Review: THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, Central London

It has been a rocky start to The Wolf Of Wall Street immersive theatre experience. Numerous problems have delayed the opening several times. Unfortunately, it would be better if we were still waiting.

Spanning four floors, the experience is supposed to follow the now infamous story of Wall Street trader Jordan Belfont, who burst into the public consciousness with 2013 smash-hit black comedy film Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo Di Caprio.

Belfont went to prison after extraordinary levels of fraud and corruption at his Wall Street Stockbroker's Stratton Oakmont. What captured attention was his memoir, detailing the lifestyle excesses that surrounded the fraud. A veritable orgy of carnality, profanity, addiction, excess, exploitation, betrayal and decadence were all on show. By any theatrical standards, it is a tall order to try and recreate this film, particularly for an immersive production.

As a member of the audience, the opening pretext is that you are arriving for your first day as a city trader at Stratton Oakmont. You are given the choice to follow Jordan in his hedonistic excesses or sign up to help the FBI bring down one of the biggest criminals on Wall Street.

The reality is that there is no choice; the group you end up in is completely down to where you end up standing while you wait for the show to start. I was with the 'Strattonites' and the night started very positively. Jordan's assistant Janet and partner Danny stride on top of the bar, throwing dollar bills and initiating chants familiar to anyone who has seen the film. We are then, momentarily, introduced to Jordan and his wife. It feels fun and ripe with anticipation.

Unfortunately, this ends up being the highlight of the evening. We are then taken up to various rooms in Jordan and Nadine's house where there are some awkward conversations about their daughter Chandler's birthday party and a bag of cash that is thrown over the marital bed. We move onto discussing Janet's wedding and reading Chandler a bedtime story. It feels stilted and I'm sure I wasn't the only one wondering when we would see some outrageous behaviour at a pool party or some wild excesses.

However, this hedonism never came. After the interval I was ushered upstairs and was suddenly part of the FBI investigation. Interrogation scenes had little impact and the observation of an interview with a drug dealer was unexplained. Then instructed to infiltrate Stratton Oakmont, we then move to a dishevelled office room in the basement for a series of random statements from staff and a bare-chested Donny. Jordan arrives, the FBI raids the office and arrest him. It is distinctly underwhelming.

It is important to say that the cast work incredibly hard. From the door staff, to the bartenders; everyone is in character, with broad New York accents. Samuel Donnelly is particularly good as canny prosecutor Cohen and James Byrant makes a suitably wild Danny. Rhiannon Harper-Rafferty puts in a solid performance as Nadine, but struggled to maintain the flow when our group was awkwardly stalled in the Belfont's living room.

The inclusion of Jordan and Nadine's daughter Chandler, played on press night by a very sweet Livia Nelson, feels clunky and fits oddly with the show. I wish I could comment on the performance of Oliver Tilner as Jordan Belfont, but in well over two hours of performance, he appeared for a total of around nine minutes to the groups I happened to be in. In fact, I worked out that I spent more time with Chandler than Jordan. This is a Wolf Of Wall Street without the Wolf.

One problem is that there are too many people for the production to feel immersive; a large group works in the initial welcome in the bar, but elsewhere it is often hard to see what is happening and feels detached.

The design varies hugely, from the fun, downtown New York bar with the Wall Street bull bursting through the wall and the starkly-lit FBI offices with their chunky 80s computer screens and white boards showing details of the investigation into Belfont.

However, there is a distinctly budget feel to sets; this is forgivable and even works in the FBI rooms, but in Jordan's home, the lack of any kind of luxury is palpable. Furniture appears to have been dragged from the nearest car boot sale and the soft furnishings are close to what you might find in an NHS hospital. The best room is Chandler's and that is solely down to the judicious use of fairy lights. There is no sense of luxury, no feeling of immersion into the world of complete excess that Jordan's world is supposed to embody.

There is also none of the black humour that was the standout quality of the film, no slapstick behaviour from Donny, or indeed Jordan himself. Sound proofing also needs to be improved, as you frequently stand around hearing singing, laughing or shouting from a nearby room, which is both distracting and creates a creeping suspicion that someone else is having a better time than you.

It is a complex operation when you have different groups diverging to have different experiences. What is essential is that whichever group people end up in, they have a great time. This is distinctly not the case here.

The Wolf Of Wall Street is at a central London location until 19 January 2020

Photo Credit: Matthew Walker/ The Standout Company

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