The 25th anniversary production of Sarah Kane’s play reunites the cast, director and venue from when it was first performed one year after she took her life. It explores suicidal feelings in an experimental style. Some critics found it had lost impact, others thought it had gained in power.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
5 stars ★★★★★
WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton was overwhelmed. Her review analysed in detail why the play is a classic, and she lavished praise on the production: ‘The acting is intense, spare, and watchful. Every line has meaning, every movement has intent. It is an overwhelming experience.’
‘I found myself revelling in the brilliance and wit of the mind it conjured,’ wrote Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski. ‘Madeleine Potter is gravelly and cynical; (Daniel) Evans is lighter and more morally flexible; Jo McInnes is droll and down to earth but capable of the most volcanic emotional peaks. They take us on a journey: for all the text’s abstractions, it’s quite easy to follow what’s going on here’.
Jonathan Marshall for LondonTheatre1 said: ‘The artists and creatives behind the production truly understand the work and its nature of nonlinear form. We sense all are aboard here in showcasing the swansong of a great.’
Four stars ★★★★
Holly O’Mahony for LondonTheatre noted: ‘There is more sense of ennui than psychological distress…It verges on being mechanical in places; overly conscious of protecting its original features like a precious museum artifact. And yet this allows Kane’s words, rather than the performances, to remain the posthumous star of the show.’
The Stage’s Sam Marlowe declared: ‘This is a stark, brave drama from a truly remarkable playwright; 25 years on, it still devastates.’ But not perfect: ‘The text is often overwrought, the metaphors clunky and the language self-conscious.’
Three stars ★★★
The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar described the design: ‘Jeremy Herbert’s set is a white square with functional table, chairs and an overhanging mirror that reflects the audience and the protagonist’s selves which acquire more fractured counterparts in shadow.’ She felt the production lacked impact: ‘dramatically it is sedate. You wish for something messier, louder, angrier’.
Nick Curtis of The Standard admitted: ‘I came out of the Court feeling subdued, sad and unenlightened, but writing this hours later in a bright dawn, I find the play’s combative humanity and its striking final image of escape have stayed with me.’
2 stars ★★
The Times’ Clive Davis suggested it ‘ isn’t a play at all, rather the random, agonised reflections of a mind that has passed beyond its breaking point…There’s wave upon wave of self-loathing, icy anger and mangled religiosity, yet flashes of mordant humour too…Bleakness is piled upon bleakness. But…the words begin to turn in a monotonous circle. This production is an exercise in the actor’s craft, an exquisitely wrought gilt frame surrounding an empty canvas.’
Critics’ Average Rating 3.9★
4:48 Psychosis can be seen at the Royal Court (royalcourttheatre.com) to 5 July, and then at the RSC Stratford 10-27 July 2025 (rsc.org.uk)
If you have seen this production of 4:48 Psychosis, please leave your rating and review below
Stereophonic at the Duke of York’s.Photo: Marc Brenner
Stereophonic by David Adjmi comes from Broadway trailing the glory of a record number of Tony nominations for a play, and the Award for Best Play. If the reviews are anything to go by, it’s unlikely to repeat that success at the Oliviers. All the critics found it long but some were more absorbed than others by the story of a 70s rock band recording an album.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
Five stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
Alexander Cohen of BroadwayWorld loved it: ‘We feel like we are in the band, mixing harmonies, dubbing vocals, finding take after take exasperating. Writer David Adjmi accentuates the organic feel with conversations that overlap, slicing into each other with insecure ferocity, all finely tuned by director Daniel Aukin.’
Emma John for The Guardian was a fan: ‘At more than three hours, the run time can feel as indulgent as one of Pink Floyd’s longer tracks – but this is an extraordinary allegory for artistic perfectionism and the destruction it leaves in its wake.’
Helen Hawkins at The Arts Desk pointed out: ‘What makes this play greater than it might appear on paper is its approach to authenticity. Theatrical “reality” is often designed as a continuous stream of speeches and actions, until Beckett and Pinter et al upset that applecart. Stereophonic uses all the hiatuses, sometimes lengthy ones, that can punctuate a real event, especially one fraught with microaggressions that drive people offstage, forcing the action to stop until they return.’
The Financial Times‘ Sarah Hemming also advised that this was more than a typical drama: ‘Adjmi’s script comes in somewhere between Chekhov and the slow-burn dramas of Annie Baker, gradually building towards something much greater than the sum of its parts…in the end, this is a drama about the very human search for something bigger than ourselves.’
Four stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑
The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish was upbeat but with reservations: ‘While the balance between art and heart-ache, technical challenge and emotional clash, is well achieved, what’s missing are the specifics that might give the band a stronger inner-life. We’re left in the dark when it comes to the minutiae of their past, or the day-to-day logistics of their existence’.
Alice Saville’s review in The Independent doesn’t carry a rating but it was full of praise: ‘It romances its subject, caressing these bandmates with loving washes of golden light, dressing them in a lavish wardrobe of gorgeous 1970s blouses and flares, and letting us in on their intimate moments of silliness. These songs are private things, Adjmi shows us, scrawled in a diary in a moment of pain, trying to reach places ordinary words can’t reach.’
Antonia Georgiou for The Upcoming said: ‘Stereophonicis a triumphant celebration of the art of collaborative songwriting. With a soaring score and stellar performances, it’s a must-see for theatre and music lovers alike.’ The Standard’s Nick Curtis called it ‘a fine-grained, audacious work full of overlapping dialogue and bold use of silence and repetition amid the emotional flashpoints, not to mention some terrific songs’.
Three stars ⭑⭑⭑
The Times’ Clive Davis was disappointed: ‘The performances are first-rate, and David Zinn’s set really does make you feel as if you have a seat on the mixing desk. Yet at over three hours long it’s burdened with far too many longueurs.’
Sam Marlowe of The Stage said, ‘it’s insightful and crammed with texture…It’s sensitively directed by Daniel Aukin and the acting, from an ensemble that includes three of the original Broadway cast, feels faultlessly real and flavoursome. But in electing to give us a piece that dwells on the painful, mundane minutiae, Adjmi is authentic almost to a fault: with a protracted running time, the play has the languorous quality of an unedited documentary’.
Theatre Weekly’s Greg Stewart was unconvinced: ‘Stereophonic struggles to justify its over three-hour runtime. The play’s fly-on-the-wall realism, while admirable, often comes at the expense of narrative momentum. There’s a sense that we’re watching a band rehearse rather than a story unfold. The emotional arcs, particularly the interpersonal tensions within the group, are hinted at more than fully explored.’
Scott Matthewman for Musical Theatre Review agreed: ‘In its long stretches of extraneous ennui, Stereophonic risks undoing what, when it is at full power, it succeeds in doing: acknowledging that the messiest of behind-the-scenes chaos can, just sometimes, produce sheer musical magic.’
Critics’ Average Rating 4.3⭑
Value rating 44 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price.)
Just For One Day at Shaftesbury Theatre. Photo: Evan Zimmerman
Subtitled The Live Aid Musical (in case the original title didn’t make that clear), The Old Vic’s Just For One Day has moved to the heart of the West End. The musical by John O’Farrell covers the famine crisis in Africa, the creation of the song Do They Know It’s Christmas?, the Herculean effort to put on the concert and, of course, the day itself. The critics loved the music and singing , even if some of them found the strands of the story too messy.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
5 stars ★★★★★
Theatre Weekly’s Greg Stewart called it ‘a vibrant, emotionally charged tribute to a moment when music truly changed the world.’ He admits, ‘It’s a sprawling narrative, but director Luke Sheppard keeps the pace tight and the stakes high, ensuring the show never loses its emotional core. Whether you lived through Live Aid or are discovering it for the first time, the show captures the spirit of unity and urgency that defined that day.’
4 stars ★★★★
Theo Bosanquet at LondonTheatre said ‘the production feels well-honed and slick. It’s a high-octane blast of nostalgia pop’. Abbie Grundy for BroadwayWorld declared, ‘it’s a jukebox musical with real style and heart. While some songs feel shoe-horned in, they’re performed with such energy that you’re willing to forgive the slip in fluidity. In addition, this is one of the most talented ensembles I’ve seen in a long time’.
The anonymous reviewer from Rolling Stone UK was sure ‘This sublime jukebox musical will fill your heart and make you leave the theatre with the feeling that you could change the world too.’
3 stars ★★★
WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton had mixed feelings but the musical covers conquered her heart: ‘Best of all you get a terrific group of singers and an epic band, stacked in silhouette behind them in Soutra Gilmour’s stripped-back and flexible setting, roaring through hits…It would take a heart of stone not to have a bit of a good time… But then there is John O’Farrell’s book, at moments witty but dreadfully overinsistent and earnest for most of the time.’
Dominic Maxwell of The Times found it tried to cover too much ground: ‘when it’s so bitty there is little time for the music to build up a head of steam, to feel better than second-hand…When it does — on an extended version of Message in a Bottle or My Generation, say… it can take your breath away. Shame a rock musical doesn’t trust more in the power of rock.’
2 stars ★★
Tim Bano at the Standard was unimpressed, describing it as ‘this competent but frustratingly shallow reconstruction of Live Aid, which races through its origin story, cranks out its big hits and tells us, among other insights, that we can change the world if we work together’.
Critics’ Average Rating 3.6★
Value rating 40 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price.)
Just For One Day can be seen at Shaftesbury Theatre until 10 January 2026. Buy tickets directly.
If you’ve seen Just For One Day, please add your review and rating below
A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Bridge. Photo: Manuel Harlan
One of the Bridge Theatre’s greatest hits is back for a summer run. Nicholas Hytner’s immersive, gender fluid production brings out all the fun (and some darkness) of Shakespeare’s drug-fuelled, sex mad comedy about feuding fairies and hapless humans. It first played the Bridge to much acclaim in 2019.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
Reviews from 2025
5 stars ★★★★★
The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish returned and found ‘The success here is to make a proven delight – the finest Dream I’ve seen – stir wonder again; even if you’re re-encountering the show, it still seems fresh and strange, a shared reverie you never want to end.’ He gave a detailed list of why it’s so good which included: ‘The space works like some hallucinogenic kaleidoscope; locations emerge through the floor and then, in the twinkling of an eye, submerge.’
The Standard’s Nick Curtis was another critic who welcomed it back: ‘It’s beautifully staged and acted, thought provoking, technically brilliant, and ends up with a party. Seriously, what’s not to like?…I can’t remember enjoying a Dream more.’ Debbie Gilpin at BroadwayWorld felt ‘Hytner and his cast and creatives have found a way of bottling pure joy’.
4 stars ★★★★
Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski said , ‘the new actors are bloody great and the show remains a hoot.’ Kate Wyver at The Guardian observed, ‘Nicholas Hytner’s rollicking production of Shakespeare’s great comedy feasts on bawdy mischief and aerial antics.’
Katie Chambers for The Stage described the ‘kinetic set from Bunny Christie, bathed in green and amorous purple by Bruno Poet’s lighting. Lovers scamper through a forest of ivy-covered bunk beds.’ Julia Rank of LondonTheatre said, ‘It’s a play in which the whimsical and the serious intertwine and joy prevails.’
The Times’ Dominic Maxwell asked, ‘Will you feel much? I doubt it. Will you be too taken with the near-constant sense of expectations being monkeyed with to worry about that? I suspect so.’
Reviews from 2019
5 stars ★★★★★
The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish couldn’t have been happier: ‘combining eroticism and enchantment, levity and darkness, Hytner’s latest hit scales the heights.’ Henry Hitchings for The Standard was just as enthusiastic: ‘Poking fun at the vogue for immersive theatre while also embracing the genre’s potential for frenetic playfulness and immediacy, it’s funny, sexy and romantic.’
Kate Kellaway at The Observer went even further: ‘when, at the end, large moon balloons are tossed into the crowd, it seems the party will go on forever. I found myself calculating: five stars might not be enough. How about throwing in an extra moon?’
4 stars ★★★★
Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski described it as ‘messy, sprawling and quite glorious’. Paul Taylor at The Independent called it a ‘gloriously funny, immersive take on A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
The Times’ Dominic Maxwell had a great time: ‘I am, most of all, having a lot of fun at Nicholas Hytner’s immersive, irreverent, spectacular, slyly feminist, sometimes properly dreamlike staging of Shakespeare’s summer special. Beds rise up through the floor, characters hop between them or fall through them, fairies fly above us.’
3 stars ★★★
The Guardian’s Michael Billington had reservations, calling it a ‘delirious party, I would have enjoyed it still more if it released the microscopic beauties of Shakespeare’s text as well as the play’s comic energy.’
Saying ‘This is hardly as radical as it seems to want to position itself’, Mark Shenton for LondonTheatre nevertheless called it ‘fast and fluid, fun and occasionally surprising’.
Critics’ Average Rating (2025) 4.4★
Value rating 63 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price.)
The Frogs at Southwark Playhouse. Photo: Pamela Raith
The Frogs was not Stephen Sondheim’s finest musical, as he himself admitted. The reviews all gave this new production three stars except The Stage which couldn’t manage more than two. The critics considered the songs to be worthy of the musicals master but agreed the book, first written by Burt Shevelove and then expanded by Nathan Lane is lacking, despite a decent effort by director Georgie Rankcom.
The cast led by Dan Buckley and Glee’s Kevin McHale were praised. The story, taken from Aristophanes, sees Dionysos traveling to Hades to choose between GB Shaw and Shakespeare as the playwright who can save the play and change the world.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
3 stars ⭑⭑⭑
WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton, while conceding ‘The show is full of good things and some terrifically clever songs’, found it ‘overlong and overinsistent.’
David Jay for The Guardian observed, ‘Burt Shevelove’s book makes scenes feel more like skits…but however stodgy the setting, the songs still shine.’
Anya Ryan at LondonTheatre noted, ‘Rankcom’s ever-surprising production is basically as good as The Frogs can get; it is topical and lighthearted, with no weak link. Still, there is a reason why the show remains one of Sondheim’s lesser-known works. For all its eccentric charm and spark, it remains a curious, slow-moving beast.’ Tim Bano for The Standard concurred: ‘Rankcom and a strong cast bring excellence in flashes, but they’re too swallowed by the messiness of the whole thing.’ For Gary Naylor on The Arts Desk, the music saved the day: ‘We get over a dozen strong songs given full value by a fine set of singers’.
Clementine Scott of BroadwayWorld described the book as ‘a jarring blend of mythological pastiche, physical comedy lifted verbatim from the original Greek text, and attempts to link Aristophanes’s central theme – the role of art in society – to the present day. A stellar cast…commit exuberantly to all of these ideas, but don’t manage to connect them coherently.’
Chris Omaweng of LondonTheatre1 had a personal gripe: ‘The cast worked hard, but the show was a bit of a slog for me…And for a show called The Frogs, shouldn’t the frogs in question have more to do and say?’
2 stars ⭑⭑
Paul Vale in The Stage found it ‘meandering and awkwardly shaped.’ Bit like this roundup, then.
Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter in Mrs Warren’s Profession. Photo: Johan Persson
George Bernard Shaw‘s play was controversial when written because its subject was prostitution and the position of women in society. These days, its points about our patriarchal society are still relevant but Shaw is considered by many to be hectoring and verbose. Director Dominic Cooke has cut the play down to less than two hours with no interval and modernised some aspects., which made many of the reviewers very happy. However, the production is still set in the appropriate period, leaving some critics puzzled by what exactly had been modernised. No reviewer questioned the power of Imelda Staunton‘s acting but most liked her sparring with her stage daughter played by her real life daughter Bessie Carter. The scenes in which the privileged young woman comes to realise the source of her mother’s wealth, and her parent tries to explain the realties of women’s position in society were felt to be the strongest.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
5 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
Alexander Cohen of BroadwayWorld loved the play, even in its abridged form: ‘despite the star power and polished performances, it’s Bernard Shaw’s eloquent political prowess that commands the spotlight in this quietly bruising revival.’
4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑
WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton was impressed: ‘the great virtue of the production is it allows the women to shine. Staunton’s Kitty is a close relation of her Mama Rose, monstrous in her own way, but more understandable and with more pathos…(Carter) brings to the stage an honesty, a clarity of expression and thought.’ She approved the choice of mother and daughter: ‘The result is an extraordinary tour de force that brings the play to vivid and compelling life.’
An anonymous reviewer at Time Out admired the two stars: ‘Carter’s Vivie is the centre of the play, and Carter imbues this unconventional woman with the appropriate mix of modern and traditional sensibilities’. As for her mother, ‘Staunton is too smart, too empathetic an actor to aim to overpower her fellow actors. Her Mrs Warren is a walking contradiction rather than a larger than life archetype…These two-hander scenes are where the real mastery of Staunton’s performance is made apparent. There is so much subtle pain in her voice’. The reviewer remarked contentiously, ‘they don’t make actors as interesting as Staunton anymore.’
The Independent’s Alice Saville approved: ‘Cooke’s pared-back production lets… modernity shine out, scrapping all that tedious late-Victorian stage business of tablecloths and rattling teacups in favour of a simple circle of greenery – ravishingly imagined by designer Chloe Lamford’. She confirmed, ‘Staunton is on tremendous form as this faintly cockney-accented grande dame, a hard head under her fluffy coiffure. “Women have to pretend to feel a great deal that they don’t feel,” she says, to audience murmurs of approval, as she styles sex work for survival as just one of the many moral compromises required by female members of a patriarchal society.’
LondonTheatre‘s Marianka Swain declared, ‘Staunton gives formidable voice to Mrs Warren, the latest in her line of indomitable grafters (from Mama Rose to Dolly Levi). She lends fascinating complexity to a woman who is both victim and perpetrator…Carter is outstanding as the robustly pragmatic Vivie, whose assured sense of self is shattered by a series of revelations’.
Now that The Observer has uncoupled from The Guardian, it has its own website, and it’s a pleasure to find one of our finest critics Susannah Clapp posting when she sees a show, as opposed to having to wait until Sunday. She was struck by Staunton ‘s daughter: ‘In a performance that made me eager to see her again and again on the stage, Carter gleams with candour and intelligence, yet is also touched by chilliness.’ Ms Clapp no longer gives star ratings but I assume 4 stars.
3 stars ⭑⭑⭑
The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar ‘Both mother and daughter give dignified performances, Staunton the more subtle and formidable with an edge of the dandy while Vivie is plainer and more upright. The play flares fully to life in their duologues but the scenes around them feel filled with extraneous, thinly drawn characters and plot.’
The Times’ Clive Davis had some choice words for Shaw’s words: ‘The torrent of words beats you into submission. Even with a text that has been cut down and clarified by Cooke himself, you still sense Shaw’s hectoring presence.’ He pointed out, ‘Fine actress though she is, Staunton struggles to step out of the great man’s shadow, although it’s intriguing to see her sparring with her real-life daughter, Bessie Carter’
The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish found ‘Dominic Cooke’s briskly efficient, interval-free revival courts seeming a bit anodyne’. Fortunately, Staunton can ‘still rivet attention with just a glance or a twitch of the shoulders’ and ‘The big scenes between mother and daughter are quietly tremendous, and crackle with a genuine sense of a familial bond without becoming cosy’.
Fiona Mountford in the i was lukewarm: ‘The production offers up occasional moments of huge emotion, all of which come from Staunton’. The Mail’s Patrick Marmion thought, ‘The diminutive yet ferocious Staunton is a mouse that roars. And the Amazonian yet graceful Carter is a gazelle that purrs’, but didn’t approve of the editing, saying Dominic Cooke’s ‘expurgated version occupies safe moral high ground in a production that strips the colour and gaiety from the original.’
Olivia Garrett at Radio Times praised the two stars, ‘The delivery of their duologues is pitch-perfect, lines pinging off one another, and yet, both play with pauses and stillness in a way that feels utterly authentic.’
2 stars ⭑⭑
Tim Bano writing for The Standard was not a fan: ’Cooke’s slimline text and his lavish production turn a remarkably punchy 130-year old play into exactly what you fear an evening of Bernard Shaw might be: worthy and dull’. Even the great Imelda Staunton disappointed him: ‘It’s Staunton doing what she does well, and has done before. Staunch, slightly terrifying. Every line a masterclass in technical precision, in full commitment. And here, it doesn’t work. She’s in a melodrama while everyone around her is in a pleasant garden comedy. She tramples over the humour, the fun, and that means the serious bits don’t stand out.’
The Stage’s Sam Marlowe spent much of her review recounting the plot, often a sign that there is little to say about the production. She did observe, ‘although… Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter are focused and meticulous as Kitty and Vivie Warren, and while there’s plenty of gristle to chew on here, there’s somehow a lack of bone, blood and, ultimately, heart.’
Critics’ Average Rating: 3.3⭑
Value rating 35 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)
Shucked at the Open Air Theatre. Photo: Pamela Raith
The critics couldn’t resist the opportunity to provide a corn-ucopia of puns to match the corn-based one liners on stage. This very American story of a self-contained corn-growing town which seeks outside help when their crop fails might have seemed unlikely to travel well. However, The Open Air Theatre‘s new Artistic Director Drew McOnie decided its silly wordplay and rather good country music tunes would appeal to audiences this side of the Atlantic, and he was right. Many, but not all, reviewers wallowed in the silliness. But for some, it was just too silly. The combination of a good rating from the critics and relatively low ticket prices have made this the Best Value Show in the West End, at the time of writing.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
5 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
After his 1 star experience at 1536, The Times’ Clive Davis clearly needed cheering up, and this was the show to do it. It covered all the bases for him. ‘The songwriters Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally are steeped in Nashville values, which means that every song, even the occasional straight one, has an authentic ring.’ ‘Robert Horn’s book is a thing of beauty. The storyline may be slender but it’s crammed with in-jokes and sly nods and winks, all stitched neatly into place by the show’s Broadway director, Jack O’Brien. The phallic implications of corn on the cob are never far from anyone’s mind, and the two mischievous narrators, played by Monique Ashe-Palmer and Steven Webb, gleefully chip away at the fourth wall on the designer Scott Pask’s lopsided barn.’
Greg Stewart of Theatre Weekly was in awe of it: ‘What makes Shucked so endearing is its refusal to take itself too seriously. It’s a show that revels in wordplay and absurdity, yet never loses sight of its emotional core. Beneath the corny jokes and humorous asides lies a sincere message about embracing change, challenging tradition, and finding strength in community.’
4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑
Alun Hood at WhatsOnStage warned, ‘If exchanges like “what’s happenin’ brother?” “I just passed a huge squirrel…which is odd cos I don’t remember eating one” make you groan not guffaw, Shucked isn’t for you.’ It seemed it was for him: ‘It’s not elegant but if you’re in the right frame of mind, or maybe mindlessness, it’s pretty funny…Like that ubiquitous yellow vegetable, it’s only moderately nourishing but it’s sweet and surprisingly delicious.’
For Chris Omaweng at LondonTheatre1, it was ‘Very silly but very entertaining, it’s a satisfying evening of escapism.’ He explained, ‘There’s plenty of toilet humour, jokes about what goes on down below, and a large collection of puns and random thoughts that range from profound to puerile.’
The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish was impressed: ‘Robert Horn’s book chases laughs but its undercutting wit sharpens the experience rather than hollowing it out. Resembling breathing spaces, some songs may be corny in sentiment but also impart homespun truths.’
The Standard’s Nick Curtis said, ‘This knowingly ridiculous story is winningly sold, with a good deal of winking and smirking, by the alchemical double-act of Monique Ashe-Palmer and Steven Webb as Storytellers 1 and 2’.
Matt Wolf of LondonTheatre liked the way ‘the material even at its most outré (which is quite often) always regards its characters with respect.’ And he loved the script: ‘I can’t recall another production in recent years with so many lines ripe for the picking. I remain partial to the proviso from the ever-winning Seadon-Young’s Gordy: “Like the lazy dentist said, ‘Brace yourself’”.’
3 stars ⭑⭑⭑
The Stage’s Sam Marlowe enjoyed its silliness: ‘this is all romantic moonshine and capering nonsense. Make no mistake, it’s super stoopid. But at its best, it’s also sorta super – an uncomplicated good time.’ Alice Saville at The Independent had reservations about the show, finding it ‘very very American’, but the songs were ‘unabashedly gorgeous’ and she concluded it was a ‘dizzying dose of good old-fashioned corn syrup.’
For Chris Wiegand of The Guardian, it was too much: ‘everyone shares the compulsion to deliver bon mots, lollipop stick jokes and small-town homespun humour. It’s ultimately exhausting and not only flattens character but reduces dialogue to the same pattern of setup, pause and punchline (many of which you see coming), slowing down Jack O’Brien’s rambling production.’ But he did like the music: ‘it’s Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally’s songs that often blow you away: hoedowns, lonesome ballads, stagecoach rhythms, loud and proud show tunes, with a five-piece band heavy on the guitars and giving a percussive boost to the humour.’
Cindy Marcolina of BroadwayWorld was underwhelmed: ‘Every inch is tropey and formulaic, with quips that are either the low-hanging cob or the most extravagant sexual innuendo, missing the sophistication of well-calibred humour altogether. It has plenty of moments of brilliance and the company is overwhelmingly excellent, but the material isn’t as dazzling.’
Time Out‘s Andrjez Lukowski enjoyed the jokes but that wasn’t enough for him: ‘Shucked is very, very funny. When the laughter stops, you’re really not left with much of substance, but if you’re in the market for turning off your brain and laughing at corn for two-and-a-half-hours, this is clearly the show for you.’
I suspect there will be plenty of people who will settle for an insubstantial good laugh.
Critics’ Average Rating: 3.8⭑
Value rating 58 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)
Martin Freeman & Jack Lowden in The Fifth Step. Photo: Johan Persson
The Fifth Step appears to have joined Cyprus Avenue and The Ulster American as one of David Ireland’s finest plays, judging by the critics’ response to it. In this two-hander, Jack Lowden, best known for TV’s Slow Horses, is Luka, a new member of Alcoholics Anonymous, and Martin Freeman (Sherlock, The Hobbit, The Responder), is James, longtime sober, who agrees to be his sponsor. The ‘fifth step’ involves confessionals, and that’s where the relationship starts to fall apart in stories of drink, sex and religion. All the critics raved about the two stars’ performances, and most were knocked out by the wit and drama of Ireland’s writing, but a few found the play subdued.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
5 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
BroadwayWorld’s Cindy Marcolina was full of praise: ‘Plays like The Fifth Step don’t come around often. Those whose layered philosophical exoskeleton sublime their own dramatic contradictions into quietly superb theatre. At its core, though less pure black comedy and more complex introspective drama coated in dark irony than what you’d expect from David Ireland, it has that delicious push-and-pull that only Ireland can write.’
Jonathan Marshall for LondonTheatre1 declared, ‘Ireland is in his own lane when it comes to playwrighting. The script is meticulously constructed with our expectations constantly subverted. In the wrong hands, the idea of spirituality could come over as trite and clichéd. Here it is depicted with an authentic rawness that we buy into and believe.’ The Mail’s Patrick Marmion also gave top marks, ‘mobilising four-letter, weapons-grade repartee, Ireland is never merely gratuitous and has a genius for embarrassing moral dilemmas.’
4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑
Theatre Weekly’s Greg Stewart noted, ‘Ireland’s script dances around a myriad of different themes, yet remains sharp, laced with biting humour and moments of aching vulnerability, deftly navigating themes of addiction, masculinity, and the elusive nature of faith and religion without ever slipping into sentimentality.’ As for the actors, ‘Freeman delivers a stand-out performance as James, a man whose calm exterior masks a storm of guilt and regret. His every pause and glance is loaded with subtext, making his eventual unravelling all the more harrowing. Lowden, meanwhile, is magnetic as Luka—volatile, charming, and deeply wounded.’
Holly O’Mahony of LondonTheatre said, ‘It’s a serious subject matter, but scorching one-liners, usually delivered by a deadpan Lowden but sometimes a quick-to-bite Freeman, ensure the play remains surprisingly funny at every turn. And the pair bring compelling opposing energies, with Freeman’s initially upbeat, delicately curious James a delicious contrast to Holden’s blunt, unfiltered Luka. Whether tender or troubling, chemistry always bubbles between them as they ping-pong through Ireland’s terse script.’ For Chris Wiegand in The Guardian, ‘The timing is impeccable throughout but…both give unsettling performances in a drama that specifically interrogates the role of a sponsor yet applies to multiple positions of authority and influence’.
Sarah Crompton of WhatsOnStage summed up her perceptive review by saying, ‘Freeman and Lowden spar like champions. The Fifth Step, carefully directed by Finn den Hertog, spins through many moods and multiple questions but it never loses its grip. It is a fascinating study of men with lives out of control, and the danger of the ways they seek to exert their power over others and themselves.’
Nick Curtis of The Standard proclaimed, ‘It’s seriously good to see these two actors back in a theatre in such challenging material, on an open stage that offers nowhere to hide’. He gave an added incentive: ‘There’s also an absolutely magnificent final, visual gag that’s almost worth the price of admission alone.’ Dave Fargnoli of The Stage disagreed about the ending, it seems: ‘Although the writing is baggy in places, and never really finds a satisfying conclusion, Ireland opts to leave the piece feeling deliberately messy and unfinished, just like his complex characters’ journeys towards sobriety.’ However he called it a ‘knotty, introspective two-hander…Directed with unsettling, slow-burning precision by Finn den Hertog’.
‘Lowden is staggeringly good as a young loner, Luka,’ reported The Times’ Clive Davis, ‘all jitters and tics and swear words, who is trying to pull himself out of an alcoholic spiral. Freeman impresses too as James, the adviser who is trying to help his protégé through the 12-step programme to sobriety.’ Helen Hawkins at The Arts Desk found ‘Lowden, as is usual with this exceptional actor, totally inhabits (his) wired character’.
3 stars ⭑⭑⭑
For the Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish, ‘despite bubbling with hard-won authenticity and again displaying Ireland’s flair for nifty, surprising dialogue, the short evening… winds up seeming curiously flat.’
Andrzej Lukowski of Time Out is not a fan of David Ireland’s provocative writing. He described this play as ‘uneven and didactic. Dialling down the outrage exposes the fact Ireland’s not exactly a man who writes deeply nuanced chracters. But it’s also funny, weird, well acted and provocative in a much more profound way than the nihilistic button pressing of old. And if Ireland has mellowed, its only so far – the intrinsically caustic nature of his writing has allowed him to write a play about the human yearning for spirituality that isn’t unbearably cringe.’
Alice Saville for The Independent was disappointed: ‘Director Finn den Hertog stages things simply, in the round. You’d expect a set-up like this to offer plenty of emotional punch, plenty of space for characters to unfurl, but the tension between these two performers doesn’t simmer as it should…this is a production that puts its hands firmly round your neck without ever delivering the expected throttling.’
Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk are established musical theatre writers in the US but The Mad Ones is their London debut. It’s the story of a teenager driving her new car with her mother, her boyfriend and her dead best friend, and going back in time to wonder what she’s doing with her life.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
5 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
Paul Vale for The Stage rated it highly: ‘It’s refreshing to see such an experimental structure in a musical: it jumps around in time while playing fast and loose with the fourth wall. This format seems to allow the writers far more scope for creativity, each scene informing the narrative, as if they’re applying a fine wash to a painting, leading to a much greater depth of colour. It’s backed up by a beautifully crafted, compelling score that veers confidently between searing, heartfelt ballads and quirky comedy with whip-smart lyrics.’ He continued, ‘For a small-scale show in a studio space, Lloyd’s flawless production punches well above its weight, from the pitch-perfect cast to Reuben Speed’s ominous, fragmented glass set design, which mirrors Sam’s shattered life.’
4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑
LondonTheatre1‘s Chris Omaweng described it as ‘A charming journey that calls its audiences to consider what really matters in life, it’s sweet but not saccharine, multilayered but not overly complex.’
3 stars ⭑⭑⭑
Tom Ambrose at LondonTheatre wasn’t so impressed: ‘Although there is enough here to have an enjoyable, thought-provoking evening of musical theatre, it is not always clear what the point of the story is and, worse yet, The Mad Ones doesn’t know when it has outstayed its welcome.’
Harry Bower at All That Dazzles observed, Thematically…it’s a crowded field—grief, maternal pressure, queerness, friendship, teenage angst and relationship struggle, academic expectation, the fragility of youth. All rich veins, but rarely mined in depth.’
Cindy Marcolina for BroadwayWorld called it ‘a sweet contemporary musical with a heart of gold.’
Tanya Reynolds, Siena Kelly and Liv Hill in 1536. Photo: Helen Murray
Four stars from many critics for Ava Pickett’s debut play, a product of the Almeida’s scheme to encourage new writing. It imagines the devastating effect on the lives of three ordinary women when Henry VIII executes Anne Boleyn. Modern parallels are inescapable when, throughout society, men are encouraged in their domination of women. The reviews suggested it tailed off a little at the end, otherwise it was high praise for a production directed by Lindsay Turner and starring Tanya Reynolds, Siena Kelly and Liv Hill.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑
The Guardian’s Miriam Gillinson got straight to the point: ‘Set against the impending execution of Anne Boleyn, 1536 is an effortlessly funny, bold and ballsy play, which asks the question: just how much have things really changed for women today?’
‘it’s a terrific debut, with meaty roles for three of our finest young actresses, and plenty for an incisive director like Turner to get her teeth into. Bravo,’ proclaimed The Standard’s Nick Curtis.
The Stage’s Sam Marlowe wrote, ‘Kelly, Reynolds and Hill are deliciously natural together, funny, irreverent, tender and teasing…There is, perhaps, nothing startlingly new here; but there’s a freshness and an ease about Pickett’s ear for conversational gambit and character foible that makes the play eminently watchable’.
Sarah Crompton at WhatsOnStage called it ‘an impressive, involving evening’. Time Out’s Andrjez Lukowski summed it up as ‘A fascinating feminist hybrid of EastEnders, Samuel Beckett and Wolf Hall’ or, to put it another way, ‘1536 is a droll and perceptive period piece that’s also a searing and unsettling contemporary feminist drama’.
Ella Duggan for The Independent declared ‘Pickett…has written a script that is lean but dense, rich in vernacular and laced with wit’ and ‘Director Lyndsey Turner orchestrates it all with characteristic finesse, guiding us from rolling laughter to horror with a barely susceptible gear change.’
3 stars
Clare Allfree for The Telegraph describing the play as ‘effervescent, extremely funny’ noted, ‘Pickett characterises her protagonists with eye-popping vitality and, thanks in no small part to outstanding performances from Reynolds, Kelly and Hill, in ways that vividly energise our understanding of historic female experience at the hands of men.’
1 star ⭑
The Times’ Clive Davis was mystified by the play’s appeal to others. He called it ‘the kind of simplistic, feminist-lite drama about the evils of patriarchy that you normally encounter in a one-hour slot at the Edinburgh Fringe, where my instinct would be not to write a review to spare the feelings of everyone involved.’
