollywood star says he is enjoying Neil Simon’s comedy The Sunshine Boys so much that he would come back to do another show in London “at the drop of a hat”.

“I’m having so much fun,” he said last night at his opening night party at the Grand Connaught Rooms. “It’s just powerful and wonderful. I just go out there and dive in. I’ve been riding the wave.”

Richard Griffiths, The History Boy star, was already on board when producer Sonia Friedman and Neil Simon himself came up with DeVito as dream casting for the revival at the Savoy Theatre but they were initially told he did not do plays.

After begging for him to be given the script — best known in the 1975 film version with George Burns and Walter Matthau — he agreed within 48 hours.

DeVito said it was the combination of the “brilliant” script, Griffiths and director Thea Sharrock, and added: “Everything fell into place. You want to keep doing new things, challenging things.”

The star, who said he has already “done all the touristy things like the Tower of London” on previous visits, is staying at the Savoy, “so it’s a fall out of bed to go to work.”