Reviews of Christmas Carol Goes Wrong at the Apollo Theatre London – Reviews round-up

"A Dickensian disaster to savour"

"Mischief Theatre return to the am-dram battlefield, turning the Victorian tale into a blizzard of bruised egos and expertly timed farce"

"... in the first half of this Dickensian foul-up, much of the pleasure comes from watching the company spring-load a very familiar crop of gags ready to explode after the break."

"How to choose even a favourite ghost from all these mix-ups? There’s the inexhaustibly hilarious Henry Lewis, as Robert, playing the Ghost of Christmas Present wearing a giant gift-wrapped box. Or Nancy Zamit, as Annie, zanily gyrating – with limbs launched in all directions – in the role of the Ghost of Christmas Past."

"Some of Roberto Surace’s outfits are as outlandishly amusing as Libby Todd’s set designs."

"The play within the play upends Charles Dickens’s perennial by making Tiny Tim a towering monster and leaving Scrooge even more bitter at the end of the tale. But the backstage story delivers goodwill"

"As the am-dram players’ lines go out of sync or their dialogue doesn’t match what we see, Matt DiCarlo’s production hums with comedic harmony."

"Dynamite gags and expert slapstick"

"The veteran theatre company’s brash, obvious, knockabout humour is laced with moments of lightning-flash wit and invention"

"Previously I’ve had a Scrooge-like aversion to the strenuous madcappery of Mischief Theatre but this revival of their farce about a malfunctioning amateur version of Charles Dickens’s Christmas fable had me laughing out loud. The brash, obvious, knockabout humour is laced with moments of lightning-flash wit and invention."

"It’s an utterly (but not fussily) democratic show where everyone gets their moment in the sun and all dignity is sacrificed in favour of laughs."

"And underneath all the foolery, it’s a pretty faithful rendering of the original story, where the re-education of Scrooge parallels a journey to self-knowledge for the amdram show’s arrogant director Chris (Daniel Fraser)."

"Sayer and Lewis wrote the script with fellow company founder Henry Shields, who usually also acts but doesn’t appear this time. And Lewis’s performance may be the defining one of this show. He’s a big, loud bear of a man and a natural clown"

"Throughout, the slapstick is expertly handled."

"“Who cares about the review?” the cast ask after the curtain has come down on their amateur shambles, and it must be said that Mischief are probably critic proof by now. But for what it’s worth, I’m a convert."

"This show will leave you in stitches"

"At the Apollo Shaftesbury, Mischief’s new West End production sends up Dickens’s classic with a hilarious dose of mayhem and madness"

"Raise a festive glass to more chaos from the Mischief team. Their send-up of Scrooge and Co isn’t quite as inventive as the recent espionage hit The Comedy About Spies, but co-writers Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields have stuffed in more than enough immaculately timed slapstick gags to keep the evening bubbling along."

"Insisting that no one else possesses the talent to play the lead, Bean takes on the role himself, but once the curtain goes up finds himself overwhelmed by the collective ineptitude of his colleagues led by Lewis’s magnificently fruity Robert Groves"

"Yes, it’s true that you can see some of the jokes coming over the horizon in this spin-off of Mischief’s 2017 TV venture."

"Libby Todd’s set design and Roberto Surace’s costumes are a match for the larger-than-life madness."

"It’s no easy job to keep a production teetering on the edge of disaster. These actors know how to fail with a flourish."

"Mischief Theatre turn their trademark ‘Goes Wrong’ formula on Dickens – and it’s really very funny"

"What’s funnier than watching things go wrong? Honestly: not much."

"Written by Mischief’s co-founders Lewis, Sayer and Henry Shields, many of the big gags are set up in the early rehearsal section of the play, with the payoff coming later. It’s a script that leaves no loose end – every single line has a worthwhile, deliciously funny purpose."

"If you’re actually here for A Christmas Carol, you’d be better off going to one of the countless other productions on right now. Mischief’s show is all about the blunders and bungles, really, not clever Dickens references"

"Lots of the amusement comes from Chris’ bubbling anger as everything falls apart. But there’s plenty of physical comedy too"

"It’s still the sort of stuff best enjoyed with a drink in hand. But if there’s any time to get drunk in the theatre, it’s Christmas, isn’t it?"

"Sets up its carnage expertly"

"Mischief Theatre are on top form with this spoof of Charles Dickens’ festive favourite"

"By now it would be virtually impossible not to know the formula of a Mischief Theatre show... For some, they are laugh-a-minute funny; for others, the skits are predictable and over-egged. But the company’s resident writer-actors Henry Lewis, Henry Shields and Jonathan Sayer are on top form with this spoof of Charles Dickens’ festive favourite"

"The sincere sentimentality of the yuletide story lends itself well to a Mischief treatment, and in director Matt DiCarlo’s production, any would-be heartfelt moment is flipped spectacularly."

"In a production that sets up its carnage expertly before allowing it to implode, the best bits hinge on a model set that, unbeknown to Bean, undergoes some alterations before being sent to the set makers"

"Best of all, Tiny Tim emerges as a giant, vampirish puppet, so terrifying even his parents wonder whether they might be better off with a vacant seat."

"Chris Leask as a stage manager who can’t help but get entangled in scenes he’s unsubtly fixing is another highlight"

"Some of the slapstick is a bit tedious, with oversized costumes causing a few too many pratfalls... But it all gets neatly tied into both layers of the play. I doubt Mischief are as desperate as their Cornley characters for a good review, but bravo to them anyway."

"An Eber-knees-up in the West End"

"They’ve established a loyal fan base, and watching this addition to their crowd-pleasing canon, it’s lovely to hear the cast cheered on from the outset, as though we are greeting old friends."

"Previous exposure to Mischief’s work is not essential to enjoying co-writers Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields‘ new-ish seasonal offering, first seen in an earlier version on BBC TV in 2017, but it does explain why the crowd roars with approval each time a beloved character appears."

"Even the deliberately tackier elements of Libby Todd’s sets and Roberto Surace’s costumes have a satisfyingly glossy sheen, all gorgeously lit by David Howe, while some of the effects wouldn’t look out of place in a conventional Christmas Carol."

"... director Matt DiCarlo’s production reaches that blissful comic plateau where it becomes physically impossible to stop laughing."

"Where this show unexpectedly scores though is that, unlike some of its predecessors, the writing takes time to set up these flawed individuals as credible people, and it undoubtedly helps that most of the characters are carried over from earlier plays in the franchise."

"Not every joke works, and some of them... outstay their welcome. Mostly though, this is an irresistible Christmas treat, and it has real heart too: Scrooge-like Chris has an outlook change worthy of Ebenezer himself and in keeping with the spirit of the original Dickens."

"Only a Scrooge could fail to smile at Christmas Carol Goes Wrong"

"With wobbly scenery and roaring egos, Mischief’s take on Dickens is delightfully daft – but is their formula wearing a bit thin?"

"It’s well-crafted, smartly played, undemanding fun – but isn’t the formula wearing a little thin?"

"A prior incarnation for the BBC in 2017, starring Derek Jacobi, saw the Cornley gang take over a big-budget TV dramatisation. Some of the material from that has made the leap to the stage... But there’s plenty of fresh material, too. Compared to The Play That Goes Wrong, which pitches us swiftly into the murder-mystery play-within-a-play, there’s a dash more backstage action here"

"A lot gets crammed in – there’s even a pleasingly juvenile allusion to the hand-bells that feature in the Old Vic’s own annual staging of A Christmas Carol. The organised chaos and laboured merriment may flag after the interval, but only a genuine Scrooge could emerge unsmiling."