The Score West End Tickets, News, Info & More
Theatre Royal Haymarket
18 Suffolk Street London SW1Y 4HT London
Legendary stage and screen actor BRIAN COX (HBO’s multi-award-winning Succession) stars as Johann Sebastian Bach in Oliver Cotton’s new play, originally presented at the Theatre Royal Bath.
Spring 1747, Potsdam, Prussia. Johann Sebastian Bach reluctantly visits the court of Frederick II, Europe’s most ambitious and dangerous leader. The two men could hardly be more different. Bach is deeply religious, Frederick is an atheist. Bach loathes war, Frederick revels in it. Bach studies scripture, Frederick reads military history. Frederick remains in awe of Bach’s genius however and has mischievously prepared a musical conundrum that he hopes will baffle the composer and amuse his court. The explosive events of the following days could not have been predicted by either man.
Brian Cox’s glittering career has spanned more than sixty years, garnering numerous awards, working with the most esteemed theatre companies and renowned Hollywood and TV directors. Twice Olivier Award winner for Best Actor, his portrayal in the HBO hit series Succession has won him a Golden Globe award and Emmy nominations.
He is joined in the cast by Nicole Ansari-Cox who studied at the prestigious Actors’ Studio in New York and has starred regularly on stage and screen in the UK and the US. Her major credits include Deadwood, The Biographer and Blumenthal on screen, and starring in Tom Stoppard’s Rock’n’Roll at the Royal Court and on Broadway.
Former artistic director of the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company, Trevor Nunn’s multi-award winning repertoire ranges from Les Misérables to The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.
__Assisted Performances__
Captioned Performance - Wednesday 16th April 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance - Wednesday 9th April 7.30pm
The Score - West End Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR The Score
Curious beast of a play fails to engage
4 / 10
Why is it so hard to write a decent play about Bach? Maybe, in part, because there are no words that can express anything as eloquently as his music did – about life and death, pain and transcendence, wretchedness or rapture at the simplest aspects of existence. So much of what he represented was distilled into that music – and what we are left with biographically is the workaholism, the curmudgeonliness, the rows with figures of authority.
Brian Cox’s compassionate portrait of JS Bach enlivens this clunky historical drama
6 / 10
While I’m sure Cotton has done his homework, he’s surely betting that the average British audience is unlikely to have any real opinion on Frederick. His play contents itself with an antagonist who is a sort of vague mish mash of biographical exposition, Blackadder-style toff-isms, and bits where Frederick’s warmongering is unsubtly paralleled with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. I’m not saying there’s any need to be totally historically accurate in a work of fiction. But Cotton’s king feels like a half-hearted collection of tyrant tropes rather than a credible character. It’s hard not to see The Score as a distant relative of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, but it’s simply not in the same league in terms of characterisation.
1 - 2 of 2
Review Roundup: THE SCORE, Directed by Trevor Nunn
by Aliya Al-Hassan - February 28, 2025
by Aliya Al-Hassan - February 28, 2025
Legendary stage and screen actor Brian Cox stars as Johann Sebastian Bach in Oliver Cotton’s new play, The Score, originally presented at the Theatre Royal Bath.
Review: THE SCORE, Starring Brian Cox
by Cindy Marcolina - February 28, 2025
by Cindy Marcolina - February 28, 2025
Transferring from a successful run in Bath a few years ago, Oliver Cotton wants to marry politics and art to work his way up to the encounter between an ageing Johann Sebastian Bach and Frederick II of Prussia. The marketing makes it out to be an explosive meeting between church and state, between a god-fearing, scripture-quoting composer and an atheist, belligerent, ruthless monarch. That’s not exactly how it goes and the theatricality of the event is rather underwhelming. Trevor Nunn directs Brian Cox in a lengthy and inconsistent script that swiftly turns into a vehicle for anecdotal politics and bite-size philosophy. Too long into the action, we discover that the catalyst is Bach’s indomitable rage. He found out that a blind young girl was brutally raped by the military and he chooses to hold the king accountable.
The Score History
Other Productions of The Score
| 2025 | West End |
West End |
Videos