PARADISE FOUND Review Roundup

The Shah of Persia is feeling low. So to lift his spirits he's off to Vienna with his Eunuch in tow for some new adventures. He promptly falls in love with the Empress of the Empire, much to the dismay of her husband, so a resident of the local brothel - who is a double for the Empress - is substituted for a night of passion. But she's in love with a Baron, who's having an affair with the Soap Manufactuer's Wife....

Matt Wolf, theartsdesk.com: "There's bizarre, and then there's Paradise Found, a new musical that falls so short of the not always clearly defined mark that audiences will be pondering what went wrong for years."

Henry Hitchings, The Evening Standard: "But with Paradise Found, its handsome run of form comes to an end. This is a dizzyingly unfashionable operetta, set in Vienna in the heyday of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Wags might dub it a Viennetta. It’s certainly a sickly confection."

Charles Spender, The UK Telegraph: "The best performance comes from Kate Baldwin, who is both affecting and a succulent feast for the eye, as Mizzi. One emerges from the show in little doubt that this is a rare botched shot from both the Menier and the dream-team of Prince and Stroman. Theatrical paradise it certainly ain’t."

Michael Coveney, WhatsonStage.com: "I’m with Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream on this one: “I am amazed, and know not what to say.” Paradise Found is a bizarrely dreadful musical about the Shah of Persia trying to kickstart his failing libido on a trip to Vienna at the turn of the last century."

West End Whingers: "Or to put it another way Paradise Found is Kismet meeting The Great Waltz via A Little Night Music, Carry On Emmannuelle and Up The Chastity Belt. Except, well, again, not so much “meets” as “crashes into”, with the wreckage strewn the length and breadth of Southwark Street. And yet we couldn’t tear ourselves away from watching. And we are still very much in a state of shock."

To post a comment, you must register and login.