Party Time with Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell

theatre royal drury lane

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.’