Every Brilliant Thing – West End reviews round-up [Updated]

"Lenny Henry wants everyone to join in with this life-affirming piece of theatre"

"Every Brilliant Thing, now at @sohoplace, is just the tonic the West End needs"

"While ostensibly a solo piece, in practice it’s a true group effort – though, on its opening night, the blazingly charismatic Lenny Henry resolutely led the charge."

"It’s hardly surprising that Henry, who’s been doing stand-up since he was 15, is so at ease with this high-wire, interactive format. But it’s still enormous fun watching him take charge of the intimate, in-the-round @sohoplace auditorium and roll with the punches."

"But, crucially, this is just-about-controlled chaos: Henry always leads us back to the story, which has deeply affecting moments."

"This life-affirming show proves that and more – an absolute tonic."

"Lenny Henry is on fine form as one of five celebrity performers guiding Duncan Macmillan’s cult classic on its first West End run"

"Dressed in a colourful patterned shirt, he [Lenny Henry] sends smiles soaring across the crowd from the outset."

"Still, in the larger space, it’s harder to build the same rapport. With a much greater capacity and the audience spread across three tiers, creating the world of the play feels less like a communal endeavour and more the responsibility of a select few."

"He makes light jabs at audience members, restarts scenes when things go awry, and makes us laugh repeatedly."

"The conversation about mental health has moved on since 2014, and some lines, like ‘things will get better’ can gloss over unique circumstances and specific contexts. Nevertheless, the play’s message still lands today. For all its sorrow, the play gleams with hope. It is a truly brilliant thing."

"A fascinating show with compulsory audience participation"

"Lenny Henry brilliantly works the crowd in a show which examines mental health with wry humour, and comes with serious audience interaction"

"Blending a serious attitude to mental health with wry humour and a degree of mawkishness, it stands or falls on the actor’s ability to work a crowd."

"Thanks to his pre-thespian career in comedy, his natural bonhomie and the indulgence granted to him as a bona fide national treasure, Henry manages the crowd and the pivots of mood adroitly."

"The rapport he built with those playing his dad and the librarian almost had me wondering if they were plants (they weren’t)."

"It’s a unique show with the texture of theatre but the communal immediacy of stand-up."

"The issue of depression is handled with commendable delicacy and seriousness, though inevitably in no great depth."

"... the auditorium of @sohoplace, with its uncluttered intimacy, suits the material perfectly."

"The direction is by Jeremy Herrin and Duncan Macmillan himself and is supple and flexible enough to accommodate different performers and different audience responses each night. Fascinating. But if you’re shy or self-conscious, maybe stay at home."

"Lenny Henry twinkles with joy and mischief in Every Brilliant Thing"

"The actor is the first of a juicy quintet of stars to lead a 'one-person comedy about suicidal depression with audience participation'"

"With the increased national focus on mental health since the work’s premiere a decade ago, I expect its themes to resonate even more fully and richly now"

"Jeremy Herrin’s appealing production plays to Henry’s many strengths – twinkling with joy and mischief, he exudes an affable affinity with the audience from the get-go. This rapport is all-important, as we are integral to the action in a way that goes far beyond reading out cards."

"Our fellow spectators, with all their quirks and idiosyncrasies, are delightful in their contributions – and the warmly inclusive ambience means we laugh with, rather than at, them."

"This is a brilliant addition, in the optimum venue, to the West End landscape."

"Lenny Henry owns the part"

"Tenth anniversary revival of Duncan Macmillan’s sweet, slight and uplifting tribute to the little things that make life living"

"Tom Gibbons’ sparse sound design is built around the songs that Macmillan frequently refers to in the text, warm snatches of jazz and soul fading in to underline key memories"

"The sweet script achieves a delicate balance between humour, lightness and some more painful recollections. And while these darker moments never land with the kind of gut punch you might expect, it’s an intentional choice to refuse to fixate on negative emotions."

"On press night, Lenny Henry demonstrated his consummate facility for building a rapport with an audience through a mix of playful mockery and easy-going warmth."

"Designer Vicki Mortimer gives the straightforward set just enough personality to keep it from feeling entirely neutral"

"Lenny Henry is irresistible"

"Duncan Macmillan knows how to write a star vehicle — still to come in this ‘one-person comedy about suicidal depression’ are Sue Perkins, Minnie Driver and Ambika Mod"

"At least 50 audience members are given lines to shout out and some make it on to the stage, to play the lead character’s father, school counsellor and first love. The point, reinforced by Vicki Mortimer’s simple in-the-round set, is that this is a joint endeavour, every little interaction helps, no one is alone. This becomes important."

"If attitudes towards talking about mental health have moved on in the past ten years then that is only a good thing, even if some of the show’s messages feel slightly pat today."

"... this proves the ideal showcase for Henry, who feeds off his crowd, grinning when things go wrong, mildly heckling his ever-so-willing starstruck stooges. He is magnetic, as at home in the high-fiving highs as in the quietly desperate lows. When he finally reaches the end of his list, it’s a wrench to leave his company."

"Lenny Henry gets audience on board for list of life’s joys"

"Henry is the first of a group of star performers taking Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe’s hit show about depression into the West End"

"It all screams smash hit. But there’s something about the scale and downright snazziness of this production that doesn’t quite gel."

"In the very best productions of Macmillan’s play, the moments of audience interaction can feel really special. But on press night, everything feels slightly on edge. Perhaps the shiny new theatre and star performer are a little imposing."

"It’s all good fun but every ad lib takes us one step closer to a standup show – and one step further from the warm heart of this play."

"It’s only when Henry isn’t trying to be funny that the show settles. There’s a stillness and steeliness to him when he talks about the importance of protecting our mental health."

"Lenny Henry is lighthearted in this beloved off-the-cuff solo comedy about suicide"

"When it debuted, Duncan Macmillan’s play felt like a new way to talk about depression and suicide, but in the 11 years since, it already feels less radical"

"For a play about suicide, it’s surprisingly light in tone, thanks in large part to Henry’s genuine exuberance about the role. The appeal of the format lies in its quick shifts between the narrator’s life story and the evolving list he adds to over the years."

"At points, Henry’s very specific star power threatens to overpower the show. He constantly dances between his everyman narrator role and the fact that he is one of the UK’s most likeable and recognisable comedians"

"The play doesn’t explore what it was like for the suicidal mother in question – or, really, what it was like for the narrator to grow up with that mother... From the character to the plot, we follow a bittersweet life painted in very broad brush strokes."

"Every Brilliant Thing is, in its totality, endearing, but today risks feeling pathologically non-specific, like an Ed Sheeran song about heartbreak or a straight-to-Netflix movie about being alive."

"Lenny Henry launches an all-star rotating cast season in the West End"

"This piece... is puppyishly keen to be liked and is imbued with a safe, Radio 4 kind of humour"

"Henry is genial and jovial as always."

"This is a piece of work that is clearly hugely meaningful to many people, though I personally am wired to prefer comedy about mental health that’s less “feel good” and much more mordant."