Did love take over? What did the critics make of Much Ado with Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell?

The West End production of Much Ado About Nothing, featuring Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell, has erupted onto the Theatre Royal Drury Lane stage in a blaze of pink confetti and pop bangers! What did the critics have to say on the new revival of Shakespeare’s comedy?

Sarah Crompton of this parish describes the production as “simply sublime Shakespeare” that “roars into Drury Lane on a wave of falling confetti and 1990s pop favourites, and lands with the force of a Marvel superhero.” Crompton also commends the decision to cut the comic subplot featuring Dogberry to focus entirely on the two love affairs, emphasising the depth of the play’s themes.

Nick Curtis of the Evening Standard also lauds Lloyd’s production in a five-star write-up, delving into the superb nuances of the two leads’ performances. Curtis states that “Atwell is simply magnificent, a beady tigress with quicksilver intelligence and manicured gold claws” with Hiddleston “speaking the verse beautifully, albeit adopting a knowingly husky sex-voice in later scenes”.

Another out-and-out rave came from Arifa Akbar in The Guardian, commenting on the show’s very distinct aesthetic: “The masquerade ball features plushy headdresses (from Tweety Pie to a mini-octopus); they are silly and humorous but return through the production to look more disturbingly psychedelic – like an acid trip gone wrong.”

She also admires how easily Lloyd can turn the show’s texture on a dime: “The switch from light to dark, when Hero is falsely accused of unfaithfulness on her wedding day by Claudio, is orchestrated with a masterful precision of tone.”

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The Stage‘s Dave Fargnoli says the show has a lot simmering beneath its “deceptively stylised surface” with tender performances from Hiddleston and Atwell in a four-star review, with additional praise going to Mason Alexander Park as Margaret.

Clive Davis’ four-star review in The Times also admired Lloyd’s take: “Lloyd is asking us to reconnect with the tradition of the Elizabethan clowns who thought nothing of bantering with their audience or adding digressions of their own. He wants us to embrace music and dance too. So a disco beat thumps away while we take our seats and, as the gossamer plot unfolds, the ensemble erupts into exuberant dance moves that are a cross between a Bollywood epic and Saturday night at Studio 54.”

One of the most glowing reviews comes from the famously hard-to-impress Andrzej Lukowski from Time Out, who fawned over the show’s successes, saying: “As somebody whose birthday falls more or less slap bang in between Atwell and Hiddleston’s, I absolutely felt this production in my bones – an immaculate and hilarious synthesis of naffness and cool.”