Alexander McQueen play branded 'a fashion faux pas'

Michael Coveney, WhatsOnStage

★★★

"the overall tone of the evening is at first self-pitying and finally enervating"

"For the real theatricality, fetishistic dazzle and brilliance of McQueen's work, you're better off visiting the current V&A exhibition"

"There's a lot of information and detail packed into Phillips's play, some good scenes, and a wonderful performance by [Stephen] Wight"

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail

★★

"a morbid, peculiar play that weaves a fantasy about the fashion designer spending a night on the town with a dotty girl who has barged into his home"

"Non-fashionistas are more likely to think it pseudish nonsense"

"The show runs at one hour 40 minutes but feels longer"

Holly Williams, Independent

★★★

"Phillips has sensibly eschewed a straight bio-drama in favour of a one-night fairytale"

"they might have got away with it had the casting not been so lop-sided"

"Glee star Dianna Agron is not good… This performance is more blunt than a pair of old sewing scissors; it simply doesn't cut it."

Michael Billington, Guardian

★★

"However you choose to define it, the show certainly doesn't offer much in the way of drama."

"Even if the show’s basic note is one of rapt obeisance, it is stylishly directed by John Caird and smartly choreographed by Christopher Marney."

"Phillips never gives us any great insight into the real McQueen"

Ben Lawrence, Daily Telegraph

★★

"this pretentious, unshapely piece feels like something of a fashion faux pas"

"The problem with the script is that it mainly consists of two troubled souls agonising over their states of mind and consequently, the tone remains flat throughout."

"Another issue is Agron… who never manages to elevate her character beyond a clothes-horse spouting psychobabble."

Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard

★★

"this plodding and thinly plotted piece lacks the dramatic daring of a McQueen catwalk show"

"Phillips’s writing is stuffed with biographical snippets and pretentious musings, only coming alive when it engages with McQueen’s craftsmanship."

"A shaven-headed Stephen Wight wrings as much as he can from the title role… he transcends the limitations of the script and comes close to suggesting the designer’s tormented genius"