We had such high hopes for this one. We love the Almeida. We loved Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train by the same author at the Donmar a few years ago…
…but this one didn’t really work for either of us. The acting was good, but the play left us cold and disappointed. Perhaps we were expecting too much.
There’s a good Wikipedia entry for this play and production too. It states that the original off-Broadway production was reasonably well received, whereas the Almeida production was almost universally well received. I’m not so sure about more-or-less universal:
- Our friend Michael Billington clearly liked it a lot, despite using the word sprawling to describe the play;
- Rhoda Koenig in the Independent was less sure, describing the play as indulgent while praising the acting;
- Charles Spencer in the Telegraph loved it;
- As did Philip Fisher in British Theatre Guide.
