Category: Reviews Roundup

Posted on

Reviews roundup: Tom Hiddleston & Hayley Atwell in Much Ado About Nothing

Party Time with Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell

theatre royal drury lane
Hayley Atwell & Tom HIddleston in Much Ado About Nothing

Director Jamie Lloyd has turned Shakespeare’s romantic comedy into a confetti strewn party. The critics loved the production and the stars Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell. It received a tidal wave of 5 star reviews plus a handful awarding a ‘mere’ 4 stars, making it the highest rated limited-run show in the West End.

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

Andrzej Lukowksi in Time Out (5★) declared ‘it is very funny, it looks incredible, and if Lloyd has festooned it in millennial silliness then I guess what’s actually more significant is the way he, Hiddleston and Atwell have teased the Beatrice-Benedick romance into a poignant story about middle aged loneliness and being left behind as your friends settle.’

Sarah Hemming of The Financial Times (5★) certainly liked it: ‘Hiddleston’s Benedick is impishly charming, savouring his own waggishness, flirting with the audience…Atwell responds with a Beatrice of mercurial intelligence and emotional truth…Heartbreak, hope, healing — it’s all here in this gorgeous, big-hearted production.’

Dominic Cavendish of the Telegraph (5★) thought ‘The boldest stroke (design: Soutra Gilmour) is a sustained shower of pink confetti. It’s faintly magical to behold; on another level, it chimes with the play’s tragicomic mix of autumnal wistfulness and amorous adventure.’

The Standard’s Nick Curtis (5★) was awestruck: ‘The rain of flamingo confetti, the sexually androgynous and brightly-coloured costumes, the charisma and chemistry of two good-looking stars, the air of hedonism and the drama of the big, bare stage… this is altogether gorgeous.’

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar (5★) said, ‘This is a thoroughly weird and absolutely wonderful re-conceptualisation, turning Shakespeare’s comedy, which narrowly swerves tragedy, into an old school house party cum modern romcom.’ Aliya Al-Hassan of BroadwayWorld (5★) called it ‘Hugely camp, incredibly romantic and wildly fun.’

Marianka Swain at LondonTheatre (5★) was impressed: ‘A very game Hiddleston leans into the hamminess of the posturing Benedick, from his rock-star entrance amid a cloud of dry ice to his eyebrow-waggling audience flirtation (“I am loved of all ladies” indeed), madcap dad-dancing, or teasing of a buff chest by undoing his shirt buttons…Atwell also handles that tonal balance with incredible aplomb. Her Beatrice is a quick-witted, passionate, uncompromising force of nature, but she is capable of profound stillness too.’

Sarah Crompton WhatsOnStage (5★) also raved about the two stars’ ‘ability to take Shakespeare’s words and make them both truthful and incredibly funny today.’ About Tom Hiddleston, she said, ‘he brings the full weight of his charm and his impeccable timing to bear both on Beatrice and on the gallery. He weaves through the lines with revealing precision, finding lovely pauses between thoughts’. Her praise for Hayley Atwell was just as fulsome: ‘Few actresses have her power to summon emotion and show thought, not just through her face, but in her entire body.  She is clever, quick with the lines, but also completely in touch with her feelings.’

Stefan Kyriazis for the Express (5★) ‘This show is camp, mischievous, exuberant, romantic, life, love and laughter-affirming bliss.’ Rachel Halliburton at The Arts Desk (5★) summed it as ‘one of the best parties in town’.

I’m not sure why Clive Davis of The Times (4★) dropped a star but he was full of praise: ‘Lloyd’s mischievous club-culture reinvention of Much Ado About Nothing has colour, passion and, in the form of Tom Hiddleston, a head-miked leading man who is absolutely in command. His Benedick leers and winks at the audience, gives his fans a peek of an ultra-chiselled six-pack and demonstrates that he’s light on his feet too. Hayley Atwell more than holds her own as a wilful Beatrice strutting her stuff in a catsuit.’

The Independent‘s Alice Saville (4★) told us ‘Soutra Gilmour’s fantastically ballsy design fills the stage with a gigantic, floor-to-ceiling inflatable love heart while seemingly-neverending drifts of pink confetti speckle the air around them…Fluffy though his staging might look, Lloyd strips the frills from this story to reveal the push and pull of rejection and reconciliation at its heart.’

Dave Fargnoli for The Stage (4★) described it as ‘Joyous, unashamedly silly and shot through with real tenderness’. He was pleased that ‘Shakespeare’s language is made breezy and lucid by a uniformly strong cast with an absolute grasp of the piece’s poetry and humour.’ Greg Stewart of Theatre Weekly (4★) called it ‘an exhilarating theatrical experience anchored by stellar performances from its leads and ensemble.’

Critics’ Average Rating 4.7★

Value rating 49 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)

Much Ado About Nothing can be seen at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane until 5 April 2025. Click here to buy direct from the  theatre 

If you’ve seen Much Ado About Nothing at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, please add your review and rating below

Posted on

Theatre Reviews Roundup: Jonathan Bailey as Richard II

Jonathan Bailey gives a regal performance

Bridge theatre
Jonathan Bailey as Richard II at The Bridge

There was a mostly positive reaction from the critics to Jonathan Bailey‘s portrayal of Richard II. The Bridgerton star has the chance to show a range of emotion as a man born to be king but unfit for the role.  Shakespeare‘s play covers the last two turbulent years’ of his reign . There was slightly less enthusiasm for Nicholas Hytner‘s production which many felt was uninspired.

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

The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar (4★) enjoyed it: ‘Nicholas Hytner, as director, smooths away most of the play’s creakiness with a pared-down production that has the pace and intrigue of a thriller. It is muscular in its look and Bailey singularly shines, his luminosity putting the others slightly in the shade.’

Olivia Rook at LondonTheatre (4★) was another fan: ‘Bailey reveals and revels in all facets of this magnetic king and as Hytner has said in multiple interviews, he speaks Shakespeare “as though it is his first language”.’ Neil Norman in the Express (4★) thought ‘Bailey is effectively ineffectual as Richard, viciously petulant and deluded throughout’. He called Hytner’s production ‘illuminating’.

Sarah Crompton for WhatsOnStage (4★) was also on board: ‘The most compelling quality of the staging – driven on by a Hitchcockian score by Grant Olding – is the way that it treats the unfolding events not as historical inevitability, but as if they are changing moment to moment.’ She continued, ‘It’s propulsively driven, and often surprisingly funny, wheeling along with an absolute confidence. It’s been a long time since Hytner’s directed a history play and it feels worth the wait.’

Cindy Marcolina for BroadwayWorld (4★) liked the star but not the production: ‘Bailey now takes on a complicated head of state, breaking him open and thinning the lines between divisive, problematic political figure and sardonic, villainous poet. It’s Jonathan Bailey’s world and we’re merely living in it, but Nicholas Hytner’s production sees a five-star cast stuck in a three-star show. A drastic lack of identity keeps this Richard II moored, making it a standard modern-day adaptation that refuses to delve into anything particular.’

The Standard‘s Nick Curtis (4★) opined, ‘Jonathan Bailey gives the best performance I’ve ever seen of Shakespeare’s flawed monarch, an erratic tyrant who gains dignity once deposed.’ The Telegraph‘s Dominic Cavendish (3★) had had better: ‘He acquits himself well…even if, despite impressive splenetic flourishes, he doesn’t attain the recent greatness of Ben Whishaw and David Tennant in the part.’

The Times’ Clive Davis (3★) mischievously reported, ‘Jonathan Bailey gives us a monarch who is forever teetering on the edge of hysteria, with a touch of camp too…a surprising amount of laughter kept rippling through the stalls…Had we stumbled into a pilot episode of Blackadder?’

Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out (3★) was lukewarm: ‘Bailey’s king…at his best presents the air of a smug but inept middle manager’. He continued: ‘There is interesting territory to be explored in the hinterlands between Richard’s supposedly divine appointment and his mediocrity as a person. But too often Hytner’s production gets lost in them.’

The Stage’s Sam Marlowe (3★) felt Jonathan Bailey rose above the production: ‘The staging is solid rather than exceptional. But Bailey makes a transfixing Richard, his plight engaging to the last, despite the nastier excesses of his capricious behaviour.’

Critics’ Average Rating 4.0

Value rating 48 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)

Richard II can be seen at the Bridge Theatre until 10 May 2025. Click here to buy direct from the  theatre 

If you’ve seen Jonathan Bailey in Richard II at the Bridge Theatre, please add your review and rating below

Posted on

Theatre reviews roundup: Unicorn with Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan & Erin Doherty

Which critics fancied a threesome?

Garrick Theatre
Stephen Mangan, Nicola Walker & Erin Doherty in Unicorn. Photo: Marc Brenner

A threesome featuring Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan and Erin Doherty sounds like somebody’s sexual fantasy. In fact, some theatre critics decided the plot of Unicorn was a fantasy.  They found it funny and well acted but they didn’t believe Mike Bartlett’s story. Others were impressed by the idea of a middle-aged couple considering linking up with a young woman to spice up their sex life, then finding it leads to something more profound, driven by the needs of the ‘unicorn’.

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

LondonTheatre‘s Marianka Swain (4★) appreciated the quality of the play, calling it ‘gloriously funny and deeply empathetic’. She also extolled the virtues of the actors: ‘Walker is a fierce joy as Polly, barrelling through roller-coaster monologues in which she talks herself in and out of her desires. Mangan is unsurpassable at that very British self-deprecating discomfort: witness his horror when, trying to sound hip, he praises Kate’s “clobber”. Erin Doherty lends Kate an effective cool self-assurance, although all three later exhibit raw vulnerability.’

Praising it for its ‘sophistication, wit and insight’, The Telegraph‘s Dominic Cavendish (4★) said ‘this menage a trois is steeped in an acid understanding of ageing and mortality.’ He declared the cast to be ‘a dream team – every shifty look, pause and understated gesture hits home.’

Susannah  Clapp of The Observer (4★) noted, ‘I have rarely seen actors change from within so subtly and definitively. Doherty becomes harder though still hopeful; Walker stops whirring and settles into stillness; Mangan stops lounging and consolidates. Together they humanise what at first appears as a mechanical arrangement’. Greg Stewart for Theatre Weekly (4★) thought it was ‘a modern play that’s deeply thought provoking and surprisingly funny.’

The Standard’s Nick Curtis (4★) went deep:  ‘On the surface Unicorn…is a snappy comedy full of quotable lines, exploring the awkwardness of challenging norms and admitting one’s own desires. On a deeper level it asks – still hilariously, thank goodness – how we should find meaning and joy in the face of a world going to ruin, and the inevitability of death.’ He wasn’t satisfied with the ending: ‘Though the play has flaws, and falls apart completely at the end, it’s never less than a rollicking, stimulating ride. If you’ll pardon the expression.’

CityAM’s Adam Bloodworth (4) loved it: ‘it features some of the sharpest writing on in the West End right now, if not ever’. He also praised it for being ‘“fuss free”: a triplet of good actors playing interesting people delivering interesting lines’.

Sarah Crompton at WhatsOnStage (3★) said, ‘It’s never dull and often devastating, but somehow it fails to land with the weight for which it is striving.’ It is ‘often very, very funny,’ she went on, ‘Bartlett’s writing hits its targets with unerring precision, but in the second half, as the action darkens and develops in unexpected ways, his themes seem more diffuse.’ For her, Erin Doherty gave ‘a lovely, subtle, darting performance.’ Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowksi (3★) was lukewarm about it: ‘It’s pretty MOR! But there’s enough of a twinkle in its eye that it never feels entirely conventional.’

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar (2★) found ‘their relationships are peculiarly devoid of passion, too declarative of their desires. However intimate the conversation becomes, the chemistry in this throuple never quite ignites.’

Clive Davis at The Times (2★) found ‘The first half offers some provocative questions about the unsettling power of desire, but an overlong series of conversational tableaux loses its grip well before the end.’

Aliya Al-Hassan for BroadwayWorld (2★) felt ‘What is missing from the production is some real passion and a tangible build in the sexual tension between all characters.’ Although ‘The first half is sparky, often clever and has some genuinely funny moments’, she found ‘the play really stutters in the second half. The realities of being in a throuple are never explored, beyond an incredibly idealistic portrayal.’

Sam Marlowe in The Stage (2★) wrote, ‘In a polished production by James Macdonald, it’s coolly intelligent and smartly acted by Erin Doherty, Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan. But for a drama that is concerned with desire, it’s verbose and oddly passionless, and its circuitous musings verge on frustrating.’

Dominic Maxwell in The Sunday Times (2★) summed up the antis, calling it a ‘talk-heavy, action-light, unconvincing and overlong quasi-comedy.’

Critics’ Average Rating 3.1

Value rating 35 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)

Unicorn can be seen at the Garrick Theatre until 26 April 2025. Click here to buy direct from the  theatre

Read Paul Seven’s 4 star review here or watch it on the YouTube channel Theatre Reviews With Paul Seven

If you’ve seen Unicorn at the Garrick Theatre, please add your review and rating below

Posted on

Reviews Roundup: Brie Larson in Elektra

Another Greek tragedy for a Hollywood star

DUKE OF YORK’S THEATRE
Brie Larson in Elektra. Photo: Helen Murray

Another day, another Hollywood star in a Sophocles tragedy given a major overhaul by a dynamic young director. And if you thought the critics’ average rating of 2.9★ for Rami Malek in Oedipus, wait until you get to the bottom of this roundup to see what they collectively thought of Brie Larson in Elektra. Daniel Fish, whose dark reinterpretation of Oklahoma! had plenty of fans, went full weird in the opinion of many of the reviewers. Brie Larson hid her acting talent beneath a lot of shouting and loud speakers. Only Stockard Channing emerged unscathed.

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

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar (4★) continued to be a fan of Hollywood stars in extreme interpretations of Sophocles’ classics. Having been one of the few critics to give Rami Malek’s Oedipus four stars, she duplicated her rating but this time was a lonely voice.  Here’s part of her commendation: ‘Part spoken, part sung through in recitative and partly shouted in fury, this is a lyrical, avant garde creation, like a long lamentation, bare in its staging and emotions.’ ‘The anger is never shrill or flatly pitched – her delivery captures not only anger but also grief, resembling Hamlet when at her most melancholy. It is a magnetic performance, fearless for a West End debut.’

Sarah Crompton at WhatsOnStage (3★) found  ‘the production, full of strangeness and insight, feels half-baked, as if all its elements haven’t quite had time to gel. It simultaneously compels attention and frustrates it.’ She described how ‘Lines are spoken out rather than to one another, formalised and ritualistic rather than naturalistic…The effect is to turn the piece into an abstract meditation rather than drama, a gloss on Elektra not the thing itself. I rather loved it, but it never quite becomes the sum of its parts.’

Olivia Rook for LondonTheatre (3★) described Brie Larson thus: ‘her detached, reflective performance style makes it difficult to feel a connection with her character. Her voice is deliberately flat, which often jars, particularly when she is reunited with her brother and her reaction is borderline emotionless.’

Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski (3★) said, ‘The biggest problem for me was the use of Anne Carson’s poetic but starchy 2001 verse adaptation – there is some mordant wit in there but I’m not convinced the formality of the verse helped the drama.’

‘It’s haunting, punchily feminist and perverse, all at once’ said Alice Saville in The Independent  (3★). She continued: ‘this staging is full of a mesmerising but near-stagnant stillness’ She concluded, ‘It’s a fascinating experiment, one that’s beautiful, but ultimately impenetrable.’

Tim Bano in The Standard honed his sarcasm: ‘It’s not entirely clear if it was Elektra, or an exercise in alienation. A 75-minute test as to whether an audience can keep an open mind.’ He skewered the director: ‘It’s directed (boy is it directed) by the experimental American director Daniel Fish…(he) doesn’t let a single line go un-weirded.’ He ended, ‘“Let me go mad in my own way,” Larson cries – and that’s the whole show, really. Always baffling, never boring, and completely mad in its own way.’ No stars given, which may be intentional, but I’ve put it down as 2★.

The Stage’s Sam Marlowe (2★) was damning: ‘It is so self-consciously stylised, so artful and so devoid of any genuine sense of humanity in extremis that it’s more likely to provoke a yawn or a weary eye roll than pity or terror. You sense that it’s straining for austere elegance and intellectual heft; it comes off simply as sterile and insufferably pretentious.’ Matt Wolf for The Arts Desk (2★) said, ‘The hipster vibe might seem to invite us all to this pathological party only to leave us on the threshold awaiting some way in.’

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish (2★) wasn’t impressed: ‘what gets confused swiftly is where our attention should fall. The problem of over-emphasis is redoubled by Larson’s jolting, forceful delivery into a microphone, sometimes with added distortion and with an almost tic-like need to amplify and draw out every use of the word “no”.’ He wasn’t entirely negative: ‘The laurels go to Stockard Channing (Greece is the word…), giving us a Clytemnestra of stately bearing and stirring defensiveness and lending the pivotal mother-daughter battle an urgency, danger and truthfulness.’

The Times’ Clive Davis (2) recalled happier times at the theatre: ‘Some shows you walk home from humming the songs or cooing at the acting. After Elektra, which gives us Brie Larson as a punk princess agitating against something rotten in the state of ancient Argos like some shaven-haired proto-Hamlet, you go home still boggling at the misguided avant-gardery of it all.’ His last words offered an olive branch to the star: ‘Larson is clearly a gifted, authoritative performer. But she is hemmed into a concept that makes her Elektra only a raging bore.’

Describing it as a ‘droning dud’, Broadway World’s Alexander Cohen (1★) had many questions: ‘Why is there a dangling blimp? Why is there a paint canon sporadically spritzing the chorus? Why does Larson wail atonally like a brat-like banshee into a microphone without any momentum to propel her? It took about three minutes for me to realise that it’s not meant to make sense. This is theatre where the #vibe rules supreme.’

Critics’ Average Rating 2.5★

Value Rating 31 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)

Elektra continues at the Duke of York’s Theatre until 12 April 2025. Buy direct from the theatre

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

 

Posted on

Reviews Roundup- Oedipus with Rami Malek & Indira Varma

Rami Malek’s performance is a tragedy

old vic
Rami Malek and Indira Varma in Oedipus. Photo: Manuel Harlan

Two new versions of Sophocles’ Oedipus went head-to-head either side of Christmas- Robert Icke‘s which starred Mark Strong and Lesley Manville versus this newly opened production at the Old Vic starring Rami Malek and Indira Varma. We have a winner, and it wasn’t the one featuring Freddie Mercury. Hardly any critic actually liked Malek’s style of acting and there was little praise for the adaptation by Ella Hickson. There were contrasting opinions about the production in which co-director Matthew Warchus conceded time and space to the loud sound and frantic choreography of Heofesh Schecter. It was, you might say, a Marmite decision. Only co-star Indira Varma was universally liked by the critics.

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

For a change, I’m going to present the reviews in reverse order of enthusiasm for the show. The most critical came from Claire Allfree in the Telegraph (2★). She began ‘The question of whether Rami Malek can actually act has always hung over this most idiosyncratic of performers.’ Her answer? ‘ Malek is almost entirely at sea with Oedipus, his curious tic-ridden delivery strangling almost every word at birth.’ He was, she said, ‘like an unholy blend of Trump at his most disingenuous and Biden at his most incoherent.’ She doesn’t stop there: ‘his relationship with Varma, who outclasses everyone on stage, is consistently jarring…it resembles a confused arrangement between two people of almost entirely different species’.’One has to wonder,’ she pondered, ‘if the craze for celebrity casting has this week reached its nadir.’

The i-paper‘s Fiona Mountford (2★) thought ‘Malek speaks in a strange drawl that suggests he has toothache’ and described him as ‘all adrift in a bewilderingly centrifugal production’. She wasn’t keen on the use of dance either, saying it was ‘undoubtedly powerful and emotive, but the trouble with these lengthy, wordless episodes is that they fatally disrupt the momentum of what should be the undiluted hurtle of Sophocles’ storytelling’.

Alice Saville in The Independent (2★) was no more enamoured: ‘Ultimately this Oedipus is one for contemporary dance fans…theatre lovers hoping for a coherent take on this often-told story should seek elsewhere.’ ‘It’s gorgeous to look at,’ she said,  ‘but there’s more tension in a single chorus member’s bent finger than in its whole slack plot.’

Clive Davis in The Times (3★) was barely more enthusiastic but he did find an extra star. The text, he suggested, ‘For long stretches, in fact, sounds more like the work of an AI programme commissioned to generate soap opera chat laced with the sort of noirish boilerplate that would sit nicely in a Tarantino film.’ For him, Rami Malek gave a ‘curiously stilted central performance…his rigid facial expressions evoking all those socialite millionaires who’ve gone in for a few too many injections of Botox.’ Having praised the sound, dance, set and lighting, he damned it with faint praise: ‘We can’t help being drawn into a harsh, elemental world. If only it had a more charismatic presence at its centre.’

Dave Fargnoli for The Stage (3★) began, ‘Bursting with bold visuals and angsty, unsubtle performances, this ambitious, often incoherent take on Sophocles’ classic myth puts style firmly ahead of substance’ but in the end he managed to winkle out some substance: ‘Indira Varma gives a consummate, focused performance as Jocasta, grounding the production with heartfelt naturalism.’

‘The opening is dazzling,’ said Sarah Crompton at WhatsOnStage (3★). Unfortunately, ‘it can’t sustain the intensity it promises. By the end, there’s not much catharsis and without that, there’s not much tragedy.’ She pointed out that Malek’s ‘lack of emotion is emphasised by a script that chooses to offer an unusually tentative ending rather than searing revelation and despair.’

The Mail‘s Patrick Marmion (3★) found that Rami Malek’s ‘inward looking method acting is not well suited to ritualistic staging that’s meant to evoke Greek religious cults from antiquity’. He also berated ‘Ella Hickson’s wooden adaptation’.

Inevitably there were unfavourable comparisons with the recently closed Oedipus directed by Robert Icke. Take this from Tim Bano in The Standard (3★): ‘Where Icke’s was all sleekness and surgical precision, this one…takes Aristotle’s unities and rubs them in the old philosopher’s face. Why have unity when you can have the mad and slightly ridiculous chaos of several different creative visions squeezed into 100 minutes?’ He explained in more detail: ‘Hickson’s doing one thing, Warchus another, Schechter a third, Malek something else besides, possibly on another planet.’ Talking of the Hollywood Oscar winner: ‘Sinister and expressionless, he delivers every line in a strangely mannered way, and every word sounds like one long vowel.’

The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar (4★) was one of the few genuinely enthusiastic reviewers. She liked the dance and the loud music and even Rami Malek’s performance: ‘He brings outsider vibes to Oedipus – speaking in an elusive American drawl, adopting the mantle of leadership like a haunted robot.’

Perhaps most impressed was Alexander Cohen for BroadwayWorld (4★). He was immediately taken by ‘a frenetic whirlwind of theatre and dance …that returns the power back to the people’ (i.e. the Greek chorus). As for Rami Malek: ‘It takes time to acclimatise to his slinky weirdness and syrupy southern drawl. But Oedipus is supposed to be an outsider welcomed in, the tendrils of his otherness bleeding deep into his paranoid psyche. Ella Hickson’s wily adaptation hints at scathing insecurity bubbling beneath his calm demeanour which Malek subtly preys upon in his angular mannerisms.’

Critics’ average rating: 2.9★

Value Rating 34 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)

Oedipus can be seen at the Old Vic Theatre until 29 March. Buy tickets direct form the theatre.

If you’ve seen Oedipus at the Old Vic Theatre, please add your review and rating below

Posted on

Reviews roundup: Kyoto

Climate change negotiations become entertaining thriller

@sohoplace
Stephen Kunken & Kristin Atherton in Kyoto at @sohoplace. Photo: Manuel Harlan

Kyoto by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, directed by Steven Daldry and Justin Martin, was first presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, before transferring to @sohoplace in London. As many critics commented, the idea of negotiations about climate control offering a good night out seems unlikely but they all found it entertaining. The lead Stephen Kunken was universally praised (‘demonic charm’ Metro).

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

Many media representatives reviewed the production when it was first performed at Stratford-Upon-Avon:

Michael Davis for WhatsOnStage (5★) acknowledged that climate change talks might be off-putting as a subject for a play but assured us it was a ‘drama with a deeply powerful message, delivered with sleight of hand and considerable theatricality, and disguised in a hugely entertaining production’. Suzy Fey for the Financial Times (4★) agreed: ‘Kyoto is more exciting than it has any right to be’. The Observer‘s Susannah Clapp (4★) called it ‘a whirligig show’. Dave Fargnoli in The Stage (4★) said ‘the directing team of Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin instil proceedings with a similar breathless energy’. Mark Lawson for The Guardian (4★) quipped, ‘this play about the diplomatic consequences of commas deserves a string of exclamation marks’.

More reviews followed when Kyoto transferred to London:

Cindy Marcolina at BroadwayWorld (5★) commented, ‘The facts and figures are embroidered into a beckoning, snappy dialogue, naturalistic and throbbing with energy.’ Like others, she praised ‘ Miriam Buether’s exceptional design. Walking into the auditorium feels like entering a conference centre’. She ended her review: ‘Definitely one you can’t miss.’

Nick Curtis of The Standard (4★) called it ‘a taut and gripping thriller’. Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowski (4★) joked it was ‘so indecently entertaining it almost feels like the result of a bet to choose the dullest, worthiest subject imaginable and make it as fun as humanly possible.’ ‘it’s impressively dynamic’ said Holly O’Mahony at LondonTheatre (4★). Dominic Maxwell in The Times (4★) found it ‘alive with drumming, stand-up comedy monologues, self-aware jokes, nods to the present day.’ (His colleague Clive Davis gave 3 stars in his Stratford review- ‘buckets of primary colours and a fair amount of knockabout humour’.)

Calire Allfree for the Telegraph (3★) acknowledged that ‘this near-three-hour marathon consistently moves with effervescent vigour’ but felt it ‘had little to say about climate change’.

Critics’ Average Rating 4.1★

Kyoto can be seen at @sohoplace until 3 May 2025. Buy tickets directly from the theatre.

 

 

Posted on

Reviews Roundup- Inside No 9: Stage/Fright

Is TV spin-off frightening or frightful?

wyndham’s theatre
Steve Pemberton & Reece Shearsmith in Inside No 9: Stage/Fright

Inside No 9 ran for a highly successful nine (of course) series. The spin-off stage show is clearly one for the fans but it embraces the medium of theatre, according to the critics. Some of them found it inventive and frightening, others thought it was funny but not that original.

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

‘It isn’t to be missed’ declared a besotted Katelyn Mensah for Radio Times (5★). And in case you missed the message, she ended her review ‘it’s a thrilling ride that shouldn’t be missed.’

For Dominic Cavendish of the Telegraph (4★) was more measured: ‘this is an evening that tallies the need to give us a good laugh and a valuable fright – encapsulating their relish for the absurd and macabre – with reflections on mortality and loss.’

For The Guardian (4★), Brian Logan called it ‘a slickly produced spooky wheeze, distinguished by Shearsmith and Pemberton’s clearly personal obsession with the double-act dynamic and old-school entertainment, and with theatres and their ghosts.’

‘There’s a lot that’s absurdly funny, as well as one sequence that is genuinely hair-raising. Meanwhile a deeper, more moving thread works through the piece about the interplay between acting, memory and haunting,’ said Sarah Hemming in The Financial Times (4★).

The i-paper’s Culture Editor Sarah Carson (4★) took on reviewing duties for this show, calling it ‘riotously fun’ and ‘raucously entertaining’. She praised ‘ writing and wordplay that is so clever and quick that it is impossible not to miss every reference.’ Not sure that’s what she meant to say but you get the message.

‘It’s not radical, or even as ground-breaking as the television shows which have spawned it. But it is great, all-encompassing fun,’ said Sarah Crompton at WhatsOnStage (4★).

Annabel Nugent for The Independent (4★) said, ‘if nothing else, this is one play you won’t be checking your watch in. Tonight, on stage, the spirit of Inside No 9 is alive and kicking.’

Anya Ryan from LondonTheatre (3★) seemed like she was hoping for more originality, nevertheless: ‘Recycled gags? Tick. An element of surprise? Tick. And the cherished pair giving it their everything? Oh absolutely.’

The Stage’s Sam Marlowe (3★) said, ‘It’s a show in need of a stronger sense of purpose and identity: it’s not quite funny, emotionally involving or frightening enough, even though it has flickers of all those elements.’

Nick Curtis of The Standard (3★) called it ‘a mix of the intelligent and the obvious – part smart reinvention and part lazy cash-in.’ Patrick Marmion had a similar reaction in the Mail (3★): ‘The show has a distinct feeling of using up the comedians’ off-cuts, out-takes and left-overs for the amusement of themselves and their fervid fan-base. ‘

At the start of 2025, it seemed that The Times’ Clive Davis (2★) had made a New Year resolution to be nicer to the shows but, if he did, he hasn’t stuck to it. In his latest outing, he reverted to the hard-to-please, sting-like-a-scorpion critic that we know and love. In a review was more frightening than the show, he warned, ‘Prepare to be underwhelmed… by this laboured set of ghoulish sketches’

Critics’ average rating 3.6★

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

Inside No 9: Stage/Fright is at Wyndham’s Theatre until 5 April 2025. Click here to buy tickets direct.

If you’ve seen Inside No 9 at the Wyndham’s Theatre, please add your review and rating below

Posted on

Reviews Roundup: Cymbeline

Shakespeare misses but the production hits

sam wanamaker theatre at Shakespeare’s globe
Nadi Kemp-Sayfi and Gabrielle Brooks in Cymbeline at Shakespeare’s Globe. Photo: Marc Brenner

William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline is one of his lesser known works for the very good reason that it’s a bit of a mess but director Jennifer Tang has made a good attempt at making it work, according to the critics, especially by swapping the genders of the eponymous lead and some of the other characters. Even so, some remained unenthusiastic about the play itself.

Matt Wolf for LondonTheatre (4) praised ‘Tang’s ability to find an emotional throughline to a sometimes wayward text’ ‘The vagaries of romance between Gabrielle Brooks’s superb Innogen and Nadi Kemp-Sayfi’s impassioned Posthumus, raised within the royal household, drive the newly queer narrative.’

Nick Curtis in The Standard (4★) found it ‘gets a bold, vivid production from Jennifer Tang that matches its hectic mix of comedy, horror and absurdity. ‘

Miriam Sallon writing for WhatsOnStage  (4★) declared ‘if a lesser-loved, mishmash, three-hour, tragi-comic Shakespeare isn’t going to sell it for you, you should absolutely just go for the music. Led by composer Laura Moody, the musical trio, completed by Heidi Heidelberg and Angela Wai Nok Hui, are mesmerising all on their own.’

Alexander Cohen for BroadwayWorld (3★) said, ‘Tang’s directorial vision alone charges it with the momentum it needs. She has a solid grasp of a slippery play.’ Dave Fargnoli in The Stage (3★) seemed to agree, ‘Although the production’s bold ideas don’t all gel, this is an original and engaging reinterpretation that offers thought-provoking new perspectives on Shakespeare’s contrived historical drama.’

Dominic Maxwell in The Times (3★) opined, ‘while you’d be pushed to say that the director Jennifer Tang’s female-led sometimes resexed retelling of this romantic mishmash is either very tragic or very funny, even at almost three hours long, it keeps stubbornly finding ways to be interesting.’ The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar (3★) wasn’t sure what to make of it: ‘it felt like a play trotting from one plot-turn to another to reach its exhausting end.’

Critics’ Average Rating 3.4★

Cymbeline can be seen at Shakespeare’s Globe until 20 April 2025.  Buy tickets direct from the theatre.

If you’ve seen Cymbeline at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre, please add your review and rating below

Posted on

Reviews Roundup: The Good House

Royal Court Theatre

Satire on race and class is fun

Two couples, one standing, one seated, are talking in a scene from a play
The Good House at the Royal Court

David Byrne‘s first season as Artistic Director of the Royal Court continues to impress. His latest offering is Amy Jephta‘s play is set in South Africa where a middle-aged white couple enlist wealthy black neighbours whom they’ve previously ignored to improve the effectiveness of their bid to remove an unauthorised shack in their enclave. The critics mostly liked it but were split between those who thought it was ‘perceptive provocative fun’ and those who thought it didn’t quite convince.

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

Arifa Akbar in The Guardian (4★) found it was a play with layers: ‘Do they want to be insiders at all or remain wilful outsiders, keeping a connection to the imaginary invaders in the shack – and their own past geographies? How does being on the “inside” compromise the integrity of their identity politics, as well? The layers to this line of questioning are what gives this play its depth.’

Dave Fargnoli in The Stage (4★) liked the way the director Nancy ‘Medina takes a methodical approach, allowing conflict to escalate gradually, the debates eventually descending into rapid-fire shouting matches. This allows for some brilliantly judged comic timing, as the residents twist themselves into exquisitely awkward knots, trying to mask their toxic entitlement with hollow civility.’

The Times‘ Clive Davis (4★) began ‘this quirky domestic drama sends you home with awkward questions buzzing around in your head.’ He was happy that ‘there’s an intensity to all the performances that keeps agitprop at bay. Jephta’s mischievous portrait of life in  a far-away country has a universal flavour.’

WhatsOnStage‘s Sarah Crompton (4★) called it ‘fast-moving and very funny, puncturing assumptions and attitudes with swift and searing observation’. The Standard‘s Nick Curtis (4★) said, ‘This isn’t perfect but it’s perceptive, provoking fun.’

Aleks Sierz at TheArtsDesk (3★) said it was ‘perceptive and provocative, but it’s also an imperfect mix of styles and topics.’ While calling it ‘a worthy exploration of prejudice and privilege’, Holly O’Mahony at LondonTheatre (3★) decided, ‘this play, with its cracking premise, still has room to grow.’

Alexander Cohen at Broadway World (2★) was disappointed, describing it as ‘A case of never being more than the sum of its parts, even if those parts have promise in themselves.’

Critics’ Average Rating 3.5★

The Good House can be seen at the Royal Court Theatre until 8 February 2025.  Buy tickets direct from the theatre.

If you’ve seen The Years at the Royal Court Theatre, please add your review and rating below

 

Posted on

Reviews Roundup – Lionel Bart’s Oliver!

Perfect, or too perfect?

Gielgud Theatre
A smiling bearded actor in a colourful outfit holds his walking stick like a flute
Simon Lipkin in Oliver! Photo: Johan Persson

Lionel Bart’s Oliver! is one of the few, perhaps the only, bona fide British musical from the Golden Age when shows were packed with memorable songs. The legendary producer Cameron Mackintosh has loved Oliver! since childhood and returned to it again and again. His latest production was praised in many 5 star reviews for Matthew Bourne‘s choreography, Paule Constable’s dramatic lighting, Lez Brotherston’s intimate set, Simon Lipkin‘s portrayal of Fagin and for being a little darker than past incarnations. But some found it too old-fashioned and lacking in bite.

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

Marianka Swain at LondonTheatre (5★) delivered her customary thoughtful analysis: ‘Bart’s musical can be something of a tonal challenge: steeped in the darkness of Dickens’ novel, yet simultaneously packed with jaunty tunes and cockney knees-up dance numbers. Bourne (who choreographs and co-directs with Jean-Pierre van der Spuy), manages that balancing act perfectly, giving us plenty of grime and grit alongside transporting pleasures.’ She declared ‘the true star is Paule Constable and Ben Jacobs’s sublime lighting design, which brings quite literal light and shade to the production. It’s genuinely terrifying when the villainous Bill Sikes looms out of the smoky darkness, his menacing shadow the first thing we see.’

WhatsOnStage‘s Sarah Crompton (5★) noted, ‘Its quality lies in the way that the collaborators … make a contrast between constant movement and stillness, allowing the focus to slide from broad, bright dance scenes full of life, to powerfully arresting moments of peril and sadness.’ Adam Bloodworth at CityAM (5★) declared, ‘director and choreographer Matthew Bourne has surely opened the musical of the year with his astounding dance sequences. It’s especially the ensemble numbers that are sheer staggering feats of imagination, offering insane levels of detail to bring Victorian London back to life.’

Helen Hawkins on the Arts Desk (5★) praised the ‘impeccable singing and dancing, teamed with a brilliant set, atmospheric lighting and a Poor Theatre design that makes the staging oddly intimate’. Allya Al-Hassan at Broadway World (5★) pointed out, ‘Whilst retaining the joy and exuberance of Bart’s music, it does not shy away from the dark heart of child poverty, exploitation and violence of Charles Dickens’ story. It also manages to have moments of pure theatrical comedy. It is a deft and masterful achievement.’

Neil Fisher for The Times (5★) added a star to his colleague Clive Davis’ previous Chichester review: ‘you can’t fault the verve with which Bourne drills the big numbers, nor the cast’s bonhomie.’ Of the show’s Fagin, he said, ‘Lipkin captures both the plight of the traumatised immigrant – and of anyone trying to lead a good life in a dark and devious world’. The Telegraph‘s Dominic Cavendish (5★) enjoyed ‘dollops of theatrical delight’, and said ‘the whole thing is delivered with such tightly choreographed panache’.

Dominic Maxwell in The Sunday Times (4★) described how ‘Matthew Bourne’s sumptuous production at the Gielgud Theatre in London gives us a Victorian London of shadows, spotlights and smoke. It looks dangerous, but gorgeous. Nice job.’

The Observer’s Susannah Clapp (4) picked out ‘Superb lighting by Paule Constable and Ben Jacobs shows the action as if through Oliver’s eyes: a harsh glitter of grey over the workhouse; a deceptive golden glow for Fagin’s den.’

The Stage‘s Sam Marlowe (4★) described how ‘Designer Lez Brotherston delivers a murky London of steel gantries, pawnshops, pubs and coffee houses, bustling with picture-perfect denizens: self-important men with mutton chops, moustaches and stovepipe hats, and purse-lipped women in mob caps with formidable bosoms. Bourne’s buoyant, nimble choreography is wrapped around darker drama that makes its mark in broad strokes.’

Not everyone was so impressed. Fiona Mountford at i-news (3★) said ‘rarely have I felt so awkwardly aware of a piece’s fundamental pretence…Everything here looks precise and lovely, immaculately well-drilled, but it’s almost impossible to feel emotionally invested.’

Andrjez Lukowski at Time Out (3★) felt it lacked punch. Take Simon Lipkin’s Fagin: ‘Making him so nice he won’t offend anyone is certainly one idea, but it does further defang Dickens’s yarn.’ He contended ‘The biggest flaw, though, is one that’s haunted the show for decades: Oliver himself is just pretty bland.’

Having reviewed it in Chichester, The Guardian decided the production didn’t require a second review

Critics’ Average Review 4.4

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

Oliver! is at the Gielgud Theatre until 28 September 2025. Click here to buy tickets direct.

If you’ve seen Oliver! at the Gielgud Theatre, please add your review and rating below

Proudly powered by WordPress
×