“It feels closer to panto or sitcom. However the pacing is far too sluggish, and the overreliance on knob gags gets tiresome. It’s also hard to figure out the tone: It’s generally quite cartoonish, but with sudden dashes of sex and violence.”
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“Murray and Giedroyc’s performances are funny because they are funny people. But those performances are not in service to any wider purpose, because there isn’t one here.”
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“Murray’s King Charles is a tyrant and a sleazeball, pointing to women in the audience and ordering his footmen to bring them to his room. Other characters seem as priapically preoccupied, but Nye’s sexed-up script brings a welter of beached innuendoes.”
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"That it works as well as it does at times is no mean feat, but, lacking a strong raison d’etre besides giving us a nibble of history and a few baubles of mirth, this interloper’s reign looks set to be short-lived and immemorable."
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“What a mess. The stately music of Purcell pours from speakers before the curtain rises but decorum goes out of the window once Simon Nye’s woeful attempt at rekindling the spirit of Restoration comedy starts.”
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“ ‘The Crown Jewels’ is a frustrating show to watch. In theory, they have all the elements needed to create a winning piece of theatre...It’s worth it if only to see such stunning talent in surprising roles. ‘The Crown Jewels’ might not have successfully stolen my heart but it isn’t the worst crime to hit a West End stage in recent years.”
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“Nye is attempting, it seems, to write a Restoration comedy, its language and humour accurate to the time. But Foley directs it like a contemporary farce. The two approaches are worlds apart, and the humour gets lost in the middle.”
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“It’s colourful to look at; the costumes are good, as is the revolving set that conveys the different locations...The final number proclaiming that Britons are best and all other nations are inferior is surely meant to be ironic but, like much on offer here, it’s too bland to land a punch.”
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