REVIEW: Opening Night, Gielgud Theatre ✭

Paul T Davies reviews Sheridan Smith in new musical Opening Night now playing at the Gielgud Theatre.

Photo: Jan Versweyveld Opening Night Gielgud Theatre

23 March 2024

1 Star

Book Tickets

Sheridan Smith. Io Van Hove. Rufus Wainwright. With a creative team like that, the big question is how it all could go so wrong. Opening Night is, according to the publicity, one of the hottest tickets this season. It’s a hot ticket that goes fairly tepid by the interval. It’s not the fault of the talented cast, who slog their guts out against a turgid book and mediocre music, in fact there are moments when you can see them shine, and frustratingly become aware of how good this could have been. But the production is enslaved by Van Hove’s vision. Based on the John Cassavetes film of the same name, the play within a play features actress Myrtle preparing to open a new play, called The Second Woman, on Broadway. In the lead up to opening night, a 17-year-old fan is run down and killed in front of her, triggering ghosts and memories. A documentary crew are filming the events, hence leading to Van Hove’s over fondness for film, video projections, and the action projected onto a big screen throughout almost the whole of the play. It’s distancing, distracting, and with the first five or so minutes of the productions taking place behind a translucent red curtain, it feels like that the curtain is never pulled back. For me, he is at his best with a bare stage, one chair as a prop, with the text and acting fully centre.  Opening Night is one of those shows that makes sense in the rehearsal room, the company are fully committed, but it’s not conveyed successfully to the audience.

Photo: Jan Versweyveld

Sheridan Smith throws herself and her considerable talent into the role, and kudos to her for taking on a role that reflects her own very public break down. With the camera in her face for most of her performance, pain is etched on her face, and she sings beautifully. But she is never given freedom to break out and let the part rip and shine. In particular, on opening night, Myrtle is dragged on stage drunk, and the pressure to perform is clear. The song, Ready For Battle, feels like a real torch song, but it is performed behind the red curtain, projected onto the screen, we never feel welcomed into the drama. The same is true for Nicola Hughes, who plays the playwright Sarah, who has a tremendous voice. But her main song takes place with her in the wings, the camera projecting her onto the screen. She should be audience facing. In fact, the best number, Makes Me Wonder, is performed by Smith and Hughes side by side, and with the screen switched OFF. Here, it a musical! All the male parts are one dimensional and there isn’t enough back story to justify anyone’s actions. The death of Nancy is hilariously signified by a slash of red paint on a glass window, and Shira Haas does her best with another under written role, but her songs are over amplified making the lyrics inaudible.

Rufus Wainwright’s music is both derivative and, in the main, forgettable, but does a better job of telling the story than the book. I’m afraid Sarah’s play would struggle to pass GCSE let alone open on Broadway.) The opening number, Magic, (“You can make magic out of the tragic”), is bizarrely reprised at the top of the show, after break downs and emotions, we get a jazz hands finale. It’s one of the many contradictions of this dog’s dinner of a show.  In an interview on Radio Four, Van Hove said that the film was his inspiration, but he hadn’t actually watched it. Might I suggest that would have been a good starting point.