Was there a chorus of approval at Singin' in the Rain?

Alun Hood, WhatsOnStage

★★★★

"Slickness is the overriding impression here, from the beautifully choreographed opening which sees the company magically conjure out of thin air Grauman's Chinese Theatre in LA on a movie premiere night in 1927, to a familiar, yet still irresistibly fresh, title number where star Adam Cooper joyfully kicks and bowls real water into the front Stalls. The filmed sections, demonstrating the technical issues that the advent of Talking Pictures brought (unwanted background noise, inaudibility at key moments), remain great fun."

"It is all highly entertaining, but if it's more delightful to the eye and ear than it is touching to the heart that's probably because this was never supposed to be a stage property. Despite the superb production – Simon Higlett's sets and costumes, Tim Mitchell's lighting and Gareth Owen's especially good sound design are all terrific – hitting the major sweet spots, the script still sounds like a screenplay: until the last section when ingenue Kathy substitutes her voice for that of screen star Lina Lamont in front of a live audience, it never feels like much is at stake."

Isaac Ouro-Gnao, The Stage

★★★★★

"Designer Simon Higlett's set transports us to Hollywoodland, where starlets navigate the thrill of romance and showbiz. Screen idol Don Lockwood (played by former Royal Ballet star Adam Cooper) and his charismatic sidekick Cosmo Brown (Strictly's Kevin Clifton) have great onstage chemistry and Act I's musical numbers "Make 'Em Laugh" and "Moses Supposes" showcase the pair at their best."

Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out

"The best songs – ‘Make 'Em Laugh', ‘Good Mornin'', ‘Moses Supposes' – are terrific fun. And the title number is the show's one true moment of magic: a big old rain machine is deployed to turn the stage into a watery wonderland that Cooper dances through with blissful grace. The fact that he's palpably getting soaked – and is indeed sploshing H2O over the front rows – gives it a viscerality that easily justifies the expense of the set-up. It is a glorious moment.

"Still, unless you're a raging hydrophile, you'd be mad not to see Anything Goes first. It is a pity that Singin' in the Rain doesn't have many ideas beyond ‘try and recreate the film on stage'. But it means you know what to expect – and it delivers."

Lyndsey Winship, The Guardian

★★★

"[Director Jonathan] Church has chosen not to mess too much with one of the greatest movie musicals of all time but there could be an advantage in tightening it up for the stage, shrinking the space between big numbers, dropping a few jokes – although the re-creations of stilted silent films are very amusing."

"Cooper's singing and acting have matured over the years to make him a convincing all-rounder as silent movie star Lockwood, navigating the move into talkies somewhat better than glamorous Lina Lamont (Faye Tozer from Steps), whose mangled vowels have to be dubbed by sparky actress and love interest Kathy Selden (the very polished Charlotte Gooch). Tozer is excellent as the deluded diva, consistently funny and surprisingly sympathetic in the brief, poignant moment when her self-worth wobbles."

Clive Davis, The Times

★★★

"I would certainly recommend this revival to anyone who has never had the good fortune to see the film — after all, few musicals bundle together quite so many wonderful songs. Yet if Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor are your dream team, prepare to adjust your expectations downwards. It doesn't help that the clean-cut Cooper lacks pizzazz. His dancing is, as you would expect from a veteran of the Royal Ballet, never less than tasteful, but he gives us an oddly anonymous reading of the silent screen idol Don Lockwood. He's more Dick Tracy than Fred Astaire, and his singing is competent at best."