The story of how King George VI overcame his fear of public speaking through the help of Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue was first researched by David Seidler in the 1970s. He had originally conceived the piece as a stage play, and contacted Valentine Logue, Lionel's son, and was able to gather information about the story. Valentine Logue asked Seidler to contact the Queen Mother and ask her for approval of the story being publicized. She responded she did not want the story told until after she died. The Queen Mother died in 2002, and it wasn't until 2005 that Seidler began working on the story again. It was instead conceived as film. The film version of The King's Speech, that starred Colin Firth as King George and Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, was a critical success and won several Oscars including Best Original Screenplay for Seidler. The success of the film encouraged producers to bring the story to the stage as originally intended.[2]
The play made its World Premiere in February 2012 at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. It then went on a short tour in the UK and then premiered at the Wyndham's Theatre on the West End.[3]
In 2015, the play was staged at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.[4]
In 2016, the play was staged in Germany at the Neuss RLT Theatre.[5]