Review Roundup: Jamie Lloyd's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING at Theatre Royal Drury Lane

“I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?”

Tom Hiddleston is Benedick and Hayley Atwell is Beatrice. Two of their generation’s finest actors collaborate with director Jamie Lloyd again in this savagely funny and beautifully tender battle of wits.

Much Ado About Nothing is now open at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. What did the critics think?

Photo Credit: Marc Brenner

Aliya Al-Hassan, BroadwayWorld: But it is Atwell who is the standout, striding the stage in a bronze Lurex jumpsuit like a Studio 54 diva. Her delivery of Beatrice's lines drips with contempt, pride and wit and she looks physically wounded at her own duping and the harm done to her cousin. It is the best version of the character I have seen on stage.

Marianka Swain, London Theatre: A very game Hiddleston leans into the hamminess of the posturing Benedick, from his rock-star entrance amid a cloud of dry ice to his eyebrow-waggling audience flirtation (“I am loved of all ladies” indeed), madcap dad-dancing, or teasing of a buff chest by undoing his shirt buttons. The gulling scene is a total blast as he hides, unsuccessfully, in pink confetti, and even does a confetti spit take. Yet his eventual confession of love is stirringly sincere.

Sarah Crompton, WhatsOnStage: But most impressively both he and Atwell find the sombre strains and the deep feeling under the fun. When Hero is attacked by Claudio, it’s Benedick who plays conciliator, calming a furious Leonato as well as Beatrice, with gently outstretched hands. There are long moments of silence and quiet tension as he weighs up what to do and how to proceed. When everything turns out to be much ado about nothing, the joy of the couple’s final coming together attracts “ooh”s and “aah”s of sheer pleasure.

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian: The switch from light to dark, when Hero is falsely accused of unfaithfulness on her wedding day by Claudio, is orchestrated with a masterful precision of tone. It brings dangerous anger, and where the scene ordinarily shows up the play’s dated gender politics – a man questioning the virtue of a woman and condemning her to metaphoric death – Hero never loses her power and the couple’s reunion seems genuine and joyful.

Andrzej Lukowski, TimeOut: There are those who have become cynical about Lloyd ever since his career went into overdrive with his smash 2023 revival of Sunset Boulevard. And to be fair, those that moaned about the casting of Sigourney Weaver in The Tempest – which preceded Much Ado at Drury Lane, and shares much of the same cast – were basically right, though one celebrity miscasting hardly ruins a career. But accusations that he relies too much on live video (he’s used it in two shows), the same monochrome palette (okay, there has been a lot of black) and relentless tasteful moodiness are all but trolled by this none-more-pink symphony of a production, that totally abandons conventional cool in favour of Tom Hiddleston’s dad dancing.

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph: But far from seeming cheerless, and déjà vu, the approach proves a fresh, unbounded joy. Freeing the action from studious naturalism, and social context, it’s a teasing provocation, with loud klaxon honks jolting us too. The boldest stroke (design: Soutra Gilmour) is a sustained shower of pink confetti. It’s faintly magical to behold; on another level, it chimes with the play’s tragicomic mix of autumnal wistfulness and amorous adventure.

Nick Curtis, The Standard: Hiddleston and Atwell regularly break the fourth wall, flirting and riffing on their celebrity with the audience: one misfire is the introduction of life-size cutouts of their Marvel Cinematic Universe characters to the otherwise blissfully absurd scenes where their characters are tricked into loving each other. The simplicity of the staging and the licensed showboating of the stars gives an idea of what theatre in Shakespeare’s day might have been like, only with more Jagerbombs, airhorn blasts and disco lights.

Clive Davis, The Times: Along the way the story has been streamlined. The officious Dogberry has been excised; the romantic entanglements are resolved even more briskly. Given that Mara Huf’s Hero has a penchant for full-on twerking, it might not seem obvious why James Phoon’s Claudio is alarmed by any threat to her virtue. But this is one of those productions where it’s best not to ponder the details too closely.

Alice Saville, The Independent: Lloyd's production bravely ditches the play's comic subplot and sidelines the younger nominal romantic leads Hero (Mara Huf) and Claudio (James Phoon) even more than is traditional, in favour of the more fun (and, here, far more famous) Beatrice and Benedick, who have a huge amount of fun with their banter-filled romance. Bendick declares himself "certain I am loved of all ladies", with Hiddleston teasingly holding an ear out to the audience so they can supply the whoops of approval Beatrice won't give him. He throws everything at the part, breakdancing, unbuttoning his shirt, and even delivering an appalling rendition of a Backstreet Boys song. It's an an oddly poignant expression of the desperation of unrequited love, touches of sadness under the self-depreciation.

Stefan Kyriazis, The Express: Blissfully, the cameras and mike stands have gone. The chairs, though, have been unleashed to live their best lives in the numerous giddy song and dance scenes the punctuate this frothy confection of courtly shenanigans. As did every soul in the theatre, who audibly had a blast throughout and thundered to their feet for the jubilant ovation/curtain call boogie.

Average Rating: 96.0%