Theatre Royal Haymarket

Msamati and Wishaw triumph

Much excitement surrounded the star casting of Lucian Msamati and Ben Wishaw in a new production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot. The critics were impressed.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

‘This is the best production I’ve ever seen, ‘ declared Nick Curtis in The Standard (4★). Ben Whishaw and Lucian Msamati bring a potent, tragicomic chemistry,’ he said. Sarah Hemming from The Financial Times (4★) commented, ‘I’ve never seen the play’s dance along the border between artifice and truth so meaningfully executed. Macdonald and his team relish the play’s philosophical brilliance and emotional depth while underscoring its chastening political power.’

Sam Marlowe at The Stage (4★) noted, ‘It’s not, perhaps, a revelatory staging, and its measured pacing demands patience and close attention. But as sensitively handled as it is here, the play is at once tragic, absorbing and oddly comforting’.

The Times‘ Clive Davis (4★) said Msamati and Wishaw are ‘a beautifully paced double act in which the music hall humour is astutely balanced with dizzying glimpses into the existential abyss.’ He confessed, ‘If, like me, you’ve always been sceptical about the grandiose claims made for this play, Macdonald’s revival forces you to listen and learn.’ Wishaw, he said, ‘is in complete command as Vladimir ‘.

Cindy Marcolina for BroadwayWorld (4★) claimed, ‘This Godot is a bitter tragicomic farce, deeply philosophical but also genuinely funny. It becomes a reflection of staggering humanity in its continuous contradictions.’ She offered a qualified recommendation: ‘Go see it, but don’t break the bank in order to.’

Claire Allfree for the Telegraph  (4★) ‘MacDonald’s capacious revival offers no new radical insight. Rather its strength lies in its resistance to any specific reading while simultaneously appearing to contain many. This is a Godot as spiritual allegory, as political parable, as absurdist tragic comedy and human cry in the wilderness, a production that seems to drag us too into its dreadful struggle against the dark.’

Time Out’s Andrjez Lukowski (4★) told us ‘The performances are the big thing and here they’re acerbically funny and infinitesimally tender, something backed up by the low key humanity of Macdonald’s production.’

Adam Bloodworth in CityAM (4★) thought ‘Lucian Msamati and Whishaw bring freshness to the leads’. ‘It is thrilling to have the opportunity to study this incomparable and mercurial actor live once again,’ said Fiona Mountford in the i (4★) of Ben Wishaw.

Critics also praised the  other actors  The Independent’s Alice Saville (4★) said, ‘Jonathan Slinger is as suave as a circus ringleader in the role of enigmatic stranger Pozzo, his cruelties as precise as his pencil-thin moustachio, while as his abused servant Lucky, Tom Edden moves with the wild-eyed stiffness of Charlie Chaplin after a century-long speed bender.’

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar (3★) was less impressed than the other critics: ‘James Macdonald’s production…seems greater parts comedy than tragedy…The comedy works in itself, and so do the dramatic moments, but the two seem slightly disconnected.’ She described’Rae Smith’s set…is a grey, razed landscape, rising up in the backdrop…It could be a post-apocalyptic landscape, a version of purgatory or the aftermath of war’ .

Critics’ Average Rating 3.9★

Value rating 46 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price.)

Waiting For Godot can be seen at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until 14 December 2024. Buy tickets direct here.

If you’ve seen Waiting For Godot at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, please add your review and rating below

Old Vic

Tom Stoppard’s classic play returns to the Old Vic and becomes the first critical hit of the autumn. The praise was not quite universal and some reviewers were less impressed by Stoppard’s clever script than others, but the quality of acting and Max Webster’s production carried the day for nearly all. The play within a play structure examines the meaning of love, and drama as a way of conveying it.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski (4★) described the play as ‘a dazzlingly arch exploration of performative identity’. He said ‘Max Webster’s production is direct and accessible’ but is convinced, ‘this absolutely would not work without McArdle, whose combination of louche intellectualism, ebullient physicality and startling inner seriousness is just perfect – he plays the complicated role like some sort of esoteric string instrument.’

Nick Curtis in The Standard (4★) wrote, ‘It’s impossible not to be carried away by the brio of the whole thing, though: the way the plays-within-the-play inform mesh and overlap; the joyous relish of words; the potent, romantic yearning at the core for something pure. Here, a script is famously likened to a cricket bat, engineered to send the ball of an idea soaring without apparent effort. The Real Thing is such a play, and Webster and his cast play a blinder with it.’

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar (4★) found it ‘Artfully directed by Max Webster, with wonderful long-shadowed lighting by Richard Howell and a poppy soundtrack, the drama’s artifice is playfully exposed, maybe even sent up’ ‘at this drama’s heart is a timeless study of passion and art that 40 years on remains…exquisitely intact.’

Dominic Maxwell in The Times (4★) proposed The Real Thing as ‘the greatest Stoppard, the one that best blends formal audacity with wondrous wit and, crucially, extraordinary emotional acuity. Yet it took me a while to succumb to Max Webster’s slightly skittish production, acted out, in Peter McKintosh’s design, in a rectangle of creamy furnishings amid a sea of royal blue.’ He ended, ‘The longer it goes on, the more this production finds a plangent tone where the witty, the wise and the wounded are forever colliding.’

Marian Swain for LondonTheatre (4★) praised the director and the stars: ‘Webster beautifully punctuates his production with pop music’… ‘McArdle finds an effective balance between making Henry a facetious, maddening hypocrite and a surprisingly vulnerable romantic’ … ‘the excellent Bel Powley adds depth and fire to Annie’. She concluded, ‘the passionate performances help to counter the charge that Stoppard is merely a “clever” writer. Listen to McArdle’s Henry confess his intimate truth that “knowing, being known” is the most exquisite joy of love, and you discover that the playwright’s much-vaunted articulacy is in service of a beating heart.’

Steve Dinneen for CityAM (4★) was enamoured: ‘sometimes it’s fun to simply watch a master expertly place one word before the next in an order that frequently takes your breath away.’

Sarah Hemming writing in the Financial Times (4★) lavished praise on all aspects of the production: ‘Stage managers become part of the action, rushing to rearrange Peter McKintosh’s handsome, electric-blue living room set, as if dressing a display in department store Heal’s. The top-drawer cast bring out both the pithiness and the pain of Stoppard’s script.’

Sarah Crompton at WhatsOnStage (4★) was just as captivated. It was, she said, ‘a sophisticated and enjoyable revival of a play that still, beneath its beautiful veneer of humour, has the heft to raise troubling and endlessly fascinating questions about the state of the human heart and how we describe it.’ She too paid tribute to its star: ‘At its heart is a sensational performance from James McArdle’.

The Observer‘s Susannah Clapp (3★) found it ‘A word-spinning, form-crunching demonstration of the way the real and the pretend spin around each other in the theatre’ and thought ‘James McArdle is compelling in oration and in his unravelling.’

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish (3 ★) thought it was ‘Admirable and cleverly engaging, but not wholly loveable.’ He commented, ‘while Max Webster’s production delivers consummate style… its emotional substance is more uneven.’

Alice Saville for The Independent (3★) both liked and disliked the play: ‘there’s something resolutely unfashionable about its spectacle of adulterous middle-class couples being beastly to each other in beige living rooms. It’s Stoppard being his most brilliant, most infuriating self’. She was impressed by the lead actor: ‘James McArdle is fantastically eloquent in the central role of Henry’

Fiona Mountford for the i (3★) wasn’t keen, describing it as ‘a strongly cast revival of Tom Stoppard’s wordy but hollow 1982 rumination upon real life versus fiction, fidelity against infidelity. For all the play’s flaws, James McCardle and …Bel Powley are terrific in the leading roles.’ ‘On it goes, slick but arid and when it ends it’s a challenge to know what we’re meant to take away from it.’

Sam Marlowe for The Stage (3★) found much to admire but ‘None of it seems to matter very much. But clever? Of course.’

Gary Naylor at BroadwayWorld (2★) was not impressed at all: ‘the play I witnessed seemed barely worthy of praise, never mind the avalanche of plaudits that have come its way since its premiere 42 years ago and consequent to its many revivals since. Had I missed something? In pooh-poohing the assessments of so many fine judges, was I just being a bear of very little brain? Or had this soapy tale (albeit with longer words, but almost as much shouting) merely outlived its utility? Probably a bit of all three.’

Critics’ Average Rating 3.5★

Value rating 54 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price.)

The Real Thing can be seen at the Old Vic Theatre until 26 October 2024. Click here to buy tickets direct from the Old Vic

If you’ve seen The Real Thing at the Old Vic, please add your review and rating below

Duke of York’s Theatre

Benedict Lombe‘s Shifters was a huge success from the fringe powerhouse that is the Bush Theatre and has now transferred to the West End.  It’s a love story told in flashbacks about two people in Britain, one with Nigerian and the other Congolese heritages. We see their first love and follow them through breakups and reconciliation as their careers burgeon. At the Duke of York’s, some of the audience are on stage to recreate the traverse feel of the Bush production. The critics were universal in their 4 star reviews.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

Tom Wicker writing for The Stage (4★) was one of the few reviewers to attend the West End transfer. He handed out plaudits to the author and the cast: ‘Her brilliant ear for the cadence of their changing lives, including the darker notes, is energising.’ ‘It’s funny, grounded in authenticity and blessed with a pair of leads whose charisma pulls you effortlessly into its bittersweet tenderness.’ He expanded on his praise for the two leads: ‘Heather Agyepong and Tosin Cole, both returning from the original production, make every line sing: they’re hugely funny, but teetering on the edge of heartbreak.’

Fiona Mountford in the i (4★) thought ‘the skill of Lombe and the entire Shifters team (was) to wear tender profundity deceptively lightly.’

Other reviews are from its run at the Bush Theatre.

Nick Curtis in The Standard (4★) called it ‘a pretty-much perfect, bittersweet modern rom-com’. He said, ‘Director Lynette Linton draws achingly subtle, detailed performances from her two leads, which showcase the fine grain of Lombe’s writing.’ Frey Kwa Hawking at WhatsOnStage (4★) declared, ‘It’s a play unafraid to take its time, unfolding with careful tenderness Des and Dre’s drifting apart and coming back together, the feeling of ineffability to them, what happens when it seems to stutter.’

Donald Hutera writing for The Times (4★) was impressed by the two leads, ‘They embody two unpretentiously articulate, passionate, complicated and vulnerable people ineluctably drawn towards each other even when they appear to be most in opposition. Des and Dre’s romance unfolds in a splintered fashion that nevertheless feels satisfying, believable and whole.‘ He ended, ‘Lombe’s touching, emotionally intelligent and contemporary black British love story is itself easy to fall in love with.‘

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar (4★) said it had ‘real heart, soul and the everyday tragedy of long-lost first loves.’ She observed, ‘Directed by Lynette Linton, the pace at first feels meditative, and this allows the romance to fire up from its depths.’ Anya Ryan for Time Out (4★) said, ‘Lombe is a beautiful, nuanced and soulful writer and this is a romance overflowing with heart.’ She noted, ‘Alex Berry’s set is largely bare but decorated with luminous strip lights that look like lightning bolts and flash in different colours to show a change in the timeline. Standing among them, the actors look like they are part of something astronomical.’

Abbie Grundy for BroadwayWorld (4★) thought ‘Shifters is strongest at its most comedic. It’s here where the audiences fall in love with the characters.‘ and went on to say, ‘Shifters is a poignant piece of theatre. It’s the kind of love story you cannot help but root for and the soul connection many crave, elevated by sharp direction from Lynette Linton and undeniable chemistry from the performers.’ Aleks Sierz, taking a seat at TheArts Desk (4 ), said it was ‘exquisitely written and beautifully acted’.

Kirsten Grant, reviewing for the Telegraph (4★), said, ‘Lombe’s writing, suffused with wit and warmth, is exquisitely poetic at times. She’s at her best in those early scenes where the sharp, quick-fire verbal jousting between Cole’s Dre and Agyepong’s Des fizzes and snaps while revealing something deeper bubbling underneath.’ She was slightly more reserved than some in her praise: ‘At the heart of this drama is the connection between the two leads, at once electric and sweetly endearing. It’s a promising work from an up-and-comer still honing her craft.’

In The Stage‘s (4★) review of the Bush presentation, Holly O’Mahoney said, ‘Lombe delivers a tender, cosmic and cleverly unpredictable love story that will leave you wishing for a sequel.’

Critics’ Average Rating 4.0★

Value rating 62 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price.)

Shifters can be seen at the Duke of York’s Theatre until 12 October 2024. Click here to buy tickets from the theatre

If you’ve seen Shifters at the Bush Theatre or the Duke of York’s, please add your review and rating below

Trafalgar Theatre

Patrick Barlow‘s spoof version of the Hitchcock film, itself based on a John Buchan thriller, tells the story of Richard Hannah on the run from German spies and the British police, using minimal props and multiple theatrical effects. At the beginning of the century, it ran in the West End for nine years. It won an Olivier Award for Best Comedy and a couple of Tonys for Best Play and Best Direction during its Broadway run. Although it has hardly changed, this revival has not proved as popular with the critics as one might expect for such a previously successful show. The cast were praised, but the reviews were divided between those who thought the play was a classic farce and those who found it ‘creaky’.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

Marianka Swain, popping up at LondonTheatre (4★), was a fan: ‘Balancing suspense with slapstick, and a cracking yarn with theatrical in-jokes, it’s a welcome piece of thoroughly escapist entertainment.’ ‘One moment you’ll be giggling at the sheer ridiculousness, the next gasping at a surprisingly brilliant coup de théâtre,’ she promised. She praised all the cast, mentioning ‘Safeen Ladha is a hoot as Hannay’s various love interests’.

Alun Hood at WhatsOnStage (4★) liked it a lot, ‘It’s quirky, swift, ingenious and altogether a smashing hour and three quarters in the theatre.’ He explained: ‘It takes a lot of skill to make something look this hilariously ropey, and the show delights in the unashamedly theatrical … It’s inventive and often very silly, but it never sends up the story itself’. The cast were praised, in particular, ‘Maddie Rice is the epitome of somebody with ‘funny bones’.’

CityAM‘s Adam Bloodworth (4★) enthused, ‘The 39 Steps is an homage to the roots of theatre: these skits could have been performed 100 years ago. That they still work today is testament to the power of clowning and physical theatre, without massive technological bells and whistles, to amuse and delight.’

Franco Milazzo’s review for BroadwayWorld (3★) starts well: ‘Patrick Barlow’s parody The 39 Steps creaks and groans in places but still has plenty of laughs’ but ends ‘there’s a dated feel about this play that lacks the audacious physical japery of later stage spoofs like The Play That Goes Wrong.’ Fiona Mountford at i-news (3★) found, ‘Time hangs heavy as one fast-paced escapade hurtles into the next, given that emotional engagement with these characters is vanishingly hard to come by.’

Calling it ‘sluggish and lethargic’, Claire Allfree in the Telegraph (2★) pointed out, ‘Speed, in short, is of the essence. But speed is precisely what’s missing in tour director Nicola Samer’s production’. Dave Fargnoli in The Stage (2★) said, ‘for all the slickness of the staging, this is a creaky piece that displays little love for the source material’.

Chris Wiegand for The Guardian (2★) also thought it didn’t work: ‘Too often you sense the wheels turning instead of losing yourself in the fun. The play should be equal parts thriller, comedy and romance – an ambitious mix – but it doesn’t satisfy on any of those levels.’ He concluded, ‘the result can sometimes feel less like a thrilling race against the clock and more of a garbled rush.’

While his peers compared it unfavourably to The Play That Went Wrong, The Standard’s Nick Curtis (2★) had a different comparison in mind: ‘this revival looks tired compared to successors in a similar vein, most obviously the sublime mini-musical Operation Mincemeat’.

Critics’ Average Rating 2.9★

Value rating 42 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price.)

The 39 Steps can be seen at Trafalgar Theatre until 28 September 2024. Click here to buy tickets direct from the theatre

If you’ve seen The 39 Steps at the Trafalgar Theatre, please add your review and rating below