Reader Reviews
The Rivals (Haymarket, Theatre Royal, West End)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | Wonderful acting from everyone.For a change you could hear every word uttered on stage (sadly rare these days). Terrific interplay with the audience. One of the best and funniest plays to see. - marged | 08 Feb 11 |
| I was looking forward to seeing Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles in the leading roles of this classic but this was no more than a pedestrian performance that felt as though these actors were merely going through the motions. The younger characters brought a much better sense of vitality to the evening. It compares so much less favourably with the production at Southwark Playhouse almost 12 months ago where Celia Imrie and Robin Soans played the lead roles with gusto and had us all genuinely laughing, rather than the polite smiles all round at the Theatre Royal. I would only look to recommend this as a 'safe' choice of theatre if you didn't want to offend anyone. - jh | 23 Jan 11 |
| Sheridan's The Rivals receives a traditional but lively production from Sir Peter Hall which delighted an audience at the Haymarket largely made up of people of roughly Sir Peter's vintage - I felt quite young in their company. Anabel Scholey was exceptionally good in the Hall / Judi Dench ... Dream at Kingston and here she is absolutely charming as Julia. Unfortunately the other two young leads, Tam Williams and Robyn Addison, range from mildly to wildly irritating as Jack Absoloute and Lydia Languish. Of course most of the audience had come to see the reunion of Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles and both provide a masterclass in comic timing. Bowles' "frenzies" are a bit underwhelming but it is a genuine treat to see two comedy veterans revelling in the delights of Sheridan's dialogue, especially Miss Keith's blissful ignorance of Mrs. Malaprop's mangling of the dictionary. Hardly cutting edge theatre but, like When We Are Married, there's nothing wrong with old fashioned entertainment. - David Baxter | 26 Nov 10 |
| What a huge disappointment. Penelope Keith, the head mistress called in by the drama department to fill in for the head girl, lacked the eccentricity required and which someone like Maggie Smith brought to the part many moons ago. Peter Bowles, the wonderful Peter Bowles, struggled to give it some welly, but ultimately failing. It's as if the WVS were given a biggish budget and said get on with it. Peter Hall is clearly on a commercial bender. His Hay Fever a few years back was awful - Judi Dench running around trying too hard and failing. Tonight I sat near the annoyingly fidgety Charles Spencer who chortled a lot but hardly ever looked at the stage - gawd knows what his review will be about? A lack lustre production that should never have reached the West End, the West Pier maybe, but not the West End! Don't waste your money despite what the crits may fawningly come up with in the next few days. - rds | 22 Nov 10 |
| I studied this play for something that used to be called ‘O’ level. At the time, all I got to see was an amateur production. It was 15 years before I saw a professional one, but it was an extraordinary one; John Gunter seemed to have actually built part of Bath’s Royal Crescent on the Olivier stage (the life-size houses could be turned around and opened out to reveal their interiors) and Michael Hordern turned eating a boiled egg into a comic masterclass. There’s a lot going on in Sheridan’s restoration comedy and it’s fun - preposterous fun, but fun all the same. The character names are particularly delicious and there are lots of parts, big and small, which actors relish. It’s impossible to dislike, but it doesn’t change your life. This Peter Hall production comes off the Theatre Royal Bath quality-classics-staged-for-a-song production line. It fits the Theatre Royal Haymarket like a glove. Simon Higlett’s set isn’t as grand as Gunter’s but it does the job perfectly well. The cast is uniformly good, with Penelope Keith an imposing enough Mrs Malaprop and Peter Bowles a fine Sir Jack Absolute. There are great comic turns from Gerard Murphy as Sir Lucius and Keiron Self as Bob Acres and a lovely cameo from Ian Connington as Fag. As much as I enjoyed seeing it again, it didn’t sparkle that much though and I’m afraid it falls into the category of ‘another Rivals’. Still, there are worse nights out to be had. - Gareth James | 16 Nov 10 |
