Review Round-Ups

Is Bugsy Malone everything the critics want it to be?

Sean Holmes’s production runs at the Lyric Hammersmith until August

Sean Holmes's production of Bugsy Malone reopens the redeveloped Lyric Hammersmith. Featuring an ensemble of 16-21 year olds and a principal cast of children, it runs until 1 August.


Michael Coveney, WhatsOnStage

★★★★★

"Brilliantly directed by Holmes and sensationally well-choreographed by Drew McOnie, the show is a blast from titfer top to tapping toe"

"I was nothing but glad to hear Paul Williams's songs again, and musical director Paul Bateman's seven-man band in the pit gives the cast extra oomph"

"an extraordinary and unforgettable night"

Michael Billington, Guardian

★★★

"It is all staged by Sean Holmes with great elan, the cast is highly talented, and the audience went wild with delight. The Lyric clearly has a hit on its hands"

"there is an unavoidable cutesiness about the sight of kids apeing adult mannerisms"

"it has a vaudevillian bounce denied to Parker’s movie. But, while I may well be in a minority of one, I found something resistible about its desperate desire to be loved."

Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph

★★★★★

"this Hammersmith Bugsy Malone is a blast – a triumphant return for the stage version of Alan Parker’s adored 1976 film-musical"

"Sure, some of the lines are a bit gabbled, a few of the interactions are a touch gauche – but isn’t that part of the charm?"

"This is something very special indeed."

Dominic Maxwell, The Times

★★★★

"this whomping big crowd-pleasing hit"

"the gifted cast in Sean Holmes’s propulsive and assured production makes these Depression-era song-and-dance showdowns into something thoroughly uplifting."

"Once the plot kicks in, though, once Drew McOnie’s brilliant choreography starts taking centre-stage, you surrender to this strange but marvellous evening."

Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out

★★★★

"Lyric boss Sean Holmes is the perfect director for the job, bringing a ruthless lack of sentiment and gift for metatheatrical shtick to the table"

"Full of fourth wall-breaking nods, his Bugsy is aware of its underlying absurdity, yet also played with a gleefully straight bat"

"an entirely winning production"

Bugsy Malone runs at Lyric Hammersmith until 1 August