Libby Purves

“For it’s the second act that makes it (the first, to be honest, makes your mind wander a bit, and two separate couples near me actually decamped in the interval).”

“There's a really sharp, sensitive play in there, unwritten, which haunted my imagination all through this big, blasting, powerhouse show.”

“But in between these gaudy joyful tent-poles the structure sags dreadfully.”

“So all the equine and puppetry magic is there, undimmed in two decades: a national treasure and global theatrical pride.”

“But it feels oddly lazy for the NT: as if any play about the disgrace and misery of the slave trade gets a free pass, exempt from any rigour in playbuilding, character and probability.”

“This one is much better: years have passed, and this is a final lap of honour for the pair as old codgers, facing what we all do in declining years and significance.”

“But knowing how ‘hot’ this piece of dreary rubbish was on Broadway, I left a lot more worried about America’s future than before.”

“The result of performance and puppetry is complete suspension of doubt.”

“Bryan Cranston is wonderful casting as Joe”

“It’s neither Ibsen nor a celebrity star-signed crossgender Shakespeare but just screechingly camp fun.”

“And yes, it was worth making a musical of the film: worth another dose of the shiny , fabulous and curiously wise nonsense of it.”

“It is a breath of fresh air to find this spirit in a world where more expensive, anxiously spectacular musicals too often turn out far, far duller.”

“While this one, beneath its jollity, is morally null and — without seeming to notice it — pretty racist.”