Opening Night review: Sheridan Smith defies director's bid to ruin her big ... trends now
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Opening Night (Gielgud Theatre)
What an extraordinary theatrical mash-up Opening Night is. It's almost as if this studiously obtuse new musical which opened in the West End last night was designed to sabotage its fabulous leading lady, Sheridan Smith.
And yet, if you can't keep a good woman down, you've got no chance whatsoever against Smith's unstoppable charisma.
Based on a long-forgotten John Cassavetes film of the same title from 1977, it's about a Broadway actress, Myrtle, having a nervous breakdown after witnessing the death of a young fan outside the theatre. Yet it's almost as if Ivo Van Hove's musical resurrection is seeking to give Smith a real-life nervous breakdown of her own – a dangerous game for a woman who has spoken of her own mental health nightmares after falling apart in the musical Funny Girl back in 2016.
The on-stage clutter of a documentary film crew recording rehearsals of the story's play within the play, 'The Second Woman', locks her into a state of febrile isolation, and encourages the actors to ignore the audience and perform to cameras instead.
So, when Smith does finally register us by tossing a hairband into the front row, the effect is electric.
Benjamin Walker as Myrtle's incumbent actor husband throws hissy fits in rehearsals
The on-stage clutter of a documentary film crew recording rehearsals of the story's play within the play, 'The Second Woman', locks her into a state of febrile isolation
Stumbling through this psychological armageddon, Sheridan has a cheekiness and vulnerability which is as dangerous as it is
