Much Ado About Nothing at Theatre Royal Drury Lane review

Seagull at The Harold Pinter was elegantly drawn, but after the deadly Romeo and Juliet and now Much Ado About Nothing I am ready to throw these godforsaken rehearsal chairs on a skip and set them on fire.

This production is musical chairs at a horny teenager’s birthday party, and no amount of pink confetti or disco music can compensate for its lack of substance. 

Much Ado has always been a tricky play – a comic affair of Chinese whispers with an uncomfortable tragic interlude.

The real disappointment of the production was the notable absence of characters Dogberry and Verges. (Image: Marc Brenner) It’s eavesdropping, romantic confusion, and desire. Hero fancies Claudio, Claudio fancies hero, Don Pedro fancies Beatrice, Beatrice pretends not to fancy Benedick, Margaret fancies everyone, and Benedick fancies himself.

Quite reasonably, this production enters fully into the spirit of juvenile hedonism. Despite the party atmosphere however, I couldn’t wait to get home. 

Tom Hiddleston fans will delight in his winks, rear-end wiggles, flirtatious quips to the audience and the flashes of his bare chest. Self-assured and cocky, his Benedick is a true entertainer – as he should be – but he possesses none of the insecure uncertainty of the lover.

Hayley Atwell’s Beatrice was similarly self-possessed, a fine sparring partner for Benedick, but even in the most famous scenes their exchanges felt rushed, the poetry draining away at the speed of a DJ’s transition. Room had to be made for all the dance sequences I suppose.

Musical interludes were provided by the very talented Mason Alexander Park, who as Margaret sung old school ballads to great reception.

From the moment you enter the auditorium for Much Ado you are bombarded with LOUD. (Image: Marc Brenner) I would happily attend a jukebox show with Park singing different tunes all night long, but it felt detached from the play; condescending slightly to the audience, as if we wouldn’t understand Early Modern English without a contemporary pop translation.  

Costume designs melded the aesthetic of a 70s porn film with a Benidorm pool party and were distracting and distorting to the very end. Like the music and dancing they tried so very hard to signpost FUN, but you can’t generate a mood with a jumpsuit.

The very loud and very pink vision never quite reached an agreement with the prose. 

Claudio and Hero spent plenty of time grinding against one another, but as is often the case the overtly sexualised behaviour was a poor stand-in for real sexual chemistry.

Even if the entire cast had performed naked, I doubt anyone in the auditorium would have broken a sweat. 

The real disappointment of the production however was the notable absence of characters Dogberry and Verges. If you’re going to cut the text, why cut the funniest characters? I suppose they were going for FUN not FUNNY.

Much Ado About Nothing plays at Theatre Royal Drury Lane until April 5, 2025. (Image: Marc Brenner) At this point Lloyd’s preference for empty, black box staging and plastic seating feels almost mocking – or maybe there’s only so much money left after you’ve paid the starry cast. Theatre Royal’s stage is akin to a dramatic football pitch, and so despite the well-choreographed dance sequences, and plenty of running, the play never quite filled the space.  

From the moment you enter the auditorium for Much Ado you are bombarded with LOUD. I love a Las Vegas nightclub in 2010 as much as the next person, but that’s not why I’m going to the theatre. You can’t up the ante by upping the volume. 

Much Ado About Nothing plays at Theatre Royal Drury Lane until April 5, 2025.