Backstairs Billy (West End) London Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (103)
See it if You want to watch a really well acted, really funny comedy
Don't see it if You are expecting a serious or realistic historical play
See it if You want a good time with light hearted entertainment
Don't see it if You want something too thought provoking
See it if you would enjoy seeing Penelope Wilton and Luke Evans match wits onstage.
Don't see it if you don’t enjoy laughing.
See it if You want to have a good time
Don't see it if You are not very much into the Royals, or think anything related to the XX century is dated.
See it if A fun show with some great comedic moments
Don't see it if You were after something more "truthful", it very much turns into a farce.
See it if Up to a fun night with brilliant actors
Don't see it if If you don't like fun theatre
See it if if you like corgies
Don't see it if if you are homofobic
See it if You like a good, clever comedy based on actual facts and seeing great actors on stage.
Don't see it if You don't like comedies.
Critic Reviews (14)
“Grandage’s production is consistently funny, and the performances entertain, but this play really doesn’t know what it’s saying.”
Read more
“The writing has sophistication and some jokes are funny but this is the epitome of theatre as light entertainment.”
Read more
“Abounding with witty entertainment and curiosity value, augmented by scene-stealing appearances from two real-life corgis, it confirms the promise shown by Marcelo Dos Santos with his comic monologue”
Read more
“Marcelo Dos Santos’s ‘Backstairs Billy’ is a strange thing. Not six characters in search of an author, but a set of good lines in search of a play...’Backstairs Billy’, for all its humour, feels like a smudged snapshot rather than a fully realised portrait.”
Read more
“Those who might dismiss ‘Backstairs Billy’ as so much heightened gossip would do well to heed its warning about societal divides that on this evidence can never be breached.”
Read more
“This impeccably played comedy of manners nicely balances palace gossip with broader ideas about class, power, and way that tradition can both comfort and stifle...We can’t live in the past forever, but this lively visit is a right royal romp.”
Read more
“It’s amusing, and toys gingerly with social issues...Yet it never properly alights on any particular sense of purpose. Even in Michael Grandage’s supremely accomplished production, with flawless performances from Penelope Wilton and Luke Evans and a couple of real corgis scampering about, it is toothless.”
Read more
“This right royal romp is uproariously funny but also gives a fascinating insight to the inner workings of that famous family. ‘Backstairs Billy’ is of course a fictionalised account of this particular relationship, but it feels so genuinely authentic you do feel like you’ve spent the evening in the company of a true Queen…and a lady named Elizabeth.”
Read more