Play On! Reviews Round-up at the Lyric Hammersmith in London

"Twelfth Night relocated to Harlem's Cotton Club"

"This sassy musical sets Shakespeare to the music of Duke Ellington"

"This sassy American jazz musical relocates Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to Harlem’s Cotton Club in the 1940s and sets it to the irresistible songs of Duke Ellington."

"In Michael Buffong’s stripped-back revival for Talawa and various co-producers, a talented ensemble tear through Ellington classics – Mood Indigo, Don’t Get Around Much Any More – and some deeper cuts that were a revelation to me."

"All in all, it’s terrific, powerfully-voiced fun, even if the script borders at times on the silly and the stereotypical."

"Where characters are divided by social rank in Twelfth Night, it’s talent that matters here. It falls to Jones’s Rev to remind us now and again of the real structural power-imbalance, represented by the white overclass offstage. This adds a little salt to an exuberant show which, like Ellington’s music and lyrics, is more sophisticated than it seems."

"A warm, elegant comedy that brings 1940s swing to Shakespeare"

"Twelfth Night is relocated to the Cotton Club in this sparkling musical, which luxuriates in its musicality and movement"

"Given the important function of music in Twelfth Night, it seems fitting for Sheldon Epps’ 1996 musical riff to make a virtue of it by infusing Shakespeare’s comedy of unrequited love and disguise with the sounds of Duke Ellington’s jazz and swing."

"Most of Shakespeare’s characters are still intact but the story plays fast and loose with the original, although it coheres in its concept... If it is unfaithful, it is very winning in Talawa and Belgrade Theatre’s exuberant all-Black production, which luxuriates in its musicality and movement."

"There is stunning singing, too, by the cast who bring out Epps’s warm, elegant comedy, along with gentle inquires into love v projection, appearance v reality."

"The spirit of Duke Ellington pulses through a glorious musical spin on Twelfth Night"

"Mood indigo. Moments of blue. Hot spots of red. Play On!, a jazz musical conceived by Sheldon Epps with a book by Cheryl L West, is a blend of tributes. To Twelfth Night, whose opening line, “If music be the food of love, play on”, supplies the title. To Duke Ellington, whose numbers run through the evening as plot and permeate it as atmosphere. Also to Ellington’s reported synaesthesia – his seeing notes as colours."

"... this Talawa production, directed by Michael Buffong, is not so much a version of Twelfth Night as a response to it."

"... the play’s moods of rapture, longing, discontent and sudden surges of energy are gorgeously present, woven through the evening by an onstage band who deliver wonders by Ellington, from Take the “A” Train to It Don’t Mean a Thing."

"Shakespeare transported to Harlem’s fabled Cotton Club"

"Talawa’s revival of the musical, which splices together elements of Twelfth Night and the music of Duke Ellington, is redeemed by exuberant performances and soulful vocals"

"The production values are skimpy in places, but Talawa’s revival of a show, which blends Duke Ellington’s repertoire with elements of Twelfth Night, is delivered with so much joie de vivre that you’re more than willing to be swept along."

"Cameron Bernard Jones gets many of the laughs as the officious Rev, the club’s equivalent of Malvolio, who also carries a torch for Liv. Here, in his moment of romantic excess, the traditional yellow cross-garters are transformed into an extravagant zoot suit that gives him the look of a character from Five Guys Named Moe."

"There’s a hint of the racial codes that operated at the club, which had its heyday in the 1930s. Swing-era purists may complain that Liam Godwin’s small-group arrangements aren’t particularly true to the spirit of Ellington’s original music. Then again, much the same is true of the big band playing on the Broadway cast recording. The vocals, however, still hit the spot."

"Exhilarating energy"

"Bold, joyful and jazzy Shakespearean riff from Talawa artistic director Michael Buffong"

"Giving Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night a jaunty jazz twist, director Michael Buffong’s lively, lovely revival of Sheldon Epps’ 1996 musical blazes with joy and exhilarating energy."

"Cheryl L West’s sometimes saccharine book makes this a substantially gentler experience than Shakespeare’s version, especially in the treatment of its Malvolio figure – strait-laced, socially awkward venue manager Rev, played with superb stiffness by Cameron Bernard Jones. West replaces the plot’s petty cruelties with good humour and easily won forgiveness."

"These carefully considered details add satisfying richness to the play’s exuberant world. And though the show loses momentum during the pat resolutions of the second act, Buffong’s production remains warm, vivacious fun."