Sondheim’s last musical: good but not great?

Opinions on Stephen Sondheim’s final musical didn’t so much vary as go to polar opposites, from five stars to two. The show is a surreal critique of capitalism based on two films by Luis Bunuel, one of which was The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. In the musical, the bourgeoisie are Americans facing an existential crisis. Some critics thought it was deep, some found it shallow (feelings that were reflected in their view of David Ives’ book). Some heard music typical of Sondheim’s late great period, others felt he was not at his best. The fact that it was unfinished and notably short of songs in the second half didn’t bother some but ruined it for others. The reviewers all agreed it was a top class cast which included Jane Krakowski, Rory Kinnear, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Martha Plimpton.

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

5 stars ★★★★★

Reviewing for TheArtsDesk, Matt Wolf, something of an expert on Sondheim, saw a perfection that others didn’t: ‘Musical theatre newbies may want more distinct numbers, not knowing that late-career Sondheim…some while ago dispensed with those. But those willing to meet the show on its own wacky, wonderful terms are in for a treat, and not just because the National has fielded a lineup of talent that is extraordinary, even at that address.’ Mr Wolf may look at his idol’s work through rose coloured spectacles, but it’s worth reading his insightful review.

4 stars ★★★★

The Times’ Clive Davis thought it was a ‘curate’s egg’: ‘The first part of the evening is quite simply extraordinary, the typically angular melodies delivered with panache by a first-rate ensemble…This show reminds us that (Sondheim) can also be very, very funny’. However, ‘It’s in the second act that something strange happens to Joe Mantello’s urbane production. An astonishingly deft piece of musical theatre slowly gives up on songs and becomes a mixture of comedy of manners and existential drama.’

Sarah Crompton of WhatsOnStage seemed   pleased just to be there: ‘Here We Are is not anywhere near peak Sondheim, but…there are constant glimmers of his wit, and his ability to grapple with the secrets of the human heart. It feels like a late-career bonus, a curiosity but one that gleams.’

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish was sanguine: ‘We can carp until doomsday about what it lacks but it’s a boon to have it over here. Sure, it’s no masterpiece, but a minor-league swansong from a giant of musicals is still a major deal.’

Dominic Maxwell in The Sunday Times said it had flaws, ‘And yet: Sondheim’s songs, which nod to his back catalogue while always staying spry, still delight. Joe Mantello’s deluxe staging is swish, swift and surprising. The Anglo-American cast is sensationally good…When it’s just satirical, it’s so-so. When it surrenders to its strangeness, it’s an exquisitely unpredictable ensemble piece.‘

3 stars ★★★

Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski decided to be ‘quite indulgent’ because audiences were warned in advance that the musical was incomplete. He called David Ives’ book ‘deft, funny and perceptive’. He concluded with an element of irony: ‘as final unfinished works go, it’s pretty bloody good. Here We Are is a really, really great example of half a musical. The luxury casting doesn’t simply flatter flimsy material: what Sondheim actually wrote was very good, and Ives’s second half is hardly a hack job.’

Arifa Akbar of The Guardian was disappointed: ‘for all its interesting ideas on life and death, rich and poor, it melts away rather too quickly afterwards.’ Adam Bloodworth at CityAM observed, ‘Much of the comedy is mined from Fawlty Towers-style farcical faffing – but on a grand, complex scale. It’s the type of tomfoolery that might look silly but is pulled off vanishingly rarely.’  ‘As for (Sondheim’s) ditties,’ he said, ‘they serve as a function to enable the story rather than existing to entertain us in and of themselves.’

2 stars ★★

The Stage’s Sam Marlowe called it ‘a strangulated swansong.’ The Stage gave her the opportunity to write a ‘Long Review’ and she certainly took advantage to explain her reaction at length. The characters were part of the reason: ‘There is an immediate, and fundamental, problem: not only are these shallow idiots – here a bunch of vacuous urbanites in search of a place to have brunch – too thinly drawn to feel properly human, but there’s not a single compelling or convincing relationship between them.’ That’s not all: ‘It’s all pretty tedious, and although the score is immediately recognisable as Sondheim – that bouncy chromaticism, those rising modulations from major to minor – it’s not especially memorable. Still less arresting are the lyrics‘. And if that’s not enough: ‘you just feel as if the performers are flailing about helplessly, with no guidance from Ives’ aimless book.’

Alexander Cohen of BroadwayWorld took a similar line. ‘There’s little dramatic mileage to be milked from characters who are deliberately flimsy caricatures,’ he said. He continued, ‘At its worst David Ives’ book is a single punchline Monty Python sketch dragged out into an entire musical – that punchline being that the one percenters barely possess a brain cell between them.’

The Standard’s Nick Curtis declared, ‘Here We Are is extremely sketchy and gets lumpier and messier as it goes on. The characters are barely-fleshed stereotypes’.

Critics’ average rating 2.9★

Value rating 33 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)

Here We Are is at the National Theatre until 28 June 2025. Buy tickets from the theatre here.

If you’ve seen Here We Are at The National Theatre, please add your review and rating below

Doomed love goes West

Shakespeare’s Globe

A comedic version of Shakespeare’s most famous love story, set in the Wild West, went down well with the critics. The young stars Lola Shalam and Roman Asde made a strong impression in Sean Holmes‘ production.

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

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Fiona Mountford, writing for the Telegraph, said ‘Holmes’s vision is no dispiriting instance of a classic play being shoe-horned into an outlandish concept, but something quite the opposite: it makes perfect sense for the Capulets and Montagues to be warring tribes in a place of barely suppressed lawlessness’.

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar declared it to be ‘a rare production where high concept meets high-class execution.’ Tom Wicker for The Stage said, ‘Sean Holmes brings a light touch and plenty of humour to his staging of William Shakespeare’s enduringly popular tale of doomed romance’. As for the star cross’d lovers: ‘Shalam gives a star-making performance as a complicated and well-rounded Juliet…Asde does a good job of capturing Romeo’s bluster but also his vulnerability’.

Julia Rank for LondonTheatre noted, ‘Sean Holmes’s nifty production is set in the Wild West of the 19th century, where everyday violence pervades, and he also extracts the full comic potential of the play’. She praised the leads: ‘Asde speaks beautifully and nails the character’s impulsiveness, suggesting a young actor to watch. Fellow newcomer Lola Shalam is also eye-catching as Juliet, a strong-willed frontier girl who has been coached in what to say and feel but can’t contain her outspoken nature’.

Miriam Sallon for WhatsOnStage thought ‘The chemistry between Asde’s Romeo and Lola Shalam’s Juliet is brilliant in that they’re just two horny teenagers who happen to have landed on each other as targets.’

TheArtsDesk’s Rachel Halliburton noted, ‘Great ensemble work from the cast buoys the atmosphere of this giddy seesaw ride between life and death’. She enthused, ‘It’s a joyous, flamboyant launch to the Globe’s 2025 summer season’.

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

Isobel Lewis writing for Time Out was concerned that ‘There are parts, however, where this comic focus doesn’t work‘. For her, ‘it’s the undeniable chemistry between Asde and Shalam that’s the star attraction.’

Dominic Maxwell in The Times said ‘there is a vivid sense of youth here that keeps the show fresh, even when overthought or oversold.’

Critics’ Average Rating 3.8⭑

Romeo And Juliet  can be seen at The Globe until 2 August 2025. Buy tickets direct from the theatre

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Another Hollywood star fails to shine on a London stage

Lila Raicek’s new play is inspired by Ibsen’s The Master Builder but puts more emphasis on the wife Elena (Kate Fleetwood) and a young woman Mathilda (Elizabeth Debicki) from an earlier relationship, than the ‘starchitect’ himself (Ewan McGregor). The critics found that McGregor’s character was too nice in this version, leaving him little room to show his acting skill, but Kate Fleetwood as a vengeful woman impressed them.

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

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar concluded, ‘The focus on the women is interesting and intriguing, even though it means Henry feels rather spare to the drama. This is a story not of genius men building castles in the air for their princesses but of what destruction they wreak in their homes in so doing. Really, it is the drama of The Master Builder’s Wife.’

Alice Saville in The Independent declared, ‘(the) play sweeps you along, into a breezy study of a great man whose scheming wife gets the last laugh. She noted, ‘Ewan McGregor brings serious charm to the role of the titular architect Henry Solness, but his star power is entirely outshone by Kate Fleetwood’s formidable acting chops as his furious wife Elena, bent on bringing his dreams crashing down to the ground. Ironically, given it’s a play about an architect, she didn’t like the design: ‘Director Michael Grandage and designer Richard Kent’s evocation of this play’s setting on the moneyed Hamptons feels a little stuffy, with an overly fussy attempt at modern architecture cluttering the stage’.

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish found McGregor ‘struggles to attain the intensity required’. It seems the play was at fault: ‘What should deepen and tauten the drama alas throws up inconclusive thoughts on empowerment and a ton of emotional overstatement.’

Andrzej Lukowski of Time Out felt the star casting imbalanced the production:  ‘it feels like McGregor hogs the lines and the stage time, while the women hog the bits where Raicek actually has something interesting to say.’ He dismissed McGregor’s role as ‘just a nice guy blundering through a genteel midlife crisis’.

Olivia Rook for LondonTheatre agreed with the other critics that ‘Despite being the play’s headline star, McGregor is outshone by the women on stage’, however she was kinder than most about the play itself: ‘it remains exciting to see old work interrogated and transformed into something new.’

2 stars ⭑⭑

The Financial Times’ Sarah Hemming called it ‘curiously wooden and inauthentic’ explaining ‘the situation feels oddly contrived and the dialogue often stiff and airless’. She said McGregor ‘struggles to animate some cloying lines’. The Times’ Clive Davis called the play ‘a painfully windy psychodrama…which grinds its way to a wildly implausible conclusion’. He described McGregor as ‘likeable, but anodyne’.

Sam Marlowe of The Stage concluded, ‘McGregor’s Henry ends up as little more than the fraying ball of wool batted about in the catfights…It’s Fleetwood who supplies the stellar turn here, by turns vengeful, maudlin and magnificent. I just wish she had something more flavourful and substantial to sink those sharp teeth into.’

Nick Curtis in The Standard protested at the ‘glib, howlingly pretentious script’ and said McGregor is ‘out-characterised and out-emoted by his female co-stars. Kate Fleetwood plays Solness’s wife Elena in full-on, steel-eyed Valkyrie mode, slashing through every scene she’s in. Elizabeth Debicki…has a cool, languid abandon … and is so tall and slender in a silver dress she resembles a thermometer.’ He ended: ‘I laughed at this star vehicle, not with it.’

Critics’ average rating 2.6 ★

Value rating 28 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)

My Master Builder runs at Wyndham’s Theatre until 12 July 2025. Click here to buy tickets direct from the theatre.

If you’ve seen My Master Builder at Wyndham’s Theatre, please add your review and rating below

Spectacular but hollow musical

The Coliseum

The Great Gatsby musical had lukewarm reviews on Broadway. If the producers were wishing for a different result in the West End, they will have been disappointed by the number of two and even one star reviews. For many critics, Mark Bruni’s ‘hollow’ musical failed to do justice to the complexity and nuance of F Scott Fitzgerald’s great novel. However, some critics did like the spectacle and powerful emotion. The New York production generated good word-of-mouth. The producers may hope this will do the same but the Coliseum has a lot of seats to fill.

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

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Laurie Yule for The Stage was sure ‘even those resistant to the unashamedly corny will likely be won over by the breathtaking look and strident performances in this feat of spectacle and seduction.’

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

Nick Curtis of the Standard said it was ‘a sleek, ravishingly designed ocean liner of a show, with enough musical oomph and vocal power to distract you from the hollowness at its heart.’

LondonTheatre’s Marianka Swain liked the performances: ‘Jamie Muscato and Frances Mayli McCann…lend considerable heft to Gatsby and Daisy’s doomed recoupling, especially when belting out Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen’s colossal Disney-esque power ballads.’

Alun Hood for WhatsOnStage called it ‘the epitome of a slick, escapist West End night out. Shallow, loud and sumptuous.

2 stars ⭑⭑

For Claire Allfree at the Telegraph: ‘the overall effect is excessive in all the wrong places, amplified by Jason Howland’s hammer and tongs score that flattens out all possibility for nuance’.

The Times’ Clive Davis called it ‘big, brash, noisy and oddly one-dimensional’.

The Independent’s Alice Saville was dismissive: ‘what Kait Kerrigan’s weirdly larky book and Marc Bruni’s ludicrously lavish production lack is a basic level of respect for F Scott Fitzgerald’s elegy for the Roaring Twenties, or an understanding of what makes it more than an excellent theme for a hen do.’

1 star ⭑

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar concluded ‘this production encapsulates the worst of peacockingly splashy entertainment – the kind whose soul has been suctioned out in the making.’

Critics’ Average Rating: 2.5⭑

Value rating 16 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)

The Great Gatsby is at The Coliseum until 7 September 2025. Buy tickets from the theatre here.

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Impressive writing, outstanding performances, but perhaps packing in too much

The Old Vic

Probably best known for his Dylan musical Girl From The North Country, Conor McPherson has written his first original play in 12 years, which he has also directed. The Brightening Air is, said Nick Curtis in The Standard, a ‘hilarious and achingly moving slice of dysfunctional rural Irish family life in the 1980s with broad seams of mysticism and superstition running through it’. All reviews agreed the writing is strong, with more than a nod to Chekhov. There are outstanding performances from Rosie Sheehy, Chris O’Dowd and Brian Gleeson as three siblings. Some found there was too much going on.

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

4 stars ★★★★

Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski called it ‘deft stuff, a slow-burn, bittersweet drama about a family finally disintegrating under forces that have been pulling at it for decades.’ Dave Fargnoli for The Stage said it ‘remains gripping thanks to McPherson’s typically sparkling dialogue, dripping with vibrant Irish idiom and loaded with humour and profundity.’ For him there was a standout performance: ‘Sensitively and convincingly portraying a character living with an autism spectrum disorder, Sheehy is a fascinating knot of tensions, often bluntly outspoken, other times stiff and uncomfortable in her own skin’.

The Standard’s Nick Curtis found it ‘audacious’. He picked two actors from a ‘splendid ensemble’: ‘O’Dowd returns to the stage for the first time in four years with a heroically detestable performance as the tauntingly feckless, faithless Dermot. And Rosie Sheehy adds to her unbroken run of transfixingly vivid roles as his sister Billie’. Dzifa Benson for the Telegraph called it ‘a play that is by turns, convulsively funny, bleak and puzzling but it’s Sheehy that my eyes kept seeking out’.

3 stars ★★★

Sarah  Crompton of WhatsOnStage observed, ‘McPherson’s writing is pin-sharp, a rare combination of the riotous and the elegiac…But he simply tries to cram too much in.’ Therefore, ‘It’s a frustrating play, always watchable, so nearly great, so nearly soaring, yet somehow held earthbound by the weight of its intent.’ For Alice Saville at The Independent, ‘The real magic here comes from the beautifully woven speeches McPherson gives his characters as they rebel against tedium, death, and the heavens.’

The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar declared, ‘An incredibly strong cast is gathered: O’Dowd is a delight as the family’s self-regarding eldest brother and Sheehy, as always, is a standout force. She plays a largely comic character but infuses Billie with great emotion. The idea of love and its yearning is shown with delicacy.’ She was smitten by the design: ‘Rae Smith’s set is beautiful, full of diaphanous, overlying images of trees, water, misty mountains, sky, conjuring a vivid sense of place but also carrying a certain otherworldly magic. Sometimes this production lifts off, as if it is about to enter into the sublime, but is strangely dragged down by too many elements jostling to take flight.’

Anya Ryan of LondonTheatre decided, ‘It doesn’t quite make the impact McPherson might have hoped for then, but the play is still brimming with more fantasy and good fun than most. And for the true brilliance of each actor, this is a play worth a few hours of your time.’ Dominic Maxwell in The Times was ‘not sure it quite adds up, but it’s far more interesting than plenty of plays that do.’

Critics’ Average Rating: 3.3⭑

Value rating 44 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)

The Brightening Air is at The Old Vic Theatre  until 14 June 2025. Buy tickets from the theatre here.

If you’ve seen The Brightening Air is at The Old Vic Theatre, please add your review and rating below

 

 

The worst reviews of the year greet this ‘misconceived’ musical

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

The worst reviews of the year so far greeted this musical version of the Oscar-winning movie Midnight Cowboy. It’s to find any praise for Francis ‘Eg’ White‘s score, Bryony Lavery‘s book, or Nick Winston‘s direction of this story of two misfits in the dark world of 1980s New York.

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

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

Paul Vale for The Stage summed up, ‘Lavery and White’s treatment brings very little that’s new to the table. Winston’s production is stylishly presented, with capable performances, but dramatically it tends to mirror the source works, rather than open them out and explore their themes.’ The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar gave one of the kinder reviews: ‘The pace of the production is choppy and it feels too long overall but it presents an unvarnished portrait of an urban underclass that still resonates.’ Nevertheless she tore into the music: ‘A few songs fly, such as Don’t Give Up on Me Now and Blue Is the Colour, but most feel wordy and generic.’

2 star ⭑⭑

Julia Rank for WhatsOnStage was critical for the score: ‘The music and lyrics by three-time Ivor Novello Award-winning pop songwriter Francis ‘Eg’ White (in his musical theatre debut) demonstrate a lack of theatrical understanding as the undistinguished, heavily synthesised soft-rock numbers lack any kind of trajectory and struggle to develop plot, character or atmosphere’ and Bryony Lavery’s book ‘which moves from scene to scene with little momentum and the characters remain caricatures.’

Franco Milazzo at BroadwayWorld listed the musical’s faults: ‘Chunky and clunky dialogue is smoothed out with the occasional zinger but it feels eternally rough around the edges…The score from Francis “Eg” White fares only slightly better…it is Nick Winston’s direction, though, that takes the biscuit and the tin it came in. The first half has stop-start pacing that distracts from any sense of forward motion and the sex scene between Joe and Cass is possibly the least erotic thing seen on a London stage for quite some time.’

Lindsay Johns writing for the Telegraph called it ‘disquieting, distasteful and at times even disgusting.’ (This last in reference to a sex scene.) She said the original songs: ‘feel banal, and occasionally descend into painful, atonal caterwauling.’ She concluded with another string of negative adjectives: ‘Notwithstanding a couple of strong performances, this curate’s egg of a production feels uneven, unsatisfying and wholly gratutitous.’

1 star ⭑

The Standard‘s Nick Curtis accused the musical of ‘ coarsely, slapping largely indifferent songs over the action seemingly at random.’ He found that ‘one smashes repeatedly up against the incongruity of score and subject matter, as Joe descends to turning gay tricks in movie theatres and fleapit hotels, Ratso gradually collapses, and Winston treats it all as a gaudy, carnivalesque entertainment.’ Gary Naylor at The ArtsDesk called it ‘misconceived’.

Critics’ Average Rating 1.86★

Midnight Cowboy can be seen at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant until 17 May 2025. Click here for tickets direct from the theatre. 

If you have seen Midnight Cowboy at Southwark Playhouse Elephant, please give your review and rating below

 

Critics disappointed by tale of women in communist China

Kiln Theatre

Amy Ng‘s new play, directed by Katie Posner, tells the story of two Chinese women, one of whom became the wife of Chairman Mao, the other a leading theatre director. The critics found it underpowered and confusing. The reviews expressed disappointment rather than venom but were still some of the worst reviews of the year.

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

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

Julia Rank at LondonTheatre felt ‘If it doesn’t fully come to life, it does provide a window into a terrifying period of history where friendships counted for very little in the pursuit of power.’ For WhatsOnStage‘s Sarah Crompton, ‘It feels too rushed, reducing the scenes between the two women to melodramatic statements of intent and great gobbets of plot.’ The Standard‘s Nick Curtis was forgiving: ‘though it’s not a great piece of drama it tells a great story briskly and efficiently.’

Loretta Monaco at LondonTheatre1 damned with faint praise: ‘While Shanghai Dolls is worth seeing, and it nudges us to learn more about Jiang Qing, Sun Weishi, and their influence on today’s modern China, the answer may be in a restructured version, if not, its enormous power will remain unleashed.’

2 stars ⭑⭑

The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar found it confusing: ‘It is not always immediately clear what has happened, how it has affected them or who they have become.’ She found that ‘In the early scenes especially, they seem like mouthpieces for their political positions and this hampers emotion or intimacy from building.’ Clive Davis in The Times called it ‘didactic and oddly confusing’. Helen Hawkins at TheArtsDesk noted, ‘it’s a dense subject requiring much more granular scrutiny if we are to understand these characters, let alone engage with them.’

Ella Duggan for The Independent was disappointed: ‘The source material here is undeniably compelling – a cautionary tale of resentment and repression. But this production falters in its execution, opting for a melodramatic, borderline cheesy tone that undercuts its own message.’ Over at BroadwayWorld, Franco Milazzo found it ‘hard work to grasp the nuances of the bigger picture as we move along.’

The Stage‘s Sam Marlowe was damning: ‘this is clumsy, flimsy work that not only doesn’t deliver as drama, but fails to come anywhere close to doing justice to history.’

Critics’ Average Rating 2.4★

Shanghai Dolls can be seen at the Kiln Theatre until 10 May 2025. Click here for tickets direct from the theatre. 

If you have seen Shanghai Dolls at The Kiln, please give your review and rating below

A hunt around the head of a murderous man

Royal Court

Robert Icke is lauded for his interpretations of classics (the most recent being his glorious Oedipus) but Manhunt is his first original play. In trying to get inside the head of the notorious killer Raoul Moat who went on the run in 2010, Icke, who also directed, mixes factual events and made-up scenes and conversations. Some critics liked this approach, while others felt it ‘couldn’t make its mind up’. All praised the performance of Samuel Edward-Cook in the lead role and Hildegard Bechtler’s ‘gun metal’ set design. The critics reached out to an unusual number of other works in their efforts to convey the flavour of the play and its subject: Jerusalem, Taxi Driver, Heart of Darkness, Moby Dick, Clockwork Orange, and the recent Adolescence and Punch.

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

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Sarah Crompton at WhatsOnStage admired it but had reservations: ‘Manhunt is sophisticated in structure and thought, and its treatment of its damaged protagonist is never less than interesting … But in its attempts to be fair to both Moat’s tortured psychology and the suffering of his victims it doesn’t quite land as cogently and powerfully as you might hope.’ She complimented the design: ‘On Hildegard Bechtler’s set, stainless steel beaten panels reflect Azusa Ono’s subtle light, imprisoning Moat in his thoughts; when he goes on the run through his beloved Northumberland countryside, they resemble a thundery sky. ‘

Dave Fargnoli for The Stage felt, ‘Without ever attempting to excuse or explain Moat’s dreadful actions, this challenging, shattering and strikingly humane play from celebrated writer-director Robert Icke (uses) Moat’s grim story to frame potent questions about toxic masculinity.’ He praised the lead: ‘Samuel Edward-Cook is mesmerising as Moat, unflinchingly exploring the killer’s horrible, yet disturbingly recognisable, motivations. He frequently reveals flashes of sensitivity or vulnerability, then shamefacedly hides them.’

Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowski noted that, once Moat arrives in the countryside, ‘the play really clicks, warping from something quite literal into something borderline metaphysical, a sort of psychographic journey into the hinterlands of toxic masculinity rather than an attempt to literally explain what happened.’ He ended, ‘Manhunt may spell things out a bit much, but it’s also emotionally vivid and compellingly other, blessed with great performances and an unnerving grandeur as Moat’s cracked, Kurtz-like odyssey takes him towards his own heart of darkness.’

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

The Standard’s Nick Curtis wrote, ‘It’s a tense and unnerving 100 minutes, driven by a frankly terrifying performance from a pumped-up, bullet-headed Samuel Edward-Cook as Moat.’ He was unhappy with the many conversations and events that ‘never happened’:  ‘Icke is one of the most gifted theatre artists working today … but for all its intensity, Manhunt feels like it’s hedging its bets. Or worse, can’t make its mind up.’

Alice Saville in The Independent found ‘it lacks Icke’s usual ability to winnow complex source material into one coherent message.’ She ended: ‘Manhunt is completely engrossing to watch, like watching a tiger prowl up and down in its cage – Hildegard Bechtler’s set design creates a metal prison for this trapped man. But like a mismanaged zoo, it’s ultimately not as compassionate as it makes itself out to be.’

While describing it as ‘thought-provoking’, Olivia Rook at LondonTheatre  There’s no doubt Manhunt stretches the bounds of artistic licence, with one of the play’s most engaging moments being an imagined conversation between Moat and Gascoigne (who, in reality, was denied access at the scene). But in some ways the show’s fascinating, real history also seems to limit it, with the recreation of events often feeling expositional.

Finding it too long, The Times’ Clive Davis concluded, ‘Icke has so many good ideas – yet he needs a better editor, too.’ He didn’t always feel this way: ‘For the first hour of this hallucinatory drama, Icke creates an almost unbearably intense portrait of a drifter who is a combination of volcanic anger and paranoia.’

2 stars ⭑⭑

The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar took a similar view to other critics but was more damning: ‘(T)his production is strangely plodding, a rather too expositional synthesis of events, despite the theatrical flourishes. It is neither revelatory nor emotional enough,’ declared Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. She concluded, ‘This story hangs in the air, unsure of – or opaque in – its intentions. Is this an anatomy of a breakdown? An investigation into the ways Moat was failed? Or a portrait of white, northern, working-class masculinity in extreme crisis? It seems like a bit of all, but not enough of one.’

Gary Naylor for BroadwayWorld found Icke’s ‘approach too close to Enid Blytonesque exposition salted with repetition’. He described it as ‘a production that resurrects a man only to bury him again 100 minutes later, having said far less than it might have. And, more pertinently, far less than it should have.’

Critics’ Average Rating 3.1★

Manhunt can be seen at the Royal Court Theatre until 3 May 2025. Click here for tickets. 

If you have seen Manhunt at Nottingham Playhouse or The Young Vic, please give your review and rating below