See it if you absolutely love this musical and must see it staged, which it rarely is in London at least.
Don't see it if you’re expecting anything that feels up to date or relevant. The staging was awful and Kelsey Grammer consistently underwhelming. Read more
Grammer, though, kinda gets the last laugh, earns his spurs. Critical drubbings or otherwise, Frasier’s many fans will still want to catch him – striving, as it were, to reach the unreachable star.
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But it's not enough. Man of La Mancha hasn't been performed professionally in London since 1968. It can now return to the museum.
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A lumbering show has its moments of familiarity as “The Impossible Dream” pops up again (and again), but mostly the dream that's impossible is to make it feel alive and relevant today.
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Even Danielle de Niese’s fine voice can’t save ENO’s out-of-sync commercial collaboration – no matter how many times they play The Impossible Dream.
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Here all the stops are pulled out but, despite the commitment of the ENO orchestra, the result is a misfire. It says much that only a giant staircase, constantly lowered in James Noone’s metallic design, was moving.
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The castanet-and-guitar-heavy, Spanish-inflected music is put across with great relish by the ENO Orchestra...there are some striking visuals...But, overall, this is really only one for the musical theatre completists.
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Producers Michael Linnit and Michael Grade don’t make a convincing case for reviving it: a mismatched celebrity cast and a by-numbers production mean that contemporary relevance, like chivalry, really is an impossible dream.
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So, despite the starry casting of this really patchy production – it is odd watching Kelsey Grammer and Nicholas Lyndhurst side by side...what sustains most interest is simply the curiosity factor.
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