To wawaweewa, or not to wawaweewa?
Sacha Baron Cohen, the British actor known for his improv-heavy comedy personas like the loony Kazakh journalist Borat and Ali G, has been cast in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming new play in London, The Post has learned.
A source with knowledge of the secretive show, set to bow in early 2027, says the actor will be playing “the romantic lead,” a Douglas Fairbanks type, in “The Popinjay Cavalier.”
The Post has reached out to Cohen’s rep and the production for comment.
Cohen, who has never acted onstage professionally before, is an awfully odd pick for an even odder project.
Tarantino, the filmmaker who’s cultivated a fervent fanbase with movies like “Pulp Fiction” and “Kill Bill,” has long said he would direct 10 flicks and call it quits. His ninth was 2019’s Best Picture-nominated “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
He then announced that his final film would be called “The Movie Critic” — sounds fun! — but he soon pivoted to something nobody saw coming: an onstage “swashbuckling comedy” in the West End.
“Django Unchained”? Quentin unhinged!
Tarantino wrote “Popinjay,” which sources said bares no resemblance to the foul-mouthed, violent films his admirers love, and will direct it, having never staged a theatrical play before.
So, it’s a veritable first-timers club. Risky.
“Popinjay” is said to be a mammoth undertaking — “a movie onstage,” one source said, calling it a wannabe “Scarlet Pimpernel” — with elaborate sets and myriad scenes. Another source said the show will play at the Phoenix Theatre after “Stranger Things: First Shadow” packs up its demogorgon on Dec. 26.
Cohen — who some insiders have admitted they’re not sure is up to the demands (and lines) of a stage play — has been knee-deep in drama over the past couple years.
In 2024, actress Rebel Wilson called him an “a—hole” in her memoir “Rebel Rising” and said Cohen repeatedly tried to pressure her into nude scenes on the set of “Grimsby,” which he starred in.
She then claimed Cohen was attempting to thwart her press tour.
“I wrote about an a–hole in my book,” she said. “Now, said a–hole is trying to threaten me,” the “Pitch Perfect” star said on an Instagram story before identifying him as Cohen.
A rep for Cohen denied Wilson’s claims.
And right now in the UK, there is a push to get the actor’s upcoming movie, “Ali G: Who Iz I?,” a mockumentary in which Cohen wears dreadlocks and a Rastafarian hat, barred from being shown in cinemas.
Opponents blast the satirical character as stereotypical and offensive.
I’m told Cohen was not the first choice for Tarantino’s play, and several big names passed.
We’ll know in a few months if the actor will once again be shouting: “Great success!”
