Reviews round-up of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry at the West End’s Theatre Royal Haymarket

"The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry deserves to be a West End hit"

"Mark Addy gives a superb lead performance in this heart-warming musical adaptation of Rachel Joyce’s best-selling novel"

"What it lacks in Les Mis grandeur or Six-style swagger it makes up for in its gentle reckoning with grief, loss and loneliness."

"You can easily argue that it is hardly subtle and wants us to weep and smile on cue; but, to my mind, its sadness rings true, while its crowd-pleasing positivity is hedged with knowing make-believe."

"Joyce, who wrote the script, and director Katy Rudd have a sure sense of pacing: when to let things dawdle or plod, and when to pick up speed."

"The songs by indie folkster Passenger (the stage name of Michael Rosenberg) may be nothing much to write home about. But there is a judicious mixture of light, shade and surrealism"

"As the pilgrimage proceeds, its darker, penitential nature emerges, along with a budding sense of hard-won acceptance. Well worth the schlep, I’d say."

"Folkie feelgood musical transcends its own tweeness"

"With music by ‘Let Her Go’ hitmaker Passenger, this charming stage adaptation follows a man who breaks free of a rut with a long, long walk"

"... if the story is familiar, the stage show it’s inspired really does feel like a rare thing: a new British musical with an engrossing, new(ish) story that’s powered by genuinely catchy songs"

"Passenger’s songs are a perfect match for this story: they’ve got that distinctly rousing, footstomping, almost spiritual energy of the 2010s British folk revival’s biggest hits."

"Jenna Russell lends so much repressed depth to the part of Harold’s wife Maureen"

"Noah Mullins’ voice soars in the role, giving it a horrible poignancy. Soon, we see his less euphoric side."

"... ultimately, it does what it sets out to do. It takes you on a journey that sends you home feeling a bit lighter, a bit more hopeful, than you did before."

"Warm-hearted musical is a moving and hopeful journey"

"This touching production at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket gains potency from its communal setting"

"Now his foot-weary, heartsore story arrives on the West End in this gentle, warm-hearted musical."

"It is too whimsical in places but that is offset by welcome bursts of peppery humour, by Katy Rudd’s mischievous staging, and by two beautiful central performances from Mark Addy and Jenna Russell, who deftly draw out the grief at its heart."

"... both Passenger’s music and Tom Jackson Greaves’s choreography draw on traditional genres. But there’s also sober recognition of the speed with which people in extremis might end up on the streets."

"Addy is immensely touching as a man mired in a grief too huge to articulate, Russell is outstanding as a women poleaxed by where life has cast her."

"... this musical version... manages to bring on the tears without ever truly feeling like manipulation. It is a show bubbling with grief, hope, love, and music.

"... even at its most moving, it never feels overly saccharine."

"Part of the reason it works so well is the man at the heart of it all is Mark Addy... Addy captures all of Harold’s journeys – physical, geographical, emotional, psychological, and philosophical – with an immense sense of skill and tempered restraint."

"The production is bolstered by what can only be described as a series of secret weapons. The first is the utterly sublime Jenna Russell as Maureen Fry."

"Then there is scene-stealer Peter Polycarpou as the neighbour Rex... he also delivers one of the most powerful monologues in the entire show, a moment of raw, stripped-back humanity as he grapples with his own understanding of loss."

"The production features a rich array of tunes supplied by Passenger (of “Let Her Go” fame). They are easy on the ear – catchy and buoyant."

"In lesser hands, the material would have felt repetitive or cyclical, but director Katy Rudd is once again on magnificent form."

"The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a rare beast: a musical that asks you to feel deeply without ever making you feel foolish for doing so."

"Cosy with a dash of salt"

"Rachel Joyce’s novel about one man’s epic walk across England became a film with Jim Broadbent. Now it’s a West End musical with songs by Passenger"

"... while the folk-inflected songs by Mike Rosenberg (known as Passenger) are amiable enough — Chris Poon’s compact band cut a dash and the lyrics inject some surprisingly salty humour at times — Joyce’s script is oddly underpowered."

"Mark Addy slowly wins our sympathy as Harold, an inert everyman locked into a joyless marriage where there’s not much to look forward to apart from mowing the lawn."

"It’s frustrating that Maggie Service’s Queenie is never given enough room to bring her character into full focus. Jenna Russell impresses as Harold’s querulous wife, Maureen"

"Much of the rest of the show is as cosy and reassuring as the kind of grey cardigan that Harold probably has somewhere in his wardrobe."

"Call it a meh-sical"

"This musical at Theatre Royal Haymarket has two loveable leads but it all feels a little thin"

"This low-key musical about a symbolic journey by foot has a lot going for it... It has two of the most innately, warmly likeable lead actors in Mark Addy and Jenna Russell as the questing Harold and his exasperated wife Maureen."

"The folk-inflected score by Passenger is witty and tuneful. Yet for all its obvious charms and consummate professionalism it remains curiously uninvolving and slight. Call it a meh-sical."

"Harold’s is a non-religious pilgrimage, simultaneously contemporary and old-fashioned. He’s excavating personal guilt rather than finding faith."

"Joyce worked jointly on the stage adaptation... But her starkly evocative, no-nonsense prose and the way she slowly reveals information aspects of the book necessarily lost in translation to the stage."

"Russell, otherwise relegated to the role of the tetchy spouse left behind, unleashes her splendidly expressive voice in the near-solo Such a Simple Thing. Addy is no singer but Harold’s main number requires empathy and raw emotion, which he has in spades, rather than tunefulness."

"I feel like a heel for gently putting the boot into this ambulant odyssey, but Harold Fry left me admiring rather than genuinely moved."

"Hints at timeless folklore"

"Poignant British musical benefits from rich performances and atmospheric staging"

"Directed with lyrical flair by Katy Rudd, Joyce’s rather sentimental story blossoms as a musical, with Passenger’s diverse score enhancing those underlying themes."

"... Noah Mullins’ confident Balladeer, a wilful, mystical narrator, whose role changes as story gathers momentum. Addy is a solid and endearing presence as Fry."

"It’s a curious and occasionally frustrating choice for the lead character to sing barely a note, but this is countered by the sensational Russell, who interprets Passenger’s songs with emotional integrity and a sublime narrative skill."

"Rudd and her creative team bring this pilgrimage to life with a beautifully crafted staging. Tom Jackson Greaves’ choreography pulses through the story"

"If Joyce’s book offers a slice of little England, then Rudd’s production celebrates that, embracing the joy and humour of life, as much as the tears and tragedy."