Ridiculous but enjoyable

Charing Cross Theatre

In a small Appalachian town, a witch (Glenn Adamson) and a human (Lauren Jones) fall in love amid much opposition. Lindy Robbins, Dave Bassett and Steve Robson provide bluegrass and rock songs which the few professional critics who attended thought were well performed. Jonathan Prince‘s adaptation of the original 1940s (pre-Twilight) plot was considered to lack depth. Georgie Rankcome directs.

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

For The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar, there were pluses and minuses. She began: ‘It’s all rather weird, but proves its own eternal life through the power and personality of the songs (…) There are vocally pure performances across the cast’. On the other hand: ‘it lacks any kind of meaningful insight or profundity (…) the love story does not come alive either, perhaps because it all seems so hammy. She ended in the middle: ‘The production is rather too ridiculous to become the tear-jerker it could be but it’s enjoyable nevertheless.’

Gary Naylor at The Arts Desk advised: ‘go for the agonies of forbidden love and the singing and chemistry of the two leads delivering a pleasant score, but don’t expect narrative depth and don’t think too hard about mysteriously powerful men bewitching young women, be they strongminded or not.’

Clementine Scott at BroadwayWorld thought: ‘Adamson and Jones carry John and Barbara’s high-stakes forbidden romance with rich vocal harmonies and an intoxicating chemistry sure to appeal to romantasy fans.’

2 stars ⭑⭑

Paul Vale for The Stage was not so sure: ‘it struggles to establish characters efficiently (…) Add to this, the disjoin of the two musical styles and it becomes difficult to empathise with such thinly drawn characters.’ He concluded: ‘These performers know how to sell a song, but there’s so much more that needs fixing here.’

Magyan Forbes at WhatsOnStage was also unimpressed: ‘When the drama finally arrives, it’s effective enough, but the road there is long, uneven and oddly hollow. There is undoubtedly talent on this stage, and technical feats are often impressive. But despite all the smoke, shadows and strained yearning, Dark of the Moon never quite finds the pulse it’s searching for.’

Critics’ average rating 2.6⭑

Dark of the Moon can be seen at the Charing Cross Theatre until 8 August 2026. Buy tickets directly from www.charingcrosstheatre.co.uk

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