“...the show gives off dogged, clunky determination in place of actual inspiration. This ‘Third Man,’ I’m afraid, feels like a spare part.”
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"It sadly lacks the charm of a good noir and the kick of a great musical. It feels outdated and astonishingly boring."
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“This show has much more pointless running around and shouting in the half-dark. The songs are inserted into the story rather than growing organically out of it. You can’t blame anyone for trying. The creative team here have a record, together and separately, of turning unlikely subjects into musical gold. Not this time, though.”
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"The production is let down by pace, which feels oddly sleepy but there are gorgeous aesthetics and plenty of atmosphere to see us through."
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“In the end, Christopher Hampton, Trevor Nunn and co don’t provide a totally convincing answer to the obvious question: why bother trying to make a musical out of one of the most atmospheric films of all time? But give them some credit for creating a brooding, ambitious near-miss.”
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“This stylish but unsatisfying new musical adaptation...captures a little of the mystery and melancholy of Greene’s story, but never generates enough menace to feel gripping...It’s just a shame that the lacklustre songwriting doesn’t match up to the stylish production.”
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“With a new war raging over the soul of Europe, this might have been a powerful dispatch from history. Instead, it desecrates an artistic great, unnecessarily vocalising a tale in which the silence was sacred.”
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“While ‘The Third Man’ is admirable in its attempt to recreate film noir on the stage, it never quite manages to connect...its clumsy nature meant in its current form, it still has a way to go to solve the mystery of making the whole thing flow more satisfyingly.”
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