Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, London

Frances Hodgson Burnett’s much loved but dated story about a child who moves from India to Yorkshire has been adapted by into a play relevant for today, and given a highly praised open air production by Anna Himali Howard.

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

Fiona Mountford in the i (5★) loved it: ‘Holly Robinson and Anna Himali Howard, who also directs, have hit the jackpot here, maintaining all Hodgson Burnett’s key themes of a lonely and disagreeable orphan coming to life and finding friendship in nature, but cleverly amplifying the Indian side of Mary Lennox’s story.’

Anya Ryan in The Stage (5★) was entranced : ‘Marvellous, wise and expertly updated, it is sublime.’ She explained, ‘the victory of this adaptation is as much down to the ensemble work as the writing. The narration is shared between the cast members, who take it in turns to lead us through Mary’s story.’

Rachel Halliburton reviewing for The Times (4★) said, ‘Hannah Khalique-Brown… quickly makes her mark as an impressively petulant Mary… the cast around her acts like a chorus, wryly commenting on her spiky progress into a strange new world.’ She praised every aspect of the show including’Leslie Travers’s spellbinding design — full of hidden doors and ravishing paper garland plants — is the icing on the cake, fusing elegantly with the trees and birdlife of Regent’s Park. It’s a treat’

Arifa Akbar at The Guardian (4★) called it ‘it is an inspired transposition of a story that deals with dark themes around family and belonging’. Her colleague Susannah Clapp at The Observer (4★) said, ‘It is a lovely thing that adapters Holly Robinson and Anna Himali Howard have done with The Secret Garden.’

Anna James for WhatsOnStage (4★) noted, ‘Hannah Khalique-Brown as Mary stands out, giving a particularly moving and detailed performance’. Caroline McGinn writing for Time Out (4★) referred to ‘the creative ebullience of a charming and lovely production’.

Kat Mokrynski for Broadway World (4★) found ‘a beautiful adaptation of the classic novel that truly elevates its source material, bringing it to new heights of growth and love’. Nick Ferris reviewing for the Telegraph (4) agreed: ‘the production ultimately does a fine job at retaining the charm of the novel while making it appropriate for now.’

Patrick Marmion in the Daily Mail (4★) described how the ‘smoky Indian flute, twang of sitar and rumble of tabla drums, alongside cleverly improvised incarnations of crows, robins and squirrels, bring fresh enchantment to a classic tale.’

Julia Rank for LondonTheatre (3 ★) likedthe way ‘This new adaptation…keeps the Edwardian setting while implementing some intelligent revisionism’ but said it needed ‘a bit more pruning’.

Critics’ average rating 4.1★

Value rating 69 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price.)

The Secret Garden can be seen at the Open Air Theatre until 20 July 2024. Buy tickets direct from the theatre.

If you’ve seen  The Secret Garden at the Open Air Theatre, please add your review and rating below

Savoy Theatre

Mean Girls, in the words of WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton, is ‘a cautionary musical tale of high school rivalries, corruption and betrayal wrapped in a very pretty pink bow‘. Tina Fey’s stage musical version of her movie script was a Broadway hit; six years later, it has arrived in the West End. Was it worth the wait? The critics generally liked Tina Fey’s book (script) but there was disagreement on the quality of the songs.

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

Fiona Mountford in the i (4★) was a fan: ‘Jeff Richmond (composer) and Nell Benjamin (lyrics) supply a highly tuneful score that is a riot of peppy, poppy songs; unusually for a new musical, I came away humming several of the numbers.’ She said, ‘Director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw…certainly knows how to concoct a slick production’.

Adam Bloodworth at CityAM (4★) was equally enthusiastic: ‘it feels freshly powerful for a new generation rather than treading in the footsteps of the original. That’s mainly thanks to Nell Benjamin’s pumping musical score that neatly translates the sassy characters’ stories onto the stage, and Casey Nicholaw’s direction and choreography, which is gripping and pacey…it feels freshly powerful for a new generation rather than treading in the footsteps of the original.’

Sarah Crompton at WhatsOnStage (4★) discovered ‘a book as corrosive as acid but much funnier’. She had a reservation: ‘The problem is that the songs, with music by Fey’s husband Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin, are syrupy where the script is sharp…they crucially extend the show…to a slightly sagging two and a half hours.’ She concluded, ‘All the skill involved makes it hard not to succumb. This is a genuinely enjoyable show with its heart in the right place’.

Despite describing it as ‘mere chaff’, the Telegraph’s (4★) reviewer called it ‘a rare combination of warmth, goofiness, snarky wit and perceptiveness.’ It came across to Susannah Clapp in The Observer (4★) as ‘a friendly, popular show‘.

Chris Wiegand for The Guardian (3★) felt ‘too many routines are efficient rather than euphoric. The pristine school surroundings and several bland songs result in a sometimes flat production’. He conceded, ‘It’s often fun, and is well cast and impressively acted, but just needs an extra shot of dazzle and acidity.’

The Sunday Times’ Dominic Maxwell (3★) ‘found an oddly sluggish first half’ with songs that ‘run the gamut between the passable and the adequate’. Fortunately, ‘Jokes still land, the acting is terrific and the songs have more emotion to play with as the story clicks into gear in the second half.’ His colleague at The Times, Clive Davis (3★), said, ‘it’s engaging enough, although Fey’s one-liners linger longer in the memory than most of the bubblegum songs’. 

Nick Curtis in the Standard (3★) thought it was a ‘breezy, arch but boneless musical adaptation’ with ‘poppy, mostly forgettable songs’. He found, ‘You find yourself wishing for each number to end so we can get back to Fey’s insouciant wit.’

Anya Ryan for The Stage (3★) was disappointed that ‘Nothing feels surprising.’ However, ‘Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin’s poppy songs feature plenty of bangers’ and ‘Fey has certainly put her finger on something: she knows girls can be savage, sly and criminally mean’. She is sad that ‘It’s just a shame then that the constant re-churning of this story is starting to feel soulless’.

Tim Bano in The Independent (2★) wasn’t mean exactly,but he was sarcastic: ‘If the movie didn’t exist, this would be fine. I mean, the score by Fey’s husband Jeff Richmond would still be a bit anodyne, every song filler-y, most of them unmemorable, the direction by Casey Nicholaw functional, his choreography fruitlessly maximal, the digital set a bit empty and unimaginative.’

Critics’ average rating 3.3★

Value rating 37 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price.)

Mean Girls The Musical can be seen at the Savoy Theatre until 6 April2025. Buy tickets direct

If you’ve seen Mean Girls at the Savoy Theatre, please add your review and rating below

The Old Vic

James Corden returns to the West End stage to star alongside acting superstar Anna Maxwell Martin in a relatively small play by Joe Penhall about a confrontation between an angry constituent and his basically decent MP. The Old Vic’s artistic director Matthew Warchus directs, putting the audience, traverse style, on two sides of a narrow stage for this look at the state of Britain and its politics. The critics praised the two leads but there were mixed feelings about the play: two really liked it and one handed out two stars.

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

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar (4★) was a cheerleader: ‘Played straight through at 90 minutes and resolutely focused on local politics, it becomes universal by being so specific.’ She pointed out, ‘Each of these characters is a victim of the system, hanging on, just’. She thought, ‘Maxwell Martin is subtly brilliant’

Aliya Al-Hassan for Broadway World (4★) also approved wholeheartedly. ‘Penhall’s script is not a polemic and brings out the humanity in the characters’. She liked both the main actors, saying, ‘The pair have excellent chemistry and their shifting relationship is very believable.’

For Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times (4★) ‘Corden and Maxwell Martin are excellent’ and ‘Penhall’s play makes the case for more care and empathy. He reminds us of the other meaning of constituent — “to be part of a whole”.

Marianka Swain for LondonTheatre (4★) said, ‘The ideas occasionally supersede the people, but the strong cast, and a good amount of humour in Penhall’s script, keep us gripped.’

Natasha Tripney for the Standard (3★) thought ‘the surprisingly thin play squanders both its timely subject matter and the talents of the cast.’ She assured us, ‘Corden does a strong job, capturing the character’s intensity and increasing desperation’.

Sam Marlowe in The Stage (3★) thought it was a ‘crisp production’ and that ‘Penhall’s dialogue is packed with zap and zing’ She said ‘the performances are pretty much faultless’, however she found ‘the play is at once too narrow and too broad’.

Dominic Cavendish in the Telegraph (3★) thought ‘Penhall’s script…nicely handles the blend of comedy and darkening aggro.’ For him, James Corden was ‘all fixed intensity and hunched affability, then moves across 90 minutes to reveal a more bellicose side to the blustering persona, before showing us a sobbing emblem of broken Britain, alienated from the system’.

Susannah Clapp in The Observer (3★) found ‘The dialogue is heavy with explanation and the action slowed by overload’. She said James Corden showed ‘what a versatile actor he is.’ Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski (3★) praised James Corden as ‘an actor of range and substance’ and thought ‘Maxwell Martin is terrific’, but he damned the play with faint praise as ‘decent’.

Alun Hood for WhatsOnStage (3★) thought the play was ‘enjoyable, tartly funny and almost reaches the tension level of a thriller’ but he had a reservation: ‘it smacks of a very fine writer wanting to dash off something relevant and timely, without really offering anything genuinely illuminating or new‘. He observed, ‘Corden isn’t a subtle actor, painting with broad, blunt colours, and possessed of a monotonous line delivery…but his unique combination of manic energy, bluster and simmering aggression work well for the character.’

It didn’t get CityAM ‘s (2) Adam Bloodworth’s vote.  He was contemptuous of its male star: ‘Corden is on auto-pilot’. He is hardly less complimentary about the play: ‘Joe Penhall’s script is full of jokes that don’t land and the set up is clunky and hard to believe.’ As for the production, ‘it’s over stylised to the point that it kills the drama’.

For The Times’ Clive Davis (2), the play was ‘tepid’, lines were ‘leaden’, Corden ‘can’t bring enough depth’, and Maxwell Martin ‘strikes a monotonously querulous note’.

Critics’ Average Rating 3.2

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

The Constituent can be seen at the Old Vic until 10 August 2024. Buy tickets direct from The Old Vic

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