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Synopsis Set in New York, The Little Dog Laughed is a four-hander centring on Mitchell, a Hollywood actor who, out of loneliness and boredom at his ailing career, decides to call a male escort hotline. Alex answers the call and meets him in his hotel room. The two form an unlikely friendship and both get far more out of the evening’s events than either originally planned.
The Little Dog Laughed, Douglas Carter Beane’s satire on the delicate balance between sexuality and success in the high-pressure world of Hollywood, opened last night at the Garrick Theatre (See Today's 1st Night Photos).
Jamie Lloyd directs the Broadway transfer, which centres on up-and-comer Mitchell (Rupert Friend), a charismatic and ambitious young actor who intends to keep his homosexuality hidden from the public. Things grow complicated, however, when he falls for a sexually confused male prostitute (Harry Lloyd), who at the same time must decide what to make of his non-platonic lady friend Ellen (Gemma Arterton). All the while Mitchell must navigate his way through difficult career decisions, for most of which he seeks consultation in the form of his brazen and ruthless lesbian super-agent Diane (Tamsin Greig).
Most overnight critics agree that Greig’s performance represents the production's high-water mark. The Independent’s Paul Taylor states that her performance “shows you a woman who has a well-thumbed movie-industry directory where her heart should be,” while the Guardian's Michael Billington, in a four star review, notes that “the play belongs to Diane,” as Greig “brings the right demonic energy and well-tailored control-freakery to the role.”
Elsewhere, there were a few grumblings regarding Beane's script, and indeed the wisdom of the transfer. The Times’ Benedict Nightingale goes so far as to say the plot has “very little sense of struggle, let alone depth,” with the Daily Mail’s Quentin Letts adding that if it were not “for glorious Tamsin Greig, the West End's latest American import would be a disaster. The Little Dog Laughed would die.”
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (one star) – “Douglas Carter Beane’s excruciating Broadway import The Little Dog Laughed – supposedly driven by a desire to update the Rock Hudson story – has been devised in the first place here by director Jamie Lloyd as an excuse for Tamsin Greig to bawl at the audience for a couple of hours, striking poses that would make even the sainted Beatrice Lillie, let alone the Statue of Liberty, blanche with embarrassment … The plot curdles round this faux Pirandellianism … Harry Lloyd giving the only bearable performance of the evening … Will the stage lighting by Jon Clark suddenly turn green again for no apparent reason, or back to purple? Will Tamsin Greig strike another pose, or will I strike her first? These are the questions that litter an evening of mounting comedy froideur, poor writing and gross self-indulgence. Soutra Gilmour’s white classical design mixes antiseptic hotels and dining rooms with front cloths and a front stage where Greig twitters tediously through the ‘fourth wall.’”
Paul Taylor in The Independent (three stars) – “Mitchell is a dashing boy-next-door type actor and aspiring movie star, whose professional secret is that he is gay. The character who powers the evening forward, though, in Jamie Lloyd's enjoyably breezy and knowing production, is Diane, Mitchell's diabolically cynical lesbian agent. She makes the average monstre sacré look like a fluffy kitten in a cat-food advert. If there were an Olympic decathlon for bravura bitching and Machiavellian scheming, she'd win the gold, silver and bronze. And in a performance of brilliantly malign energy, Tamsin Greig shows you a woman who has a well-thumbed movie-industry directory where her heart should be … But ironically the character could also be construed as the bravura, flouncing Spirit of Theatre … metrosexuality never gets a proper look in this play where the characters seem to be locked into slightly dated notions of what is possible … there's an increasing danger that a comedy as relentlessly in-the-know about showbiz amorality as this will eventually outsmart itself. The scenes that attempt emotional seriousness ring hollow and false. The thin characterisation of the young girl suggests that the author is much less interested in straight, sincere females than he is in dyke divas … the production has a lot of diagrammatic pep and Tamsin Greig is phenomenal as corrupt Hollywood ambition incarnate.
Quentin Letts in The Daily Mail – “But for glorious Tamsin Greig, the West End's latest American import would be a disaster. The Little Dog Laughed would die. Paws stiff. All four of them pointing to the ceiling. It is a measure of Miss Greig's sparkle that she rescues the thing, milking the laughter by producing her full range of sarcastic, English comedy gestures which sit strangely alongside the American dialogue … Perhaps one day an innovative playwright will invent an agent who is kind and honest. But Douglas Carter Beane, who wrote this show, is cliché’ in ink ... It's simply the comedy angles and the characterisation that are flabby. The cadences of the language, too … The plot twist, when it comes, is as well signposted as Membury Services off the M4. Mr. Friend and Mr. Lloyd are good-looking boys but they really struggle to keep the first half alive. The show only picks up with a scene in a Manhattan diner shortly before the interval. If Miss Greig was not present, would anyone return for the second half?
Michael Billington in The Guardian (four stars) – “Although it is resolutely American, I hope it thrives over here because it deftly satirises Hollywood's eternal hypocrisy about sex; even today … this play is both funny and perceptive about Hollywood's contempt for wordsmiths and its sexual double standards … The play belongs to Diane, and even if Tamsin Greig is a bit broader than her Broadway counterpart, she brings the right demonic energy and well-tailored control-freakery to the role: she is diabolically funny in the best scene where, at a lunch with the unseen writer, she conveys her deep-seated disdain for the ‘fag playwright’. Rupert Friend as her smitten client, Harry Lloyd as his boyish lover, and Gemma Arterton as the latter's disposable squeeze all offer good complementary support, and Jamie Lloyd's production is smooth as butter. The play may be too show-bizzy for some tastes but, behind its Manhattan waspishness, lurks a general truth: while Hollywood may be the global dream-factory, it still lies about its operatives' sex-lives.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times (three stars) – “There’s a point at which bright becomes brittle, and another at which smart becomes smartass, and there are moments when Douglas Carter Beane’s bright, smart and often enjoyable play crosses both boundaries … at least this dilemma allows Tamsin Greig to give a terrific performance as a Californian agent … Greig’s Diane makes entrances like John Wayne swaggering into a saloon … The trouble is that you don’t feel much for the visible characters who become her toys and victims: Rupert Friend’s affable but bland Mitchell, Harry Lloyd’s sweet and considerate Alex, and Gemma Arterton as Alex’s forlorn girlfriend. There are plenty of sharp, sassy lines … but very little sense of struggle, let alone depth. I suspect Beane and his director, Jamie Lloyd, would like us to see the play as a cutting yet affectionate portrait of four emotionally damaged loners in fame-obsessed America. That’s a stretch.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph (four stars) – “Beane plays clever games with his material, so we belatedly realise that we might just be watching the very film script the agent has always secretly been planning … Director Jamie Lloyd’s production has exactly the right light, cynical touch and there is a thrilling star turn from Tamsin Greig who plays the agent as a couture-clad monster of cynicism, deviousness, and unrepentant ambition, switching from bullying outrage to silky manipulation at the flick of an eyelid … Rupert Friend and Harry Lloyd ensure that the love interest never descends into the downright mawkish, while former Bond girl Gemma Arterton proves genuinely touching as the confused girlfriend. No one could claim this is a deep comedy, but it is smart, tart and bang on the money.”
That little bow-wow laughed to see such fun while the dish ran away with a spoon… but the nursery rhyme did not, as far as I recall, offer a lowdown on Hollywood producers buying a stage property, a lesbian diva agent calling the shots, or her client posing as butch but calling up rent boys.
Douglas Carter Beane’s excruciating Broadway import The Little Dog Laughed – supposedly driven by a desire to update the Rock Hudson story – has been devised in the first place here by director Jamie Lloyd as an excuse for Tamsin Greig to bawl at the audience for a couple of hours, striking poses that would make even the sainted Beatrice Lillie, let alone the Statue of Liberty, blanche with embarrassment.
As the agent, Diane, she wants to railroad a deal in favour of her client, Rupert Friend’s over-tanned new star Mitchell, in the wake of an awards triumph at which, for some obscure reason, Greig starts wittering on about Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and dropping hints about mobile phones.
The plot curdles round this faux Pirandellianism when Mitchell’s telephone male prostitute, Alex (Harry Lloyd giving the only bearable performance of the evening), is thrown into a quandary over his sexuality by letting work get in the way of his affair with Gemma Arterton’s drop-dead gorgeous Ellen; who is, herself, shopping with another boyfriend’s credit card.
Is Alex gay? Will he have sex with Mitchell? Will they remove their underpants? Can Mitchell keep a boyfriend on the payroll as a Pilates instructor, or a literary adviser? Will the stage lighting by Jon Clark suddenly turn green again for no apparent reason, or back to purple? Will Tamsin Greig strike another pose, or will I strike her first?
These are the questions that litter an evening of mounting comedy froideur, poor writing – “Eurasian?” “I think he’s anyone’s Asian” – and gross self-indulgence. Soutra Gilmour’s white classical design mixes antiseptic hotels and dining rooms with front cloths and a front stage where Greig twitters tediously through the “fourth wall.”
Can Mitchell be an out-gay leading man in Hollywood? “Are you British, do you have a knighthood? Shut up!” is the answer to that. And no wonder, when Diane refers to a gay playwright as St Francis of the sissies and the pregnant Ellen complies in an abortion plan and a surprise marriage to help cover everyone’s tracks. Or does she? Can you wait to find out?
Did not enjoy much. Somewhere between overacted and overly contrived. Unable to empathise with characters, who are very flat indeed. Also because lead Diva seemed to be doing a stand up routine by trying to get audience participation- Now what is that about!!
- Odog
12 Apr 10
5 stars for the acting and in particular the fabulous Tamsin Greig...she's fabulous. Next year BAFTA should book her to host the show, she's a knockout. Crazy NYC show, but so well cast. I thought Rupert Friend acquitted himself well as his resume didn't show any other theatre work? But Harry Lloyd, whom I remember from A View From The Bridge last year, was outstanding. British audiences, I did see a matinee (aah!), aren't the most responsive - maybe they were shocked? Ha! I should have seen it NYC a few years back - audiences there should get their own award! Funny old week for me all plays with a poofy element, The Habit of Art, again, this one and 6 Degrees of Separation - like buses then? But A Little Dog Laughed is a knockout. - rds
04 Apr 10
Wow, this play has certainly divided opinion hasn't it?
I must say I can see both sides. It’s certainly not a play without flaws, and it’s easy to understand why it would rub critics or anyone expecting something substantial up the wrong way. It often comes over like an episode of Dawson’s Creek; the script is nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is and it often mistakes being arch for being witty and sophisticated. Its treatment of the relationships between the characters doesn’t really ring true (one of them does an inelegant handbrake turn by going from soliloquising over whether to throw his whole life into flux by pursuing a relationship one minute to being absolutely delighted to be receiving a huge payout to skip town the next). And Tamsin Greig’s extravagant poses and patter with the audience at the beginning are more than a bit strange, carrying as they do a faint echo of Frankie Howerd.
Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think this must mainly be down to the performances. Miss Greig did not put a foot wrong and I thought she did a great job portraying the monstrous Diane. And she looked totally fantastic- if I were her I'd be surreptitiously stuffing a few choice pieces from the wardrobe into my bag at the end of the run. Harry Lloyd was similarly winning as the confused hustler Alex, and Gemma Arterton managed to make her character more than just pathetic and needy. Rupert Friend (Mitchell) I found slightly less convincing, however he too looked fabulous (though in his case when unencumbered by clothing).
If I’d been in the mood for a piece of substantial theatre to get my teeth into I’d have been sneering throughout, but for a couple of hours of matinee entertainment after schlepping round the West End shops this fitted the bill very nicely. Most of my fellow punters seemed to like it too. And to be honest, like it or not isn’t that what most of the potential audience want?
- David
22 Mar 10
A very funny piece of theatre. It is hilarious. Tamsin Greig plays the monster agent way way over the top and she is all the funnier for that. Rupert Friend and Harry Lloyd are quite touching and funny. And Gemma Arterton makes the very best of an underwritten part. A spartan set with slick light changes makes the whole thing proceed at a lick. - William
19 Mar 10
I can understand why this play has generated such a divided response. Some bits I loved (Tamsin Greig does a great job and looks glorious is her power-dressing outfits and heels) and some bits I hated (the "love" story between Mitchel and Alex is underwhelming to the point where I didn't much care what happened to either of them). An OK show, with a script that trips over itself trying to be too clever. - Kenneth
03 Mar 10
I really liked this show. It is both witty and moving. I loved Tamsin Greig's OTT performance and she really drives the show. Harry Lloyd brings a truth to a part that could just have been a cipher. Loved it. - Robbie
02 Mar 10
Not great, but OK. Essentially you have four good actors (well i dont know much much about arterton) doing a rubbish script. It has some funny moments but on the whole is a bit tedious. I think the boys do well especially harry lloyd and there is one very good dualogue. I love Tamsin G usually but this time she just annoyed the hell out of me. As for arterton i just dont see what all the hype is about. Go if you can get cheap tickets but dont fork out, there's better things on. - PG
01 Mar 10
Saw this for the second time on Saturday night. It is a hilarious show exposing shallowness and manipulation in the US film world. There's a great performance from Tamsin Greig who delivers her abrasive and witty lines with aplomb. No its not Chekov but it is very very funny. - Cody
28 Feb 10
Saw this play last night and could only stick three-quarters of an hour before we ran out into the rain. Dull and so boring. Felt conned.Couldn't believe how bad it is. - Pandora
25 Feb 10
Not particulary funny, the odd laugh, very little story line but a lot of unintelligble ramblings. Sexually explicit to a degree that made it awkward for the family group that we took. Annoyed with the Garrick that the write-up on the home page does not advise on this. We spent £200 on tickets and left at the interval. - Amanda
Opened on 24 Apr 1889, funded by W.S. Gilbert. 675 seats. Bought from Andrew Lloyd Webber and now owned by Broadway producer Max Weitzenhoffer and Nica Burns.Society of London Theatre member.
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- 21st Jan 2010 
