THE Ladykillers stage play has broken box office records at a popular West End theatre.

A Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse co-production, it entered the record books at the Gielgud Theatre by taking just under £400,000 in a single week.

This follows a sell-out premiere run at the Playhouse last November.

Based on the 1955 Ealing Studios film, the new stage version was written by Father Ted and IT Crowd creator Graham Linehan.

Its star-studded cast includes The Thick of It’s Peter Capaldi, James Fleet, of Four Weddings And A Funeral and The Vicar of Dibley, and actor/comedian Ben Miller.

A co-production with London-based Fiery Angel and Stage Entertainment UK, it set the box office record between Monday, December 26 and Sunday, January 1.

Everyman and Playhouse chief executive Deborah Aydon said: “It’s fantastic that London audiences love The Ladykillers as much as we all did here in Liverpool. It really has got it all – great script, great cast, great set and above all that irrepressible and irresistible sense of joy.

“We are hugely proud of its success in London and delighted that the run has extended so that Liverpool’s theatrical flag will be flying high in the West End well into the spring.” The past two years have proved a successful period for Playhouse productions away from Liverpool.

Ghost Stories, written by actor and magician Andy Nyman and The League of Gentleman’s Jeremy Dyson, premiered in the Williamson Square theatre, in February, 2010, before transferring to co-producers the Lyric Hammersmith.

An extended run in the West End followed, from June, 2010, to July, 2011, and the thriller also played in Toronto, in spring, 2011.

Last autumn, Moliere’s Tartuffe, adapted by Liverpool poet Roger McGough, undertook a national tour, while Steven Berkoff’s Oedipus, a co-production with Nottingham Playhouse, received strong reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The Swallowing Dark, by Liverpool playwright Lizzie Nunnery, transferred to London after re-opening the Playhouse Studio.

This year, the Playhouse’s sister venue, The Everyman, will take its acclaimed production of The Caretaker on a two-continent tour.

Hollywood actor Jonathan Pryce will return to the lead role of Davies when Harold Pinter’s classic visits the US and Australia in spring.

The play will feature at the Adelaide Festival before going to San Francisco’s Curran Theatre and the Southern Theatre in Columbus, Ohio.

The tour will culminate with a two-month run at New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music, where it will follow Kevin Spacey’s Richard III.