Pride the Musical Reviews: an uplifting story, but critics are divided on the delivery

“As a musical, it becomes more than the sum of its parts: a remarkable piece of British social history, deeply moving, deeply important.”

“This production leans into the same joy-filled spirit as the film, maybe for good reason: sentiment sugars tough subject matter, from the normalisation of homophobic abuse to the trauma of coming out to family (and subsequent rejection) as well as the Aids crisis and Margaret Thatcher’s breaking of the miners’ union.”

“It is all so agile on its feet, the action taking place on the kind of makeshift scaffold and gantry structure.”

“The show pares away some scenes from the film (although it keeps the best lines of the screenplay) but bulks it up with song, movement and an abundant theatrical imagination.”

“It is a shame that Steph (Courtney Stapleton) is the lone lesbian here (she is joined by others in the film) but she is still wonderfully spiky.”

“The songs are fabulous, even if there are an awful lot of them.”

“It feels especially important to revisit at a time when queer rights are being rolled back, when difference is seen as a threat and intolerance is the prevailing currency of conversation on social media.”

“Pride succeeds in packing a wallop of an emotional punch while never neglecting to find the very human humour in even its most sombre moments.”

“Beresford sketches the colourful cast of characters with precision and wit, perfectly catching their personalities in the briefest lines of dialogue.”

“Lumsden confidently walks Mark’s tightrope of charisma, drive and self-righteousness. Lewis Cornay is sweet as ‘newbie’ gay, Bromley.”

“There are also strong performances on the Welsh front, as Warchus leans into the humour of the difference but also the respect between the two groups when they first meet.”

“Nightingale, Cohen and Walde wisely avoid trying to ape ’80s music. Instead, the score is as tonally fluid as Beresford’s script and lyrics. It propels the narrative numbers forward on the crest of a beat”

“Crucially, Beresford and Warchus never shy away from the rejection, the loss and the pain experienced by these people. And just as the richly empathetic script finds those sharp edges, designer Bunny Christie’s impressively adaptable set can quickly shift from the buzz of a multi-levelled club to an empty chair in a doctor’s waiting room.”

“Pride, produced by P&P Productions with the National Theatre, transcends its source material in most every way: it’s funnier, more moving, and more joyous than the film.”

“It also – crucially – feels more queer.”

“Jhon Lumsden is credibly magnetic in the role [of Mark Ashton]”

“Samuel Barnett is a particular standout as a sardonic ex-thespian, bringing the house down twice with his limber voice and even more limber dance moves.”

“At first, the music [...] falls into that category of slick pop-rock that’s numbingly ubiquitous in musical theatre these days. But as it goes on, shades are revealed.”

“There are valid criticisms you could make of the script, particularly the marginalising of the LGSM’s lesbian contingent.”

“That everybody ultimately left the theatre feeling not devastated but enlivened is a testament to Pride’s deft, noble manipulations.”

“Not every story needs to be turned into a musical, but Matthew Warchus’s 2014 film Pride seemed to be crying out for it. [...] The result is hugely charming and affecting, if imperfect.”

“There are superb songs here that expand and illuminate the story. [...] There are also a few duds like the dour The Enemy Within and a couple of songs that sound like place-holders.”

“Narratively speaking, on stage Pride has a great middle but a weak beginning and end.”

“Lumsden is a charismatic, impetuous Mark, balanced by Matthew Durkan’s more solid and earnest Mike. Barnett knowingly steals every scene he’s in.”

“Sarah Pugh is terrific as Siân, with sterling comic support from Gillian Elisa as Gwen and Kirsty Malpass as Hefina. The platonic fascination between Gwen and Stapleton’s Steph is one of the show’s many delights.”

“In a year when gay rights have come under renewed attack by regressive regimes around the world, this frothy musical, with book and lyrics by Stephen Beresford, is heartwarming and dispiritingly necessary.”

“Matthew Warchus – who directed the original 2014 film version – stages it at a driving pace, bounding though snappy dialogue to arrive at energetic dance numbers choreographed with boisterous, swing-influenced steps by Lizzi Gee.”

“The music, composed by Christopher Nightingale, Josh Cohen and DJ Walde, is infectiously catchy, sampling from every prominent genre of the 1970s and 1980s with bopping disco beats, softcore punky riffs and brassy pop crescendos keeping the score feeling engagingly eclectic.”

“Beresford’s earnest lyrics, leavened by a surprising number of jokes about fisting, are well calibrated, balancing sweetly sentimental lines, galvanising political slogans.”

“Although Beresford opts to gloss over some of the story’s conflicts and complications, this remains a cheerful, uplifting production and an important reminder of the need for all marginalised communities to stick together to resist and outlast the forces of bigotry and division.”

“In truth, there’s a fair amount of airbrushing about just how much division there was in 1984 when a group calling itself Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) was launched by a gay communist organiser called Mark Ashton.”

“One of the show’s major strengths is as a reminder of just how ostracised and attacked the gay community was in the 1980s”

“On Bunny Christie’s adaptable set of scaffolding, cleverly lit by Hugh Vanstone to change mood and scene, the musical moves through this story with great verve and good humour, while underlining its key themes.”

“Barnett is quite extraordinary, catching each nuance of feeling and thought.”

“It is extraordinarily difficult not to be entranced by the sheer hopefulness of the story and the flair of the telling in the capable hands of this ensemble.”

“True, the facts – in this co-production between the National Theatre and P&P Productions – have been softened and the rough edges of prejudice and resistance smoothed from the narrative even more than in the film.”

“its evocation of community is both heart-raising and tear-jerking. Its belief that life can be better catches a chord.”

“There is plenty to celebrate and some absences to mourn in this endearing, efficient, often very entertaining musical of the much-loved 2014 film Pride.”

“It starts theatrically and well, with joint narration that repositions it all as a kind of memory play plus rousing tunes.”

“Beresford’s script and lyrics also do a fine job of finding the fun in parochial prejudices that give way to something fonder and quirkier.”

“Samuel Barnett (never better) as the flamboyant actor Jonathan does a fine disco routine in the community hall. It’s a highlight because of Lizzi Gee’s choreography, but also because it comes with some real emotion between him and another character.”

“Elsewhere more friction is needed, more knots of drama to help all the eventual validation to feel fully earned.”

“For good and for ill, Warchus and Beresford keep closely, tenderly, not unskilfully to the story they have told once before.”

“It hasn’t yet found the right sound or dramatic depth to do full justice to its subject matter.”

“Sadly, nothing in the show matches that soulful brilliance, or period vibe; composers Christopher Nightingale, Josh Cohen and DJ Walde chiefly deliver blandly generic numbers, often of an affirmative bent.”

“There’s a touching requiem for the generation lost to Aids, nothing comparable for the vanquished strikers.”

“There’s no doubting the energy, talent and commitment of everyone involved (Samuel Barnett steals the show as the flamboyant activist Jonathan Blake, using disco to break the ice), but it falls far short of the required landmark.”