Southwark Playhouse

Good songs, bad book

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 George 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.

Critics’ average rating 2.9⭑

The Frogs is at Southwark Playhouse until 28 June 2025. Buy tickets from the theatre here.

If you’ve seen The Frogs at Southwark Playhouse, please add your review and rating below