The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy at Riverside Studios – review

Making an adaptation of a much beloved original story is never going to be an easy feat, all the more so when the original consists of five books within which the world building is incredibly detailed. So you have two choices: either try and cram it all in, or massively simplify. The Hitchhikers Live team have somehow taken the worst of both, picking random plot points that, combined, make absolutely no sense and ultimately leaving the audience with nearly no story at all.

Even if you’ve only seen the 2005 movie, let alone read Douglas Adams’ original books, you will be very disappointed, and if you haven’t had any contact with the story previously, you will be very confused.

We begin as guests at Arthur Dent’s surprise leaving party, thrown by his very odd but enthusiastic friend Ford Prefect. It’s a surprise because Arthur doesn’t yet know that in just a few minutes, Earth will be bulldozed by the Vogons, an unpleasant alien race, to make way for a hyperspace express bypass, and Arthur will have to leave if he doesn’t want to be eviscerated.

It also turns out that Arthur’s meant to be on a date in the same pub at the same time, despite showing up in his pyjamas – this is quickly explained, as are many key plot points, but as anyone familiar with HGTTG will know, a hasty explanation does not an intergalactic comedy adventure make.

But before the world is destroyed, somehow, we’ve got time for Ford and Arthur’s date, Fenchurch, to have a karaoke battle, 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up” versus Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.”

They’ve got 90 minutes to tell a very complicated story and instead of fastidiously using every minute available to communicate as much as possible, co-creators Arvind Ethan David and Jason Ardizzone-West have inexplicably opted to make it a sing-along. This bizarre use of time is an ongoing theme: After being saved from Earth by the skin of our collective teeth, we’re then guided into a room where we’re meant to interact with a multitude of kooky alien characters, but having politely spoken to all available for a minute or so, with nothing else to do, my plus-one and I found ourselves at a protracted loose end. This is finally interrupted by a song explaining the Jatravartid people and their sneezing religion, and then a stand-alone scene where Arthur and Fenchurch meet in the 1940s.

Why is world-builder extraordinaire, Slartibartfast, singing Kenny Rogers’ “Just Dropped In”? And why, when we are finally re-introduced to Arthur, are we told that while we were busy watching the aforementioned, he’s lived multiple lifetimes looking for Fenchurch who, despite hardly knowing at all, he’s deeply in love with? Where’s the rest of the plot? It’s as if we’re missing another 90 minutes in the middle.

The acting is shaky across the board, but everyone seems to have been hired for their singing and dancing which, as it happens, is very good. While he barely gets an introduction, Andrew Evans’ puppet work as Marvin the Paranoid Android is probably the best thing about the whole show. Unfortunately, there’s not much that casting could have done, like putting lipstick on a Vogon, and what could have been a brilliant, immersive, funny night out ends up feeling like a very dull fever dream.