Reviews of Much Ado About Nothing starring Tom Hiddleston & Hayley Atwell at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London

"Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell crackle in a party of pink"

"With a chemistry that’s as bright as the modern-day costumes in this weird and wonderful show, the actors turn Shakespeare into a giddy house party cum modern romcom"

"Taylor Dayne’s Tell It to My Heart kicks off proceedings and a shower of pink confetti rains down. This is a thoroughly weird and absolutely wonderful re-conceptualisation, turning Shakespeare’s comedy, which narrowly swerves tragedy, into an old school house party cum modern romcom."

"Hiddleston and Atwell have a sparring chemistry that is as bright as the modern-day costumes (all pink spangles, gold shimmer and sequins). You can virtually see the sparks coming off them in their “merry war”, which is fuelled by antagonistic duelling but dips suddenly to earnestness and intensity. Every other element works alongside them, with the drink (and drug?) addled hedonism on stage not compromising Shakespeare’s verse."

"This seems like The Tempest’s revenge in its determined infectiousness – genuinely funny, romantic and trimmed of the laboured subplot involving tiresome Dogberry."

"Mason Alexander Park, who stole the show as a lugubrious Ariel in The Tempest, plays Hero’s attendant, Margaret, but they are key to the soundtrack of the play with their gorgeous intermittent singing."

"You would have to be a god of stone to not be seduced by its wacky winter joy. A wonderfully giddy thing indeed, and that is my conclusion."

"Jamie Lloyd’s Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell-starring take on ‘Much Ado’ is a ridiculous, ecstatic, hilarious masterpiece"

"Seemingly set somewhere between heaven, Ibiza and a novelty Instagram backdrop, Jamie Lloyd’s remarkable production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing eschews a conventional set in favour of a drift of candy-pink confetti that blankets the gargantuan Drury Lane stage."

"This impressionistic Much Ado doesn’t take place in a specific space or time, but its vibe is that of an endless, hedonistic holiday, its wild romantic currents mirroring the internal melodrama of a week away with a group of friends."

"Key to casting him and Atwell is that yes, they are very beautiful screen heartthrobs. But they’re also fortysomethings. Her bolshy, passionate Beatrice is too addicted to being the strident queen bee of her circle of friends to let anyone into her life; he’s the applause-hungry oddball."

"And truly - it is very funny, it looks incredible, and if Lloyd has festooned it in millennial silliness then I guess what’s actually more significant is the way he, Hiddleston and Atwell have teased the Beatrice-Benedick romance into a poignant story about middle aged loneliness and being left behind as your friends settle."

"... I absolutely felt this production in my bones – an immaculate and hilarious synthesis of naffness and cool."

"A gloriously giddy pink party – with dad dancing from Tom Hiddleston"

"Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell are a hoot, gamely surrendering to the spirit of Jamie Lloyd’s bonkers production – pink confetti and all"

"This is more like it. After the wash-out of Jamie Lloyd’s production of The Tempest, botching the grand return of Shakespeare to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, comes a bonkers but brilliantly inventive Much Ado that gives us (and Lloyd) something to smile about, providing a much-needed blast of fun and pop-saturated theatrical sun."

"True to form, Lloyd isn’t giving us a traditional re-tread of the Messina-set romcom."

"... the approach proves a fresh, unbounded joy. Freeing the action from studious naturalism, and social context, it’s a teasing provocation, with loud klaxon honks jolting us too. The boldest stroke (design: Soutra Gilmour) is a sustained shower of pink confetti. It’s faintly magical to behold; on another level, it chimes with the play’s tragicomic mix of autumnal wistfulness and amorous adventure."

"Rather than imposing his vision to an inhibiting degree, Lloyd trusts his crack cast to deliver the loose-limbed interplay. There are gimmicks galore but there’s a knowingness to them that augments the feel-good energy and ensures that sincerity cuts through the image-conscious facades when it counts."

"Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell are gloriously giddy bliss in Much Ado About Nothing"

"Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell triumph in Jamie Lloyd's adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado Abut Nothing - complete with chest baring and twerking."

"Frankly, I hardly need to write anything. Just look at that main image. The joy! The fun! The silliness! The sizzling star power!"

"That Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell as Shakespeare's 'fickle feuders who secretly fancy the pants off each other' Benedick and Beatrice should be an utter delight is no shock. The added twerking, running man and chest-baring (all Tom, obvs) are just a bonus for the hyperventilating fans."

"The greatest joy was hearing every whip-cracking quip and caustic couplet greeted with hoots of laughter. There was rapt silence, too, for the darker passages, sighs for the tender moments and whoops for the snogging. 425 years later, in the hands of a director and cast on electrifying form, Shakepeare's sublime language still makes our souls sing."

"Mason Alexander Park, who stole the show as a bewitching Ariel in the Tempest, shines as Hero's maid Margaret and brings their glorious husky vocals to a succession of pop tunes from Groove Is In The Heart to When Love Takes Over."

"This show is camp, mischievous, exuberant, romantic, life, love and laughter-affirming bliss."

"Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell have potent chemistry in this rave-tastic Shakespeare production"

"Jamie Lloyd’s Much Ado About Nothing proves stunt casting works when the stars have this much rizz"

"Sometimes star casting absolutely works. Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell create a potent, antagonistic sense of attraction between Shakespeare’s warring lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, in this joyful, rave-influenced production by Jamie Lloyd. There’s lots of ecstatic dancing and singalongs to 90s club classics, but also a very clear expression of how a fripperous romantic comedy almost tips into tragedy."

"It’s a triumphant return to form for Lloyd... This Much Ado is bold and brash with some coarse touches, but it feels like an event with a big ‘E’."

"The simplicity of the staging and the licensed showboating of the stars gives an idea of what theatre in Shakespeare’s day might have been like, only with more Jagerbombs, airhorn blasts and disco lights."

"[Hiddleston's] very funny as the vain hero, with a winking swagger for the audience"

"Atwell is simply magnificent, a beady tigress with quicksilver intelligence and manicured gold claws."

"The rain of flamingo confetti, the sexually androgynous and brightly-coloured costumes, the charisma and chemistry of two good-looking stars, the air of hedonism and the drama of the big, bare stage… this is altogether gorgeous."

"Simply sublime Shakespeare"

"Jamie Lloyd directs a vivid and vibrant new take on Shakespeare’s comedy at Theatre Royal Drury Lane"

"It’s pink, it’s loud – and it’s irresistible. Jamie Lloyd’s new production of Shakespeare’s best-loved and richest comedy roars into Drury Lane on a wave of falling confetti and 1990s pop favourites, and lands with the force of a Marvel superhero."

"By upping the humour of the main strands (including using ludicrous heads of dogs, cats, ducks and clowns in the masked ball) and losing the (often tiresome) interludes of deliberate comedy, Lloyd emphasises the depth of Much Ado’s themes: the corrosive distrust between men and women in matters of the heart which both couples have to overcome."

"Some of his staging is not just showy, but sensational."

"The expressions on Atwell’s face as she grasps the possibility that the man she loves might actually love her in return are a journey of discovery. Few actresses have her power to summon emotion and show thought, not just through her face, but in her entire body."

"The production is big, broad and for all its contemporary trimmings, absolutely Shakespearean in the way that it welcomes everyone into the entertainment. But it is also subtle, and very fine."

"Hayley Atwell and Tom Hiddleston are glorious"

"Bursting with passion and wit, Jamie Lloyd’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane production is a life-affirming joy"

"From start to finish, the show is a joy: a love song to the exhilaration, pain and giddy nonsense of passion, with Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell absolutely acing it at the helm."

"We lose too the potential social commentary embedded in the tale. But the result is a fleet, focused and very funny production that, amid all the riotous partying, charts beautifully the play’s soaring highs and darker depths."

"Hiddleston’s Benedick is impishly charming, savouring his own waggishness, flirting with the audience"

"Atwell responds with a Beatrice of mercurial intelligence and emotional truth. In a brilliant move, she doesn’t hide to eavesdrop on her fate, but stands, motionless, her conflicting feelings scudding across her face."

"Heartbreak, hope, healing — it’s all here in this gorgeous, big-hearted production."

"Tom Hiddleston disco dances to a hit"

"The actor jives, winks and shows off his six-pack opposite a wilful, strutting Hayley Atwell in Jamie Lloyd’s exuberant Studio 54-style production"

"Lloyd’s mischievous club-culture reinvention of Much Ado About Nothing has colour, passion and, in the form of Tom Hiddleston, a head-miked leading man who is absolutely in command."

"Lloyd is asking us to reconnect with the tradition of the Elizabethan clowns who thought nothing of bantering with their audience or adding digressions of their own. He wants us to embrace music and dance too."

"Yes, the ticket prices are ridiculous — the best seats cost in the region of £300 — but the party is great fun all the same."

"Tom Hiddleston is on winning bum-wiggling form in Much Ado About Nothing"

"Hiddleston and Marvel co-star Hayley Atwell quip their way through this calculatedly naff Shakespeare revamp featuring Noughties pop ballads"

"... Jamie Lloyd's calculatedly naff, Noughties pop-ballad-filled reimagining of Much Ado About Nothing"

"Lloyd's production bravely ditches the play's comic subplot and sidelines the younger nominal romantic leads Hero (Mara Huf) and Claudio (James Phoon) even more than is traditional, in favour of the more fun (and, here, far more famous) Beatrice and Benedick, who have a huge amount of fun with their banter-filled romance."

"This production is all about Beatrice and Benedict, so when the focus shifts to Hero and Claudio in the second act, this hedonistic love fest inevitably falls a little flat. It feels like there could be a little more boldness here. Why scrap this play's comic subplot"

"Here, as in life, no amount of self-awareness and knowingness can protect you from big, raw, vulnerable emotions. Fluffy though his staging might look, Lloyd strips the frills from this story to reveal the push and pull of rejection and reconciliation at its heart."

"Tom Hiddleston is a wonderfully wry Benedick"

"Bright, bold and boisterous Shakespearean comedy from Jamie Lloyd, with tender performances from Hayley Atwell and Tom Hiddleston"

"Joyous, unashamedly silly and shot through with real tenderness, Jamie Lloyd’s refreshingly irreverent version of Shakespeare’s story of bickering lovers feels like a confident return to form."

"... all of that stylised pop sensibility serves the story, evoking a world of hedonistic frivolity, which crumbles away abruptly when the accusations of unfaithfulness start to fly. Lloyd keeps a tight rein on the chaotic carousing, zeroing in on the two couples at the story’s heart"

"Shakespeare’s language is made breezy and lucid by a uniformly strong cast with an absolute grasp of the piece’s poetry and humour. Every Elizabethan punchline lands, feeling fresh and genuinely funny."

"Hiddleston makes a wonderfully wry Benedick, showing off some superb timing and a knack for energetic physical comedy."

"Atwell brings a harder edge to her Beatrice, all her disarming wordplay a defence mechanism."

"Tom Hiddleston's Much Ado About Nothing is glorious - but £275 a ticket is absurd"

"He and Hayley Atwell make a legendary pairing in Shakespeare's sparkiest comedy"

"The plaudits for this show will continue to echo long after its too-short run has concluded."

"Unlike poor Weaver, who was all at sea with The Tempest’s verse, Atwell and Hiddleston actively revel in its challenges and delights, instantly conjuring a spiky rapport. The verbal jousting between Beatrice and Benedick comes in some of the most delightful scenes in all of Shakespeare and these two fine performers savour the chance to make their mark."

"The playfulness is to be celebrated – the cast engages in much enthusiastic running about, unlike in The Tempest when they appeared to be actively afraid of a good 85 per cent of the playing area – yet it doesn’t anchor the play in any meaningful way. Thus the nuances of too many characters are lost"

"Gradually, however, the magnificence of Atwell and Hiddleston means that any lingering doubts melt away."

"This is a hugely classy offering and the prices are, unsurprisingly, eye-wateringly high."