The reviews are in for the world premiere of Thelma & Louise, the musical adaptation of the 1991 film starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. Now playing at the Young Vic, critics agree Amy Lennox and Rachel Tucker are a pairing worth the watch, but they’re divided on the musical’s ultimate impact.
Callie Khouri, screenwriter of the original 1991 film, has wanted to make her award-winning film into a musical for quite some time and the moment has finally come. The world premiere of Thelma & Louise, with a book written by Khouri and songs by alt-country singer-songwriter Neko Case, has come to the Young Vic.
Amy Lennox and Rachel Tucker star as the title characters, whose spontaneous weekend getaway spirals into a run from the law after a violent encounter at a roadside bar. Overall, critics were most impressed with the duo for their chemistry and vocal performances. Where they were divided was on nearly everything else, with differing opinions on the music, pacing and set design.
The verdict: Thelma & Louise offers a strong and charismatic central pairing to anchor the musical, but critics don’t agree on how it lands when it comes to pacing and score.
Critic’s comparison
| Publication | Rating | The Key Takeaway |
| The Stage | ★★★★ | A fist-pumping joyride with stellar performances from its two irresistible leads |
| The Times | ★★★ | Terrific leads can’t fully compensate for a score and story that lack horsepower. |
| Time Out | ★★★ | Enjoyable, but never justifies why the film needed the musical treatment. |
| WhatsOnStage | ★★★ | Excellent leads sing their hearts out, but a generic score and static staging leave the story wanting. |
| The Guardian | ★★ | A wrong turn that doesn’t have the depth worthy of the era-defining feminist parable. |
The reviews: what they loved about Thelma & Louise
- Amy Lennox and Rachel Tucker: The duo was universally praised in reviews, with critics in total agreement on their performances. The Stage’s Holly O’Mahony felt they ‘meld into a cartwheel of righteous revenge, totally in sync and scorching with charisma’ while WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton called both ‘entirely convincing and committed,’ further praising their ability to ‘sing powerfully and create an appealing rapport.’ The Times’ Clive Davis too highlighted their ‘undeniable chemistry.’
- The supporting performances: The Times praised Trevor Dion Nicholas for his ‘quietly dignified’ performance as the detective pursuing Thelma and Louise, while pointing to Jordan Luke Gage as making ‘the most’ of his role. Whatsonstage also noted that Nicholas ‘brings feeling to the story’ as Hal.
- The show’s overall energy: The Stage was the most enthusiastic in its review, calling the musical ‘a fist-pumping joyride’ that stays ‘mischievously cathartic.’ TimeOut too agreed the show works well ‘as a feelgood-ish comedy about female friendship with some bold feminist undertones,’ going on to comment that ‘it gets extra good during the wilder, more concert-like sections.’
- The set and lighting design: Christine Jones and Brett J Banakis Americana-style set design drew positive comments from critics, with The Stage praising the set as ‘evocative of the American south.’ TimeOut also praised the ‘very cool’ set. WhatsOnStage, despite a lacklustre response, offered praise for Natasha Chivers’ lighting ‘which sweeps around the set, creating an impression of lines on the tarmac and dazzling headlights,’ calling it a stronger choice than including the iconic Thunderbird.
The reviews: what fell flat and where critics were divided
- Neko Case’s score: critics were pretty evenly divided on the musical’s score, with The Stage and Time Out both enjoying it, while The Times and WhatsOnStage finding the score lacking. The Stage praised the ‘infectious zest’ of the music, while Time Out enjoyed how ‘different to the average showtune’ Case’s contributions were. The Times found the score ‘tends to lapse into a grinding rock beat’ while WhatsOnStage was equally unimpressed, calling the music ‘generic rock’ and noting that ‘some songs are lively, but none are memorable.’
- Hal’s backstory: The Hal/Sarah subplot specifically was called out by both Time Out and the Times as a drag, with The Times noted his ‘domestic backstory slows the pace.’ WhatsOnStage added another criticism, noting that the scenes where Hal’s wife Sarah ‘explains the patriarchy and the dangers faced by women are leaden.’
- The infamous Thunderbird, or lack thereof: The production stages its road trip with no literal car beyond a brief upturned wreck at the start, relying instead on Natasha Chivers’ lighting to suggest motion. Some critics found this a smart solution with Time Out calling the strobing lighting ‘a neat way of conveying velocity without showing an actual car,’ and WhatsOnStage praised the decision to dispense with the iconic Thunderbird the production’s better instinct. Other critics saw it as a loss. The Times argued that without a car, the leads ‘might as well be hitchhikers inching their way towards the final showdown,’ while The Guardian mourned the loss of the Thunderbird and ‘the magnificently lonely desert, both of which felt like characters in their own right.’
- A lack of spectacle: several critics commented that overall, the musical lacked any real spectacle, which felt counterintuitive to the story. Time Out noted the lack of ‘any great splashy set pieces’ and felt the show had ‘an ambling pace.’ The Times concluded that the ending ‘fizzes gently,’ and that overall, it ‘lacks horsepower.’ WhatsOnStage felt the production was ‘slow-paced, stripped of excitement,’ and felt the choice to set almost the entire show in ‘a slightly grim, brown bar’ left it feeling stagnant for a story centred on a road trip.
The back story
Thelma & Louise began life as an Oscar-winning 1991 screenplay by Callie Khouri, following two friends whose spontaneous weekend road trip spirals into a life-changing act of rebellion after a violent encounter at a roadside bar. Now, Khouri has returned to the story transforming it into a new stage musical directed by Trip Cullman, with music and lyrics by Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Neko Case.
The cast includes:
- Thelma: Amy Lennox
- Louise: Rachel Tucker
- Hal: Trevor Dion Nicholas
- JD: Jordan Luke Gage
- Darryl: Samuel Edwards
- Jimmy: Alex Gibson-Giorgio
- Sarah: Letitia Hector
- Harlan / Max: Tamlyn Henderson
- Trooper / Singer: Jack Butterworth
The company is completed by Suzie McAdam, Eleanor Walsh, Alex Given, Kamilla Fernandes, Rushand Chambers, Joshua Dever.
The creative team for Thelma & Louise includes: Callie Khouri (book, based on her original screenplay), Neko Case (music and lyrics), Trip Cullman (director), Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber (choreography), Christine Jones and Brett J. Banakis (scenography), Ryan Dawson Laight (costume design), Natasha Chivers (lighting design), Gareth Owen (sound design).
Where to see Thelma & Louise
- Venue: Young Vic Theatre, until 24 October
- Runtime: 2 hours 15 minutes
- Full details on Thelma & Louise
What are the critics saying about Thelma & Louise: The Musical?
“This movie adaptation has a book by the film’s screenwriter – in this case, Callie Khouri; but mercifully the songs (music and lyrics are by Neko Case) have an infectious zest that doesn’t tamper with the story’s gutsy, rebellious spirit.”
“Under Trip Cullman’s direction, Thelma and Louise are every bit the gun-toting, patriarchy-busting duo whose roguish ploys we whooped for on screen back in 1991 – and 30 years on, they’ve still got plenty to say to the men standing in their way.”
“It’s hardly a better time for women in the United States today, so the narrative remains mischievously cathartic.”
“The songs sit broadly in the country rock genre, but there’s pleasing variety to the numbers. A rallying anthem in praise of living while you can sets the tone, while others, including Thelma’s smoky, sexual awakening number, add passion and wit. Several contain spoken passages too, which grounds them somewhat.”
“Jones and Banakis’ set, with its neon-lit brand names and antlers on walls, is evocative of the American south.”
“It’s a fist-pumping joyride – and, just as with the film, we’re rooting for them the entire way.”
“Callie Khouri, who wrote the original screenplay, has now provided the book for Trip Cullman’s production at the Young Vic, crafting a solid, workaday entertainment that has not solved an obvious problem: how to recreate the thrills of a road movie without putting the two friends behind the wheel of a car.”
“While there’s undeniable chemistry between Amy Lennox’s Thelma and Rachel Tucker’s Louise, they might as well be hitchhikers inching their way towards the final showdown in the Grand Canyon.”
“Although the band placed above both sides of the stage includes violin, viola and cello, the music tends to lapse into a grinding rock beat that often conjures echoes of a proficient U2 tribute band.”
“Lennox and Tucker are terrific singers who bring real passion to humdrum lyrics. You still long for them to outwit the authorities as they embark on their mini-crime spree.”
“Trevor Dion Nicholas is quietly dignified as the detective who tries to track down the two fugitives.”
“Yet where Scott expertly tweaked the tension on the big screen, here the final confrontation with the forces of law and order fizzes gently. This musical lacks horsepower.”
“This musical version of Thelma & Louise has many things going for it, notably some genuinely thrilling songs from alt-country legend Neko Case, a great cast led by Amy Lennox and Rachel Turner, and some sparking dialogue from Callie Khouri, screenwriter of the classic 1991 Ridley Scott feminist road movie.”
“Khouri and co could have done more with the medium than offer up the exact plot of Thelma & Louise (the film) with songs bolted on.”
“it gets extra good during the wilder, more concert-like sections at the start of each half, when it threatens to break into something quite formally different.”
“Although Trip Cullman’s production is stylish in its own way - Christine Jones and Brett J Banakis’s Americana-strewn bar set is very cool, and the strobing lighting strips are a neat way of conveying velocity without showing an actual car - it’s lacking any great splashy setpieces.”
“It’s a good selection of tunes: energised, obliquely melodic, with lyrics that underscore the story’s feminist side (which is perhaps less overt in the original film than you might remember).”
“Beyond Case’s songs, Khouri doesn’t offer us a whole lot that’s new: a little fleshing out of backstories, a tiny bit of consideration of race in America, and a gleefully provocative scene right at the start that suggests the duo may have survived the famous ending.”
“Callie Khouri, who wrote the book, also wrote the screenplay for Ridley Scott’s swaggering 1991 film. She’s longed to turn her tale into a musical for years. Yet bringing it to the stage falls flat.”
“Rachel Tucker as tough-talking Louise and Amy Lennox as the ditsy Thelma are entirely convincing and committed as two women who end up wanted in three states after a vacation from their lives and their neglectful partners goes horribly wrong.”
“So much around them varies between uninspired and positively clunky. The script, for example, choses to underline the moral of the story in unnecessary ways”
“There is a rich and varied band playing, and just occasionally when a country twang enters the score, there’s a sense of a what the writing could have been, but then it gets flattened by the latest heavy rock riff powering along the blacktop. ”
“Cullman has made the bold choice to stage the entire show in a slightly grim, brown bar (designed by Christine Jones and Brett J Banakis) that only once opens up – to reveal a surprisingly crudely painted scene of the Grand Canyon at the story’s climax.”
“It all feels meagre, slow-paced, stripped of excitement and crucially of that sense of liberation which powers the narrative even as it dips towards its inevitable close. Lennox and Tucker sing their hearts out, but it’s not enough.”
"Despite a book by the original screenwriter, this stage adaptation doesn’t have the depth – or the songs – worthy of the era-defining feminist parable."
"The intention around this musical adaptation of the road movie is entirely perplexing. Significantly, there is neither road nor car, bar a fleeting glimpse of the latter at the beginning, upturned and static. "
"The narrative plays out as two women on the run. You wish for more depth, more bonding between them, which does come in the second half when the show finally fires up, but it still feels like empowerment-lite."
"Under the direction of Trip Cullman, the characters seem dated and the time-frame wavers uncertainly between the 1980s and now."
"The singing is strong."
Young Vic Theatre, London
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