Michael Crawford returns to the London stage in this new British musical by Richard Taylor and David Wood, directed by Roger Haines. The Go-Between is booking at the West End’s Apollo Theatre until October 2016 – but how has it gone down with critics?
The Guardian: ★★★ Michael Billington wrote: “for all the determination to do Hartley proud, I found this a curiously austere night out.”
Londonist: ★★★ “Musical just isn’t the right genre for intense, psychological narrative of this kind.”
Love London Love Culture: “The eeriness and simplicity of the production’s design and lighting, keeps the show understated.”
Financial Times: ★★★ Ian Shuttleworth said: “without the attraction of Crawford’s name, a resolutely minor-key, innately English production such as this would do no business in the West End.”
The Independent: ★★★★ Paul Taylor commented: “it feels like a labour of love that, while faithful to the original, has a striking imaginative integrity in its own right.”
The Telegraph: ★★★ Dominic Cavendish found: “Worth a look, then, but not queuing round the block to see.”
London Theatre.co.uk: ★★★★ Mark Shenton summed the production up by saying: “it’s a joy to welcome a tender, truthful original British musical to London that isn’t made up of old pop hits or has been kicking around for over thirty years.”
Daily Mail: ★★★★ Quentin Letts found: “This complex evening will not suit all tastes but you leave the theatre touched by the beauty of lost promise.”
The Times: ★★ “This is not so much a musical as a play set to music.”
Evening Standard: ★★★ Fiona Mountford wrote: “we long for this elegance to be supplanted for just a few minutes by something more powerful, more tuneful and, hell, better lit.”
Culture Whisper: ★★★ “This is undoubtedly an immensely elegant production but, despite repeated allusions to Icarus and his ill-fated flight, it never quite manages to soar.”
West End Wilma: ★ “The biggest issue with The Go-Between is that is doesn’t seem to know whether it is a play or a musical.”
Musical Theatre Review: ★★★★ “This is a charming play-with-music, perfectly paced and dressed to suit turn-of-the-20th-century England, that will delight many and disappoint a few who don’t approach it with an open mind.”
LiveTheatre.co.uk: ★★★★ “The Go-Between is not a musical likely to appeal to everyone, but it is certainly a musical that should be seen and heard by everyone.”
