★★★★★

“A masterfully acted, visually exquisite and morally knotty production”

Dominic Cooke’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession receives a thrillingly sharp and stylish revival that balances moral complexity, aesthetic beauty, and arresting performances. This production proves Shaw can still provoke and entertain, with astonishing relevance.

The draw for many will undoubtedly be the casting of real-life mother and daughter Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter as Mrs Warren and her on-stage offspring Vivie. Staunton commands the stage with trademark precision and emotional depth, but Carter is just as engaging, proving she’s earned her part – it’s not simply her birth-right. The generational tension between the two characters embodied as well as acted. Staunton, at just five feet tall, brims with flamboyant energy in set and costume designer Chloe Lamford’s jewel-toned Victorian taffeta gowns, while Carter, nearly a foot taller and dressed in sober, neutral and practical outfits, towers above her mother both physically and morally. Their power dynamic is as visual as it is verbal.

The set, a lush English cottage garden constructed on a large central revolve, is a visual treat. Cosmos, foxgloves, and peonies bloom in abundance, creating a dreamlike pastoral idyll that gets slowly dismantled, mirroring the erosion of Vivie’s youthful idealism and naivete as the play progresses. The contemporary lighting design (Jon Clark) casts a soft ethereal glow over the action, contrasting with the period dress and set.

Shaw’s play, written in 1893 but long banned for its subject matter, feels surprisingly fresh and funny. Themes of gender, morality, class, and capitalism ring disturbingly true even now. Vivie is the true protagonist of the play and a woman ahead of her time: Cambridge-educated, fiercely independent, contemptuous of art and romance alike, and with dreams not of marriage but of legal practice. The men around her are bumbling fools like the Reverend Samuel Gardner (Kevin Doyle), talentless-but-charming like his son, Frank (the outrageously charismatic Reuben Joseph), hopelessly romantic and captivated by beauty like Mr Praed (Sid Sagar) or quietly evil like the only true villain Sir Robert Crofts (Robert Glenister).

And what exactly is Mrs Warren’s profession? Shaw never names it outright, and the play dances delicately (though unambiguously) around the truth. When it is revealed to each character, the reactions are telling. It’s not the choices Mrs Warren once made that cause rupture, but her refusal to reject them now. Her justification is pragmatic, even persuasive and it is in the Socratic sparring matches between Staunton and Carter that the production comes alive.

Cooke and cast resist easy moralising. As Brecht once said of Shaw, he excelled in “dislocating our stock associations.” There are no heroes here, only complex individuals navigating a world with too few good options. By the end, Vivie walks away from her mother, her money, and all the compromises that come with it. Yet she doesn’t emerge triumphant. The play closes on a note of quiet devastation. Vivie may have escaped her mother’s shadow, but she remains haunted by the phantoms of the women who could not.

A masterfully acted, visually exquisite and morally knotty production.

HELLO, DOLLY! at the London Palladium

★★★★

“Nothing seems out of place in Dominic Cooke’s staging of this revival”

By interval, while slowly making my way through the bottleneck towards the bar, I’m feeling a bit like the child from ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ folk tale. Only the joke is on me, apparently, rather than the other way round. It takes the second act to make me realise this, and my puzzled expression turns to one of realisation, all the while a smile reluctantly spreading across my face. The belated appreciation is inadvertently symptomatic of a musical that is, after all, fundamentally about second chances.

You have to ignore the flimsy plot to get to its heart. On the surface the story follows the celebrated matchmaker, Dolly Levi, as she travels to Yonkers, New York, to find a match for the miserly half-millionaire Horace Vandergelder. It soon becomes clear, though, that Dolly intends to marry Horace herself. We think it’s all about the money, but as the twists unravel, we discover the true threads of the tale. Love is in the air, ultimately, conquering feelings of grief and bereavement as it sweeps through the auditorium in waves of feelgood farce. In the title role, Imelda Staunton gives a fantastically understated performance as she slowly lets go of her late husband’s ghost to find her way back to where she belongs.

Based on Thornton Wilder’s 1930s ‘The Matchmaker’, it premiered in 1963; so there is always the danger that today’s audiences will find it outdated and out of style. Yet it conveys a bygone age that we are willing to be transported back to. Escapism is the key. Rae Smith’s sumptuous sets mix turn of the century realism with animated backdrops; rickety trolleybuses and sandstone buildings with blue skies – into which, at one point, a full-size steam train billows out clouds of steam. Smith’s costumes match the opulence of the production, particularly during the signature scene in which Dolly descends the famous staircase of the Harmonia Gardens restaurant. The title number of ‘Hello Dolly’ builds slowly towards its ovation-grabbing finale. Dancing waiters and chefs epitomise Bill Deamer’s extravagant and flawless choreography. Nothing seems out of place in Dominic Cooke’s staging of this revival, except for a few lines of Michael Stewart’s book. Yet the execution is faultless, and Jerry Herman’s music and lyrics are given full flight, buoyed up by the twenty strong orchestra down in the pit.

Staunton, to her credit, never steals the show in what is pretty much an ensemble piece (that also boasts one of the largest ensembles in London – it has more swings than a holiday camp playground). Andy Nyman’s Horace Vandergelder is a gently mocking Scrooge, extending his derision to himself as much as anyone else. His rebellious employees, Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker (respectively Harry Hepple and the underused Tyrone Huntley) make a fine comedy double act that borders on cliché but thankfully just stops short. The other star turn comes courtesy of Jenna Russell’s Irene Molloy, the milliner who craves to swap her hat shop for a love nest yet is more than twice shy having been bitten by grief too many times.

The songs are not so much old fashioned as old school. Refreshingly nostalgic and timeless. Russell delivers one of the highlights; ‘Ribbons Down My Back’ with an aching hunger while some of the other rousing numbers fill us with joy. Staunton, of course, makes ‘Hello Dolly’ (the song and the show) her own, betraying a unique sense of self-doubt within her layered character. She likes to be in control of everybody’s lives, including her own, but her femininity is never victim to her feminism. There is strength and vulnerability. But also a glorious sense of fun. “It’s no use arguing – I have made up your mind” Dolly says to the redemptive Vandergelder.

There is no arguing with the success of this show either, or the ovation it received. Admittedly the first act drifts a bit, but by curtain call it is well and truly ‘back where it belongs’.

MRS WARREN’S PROFESSION

Garrick Theatre

★★★★★

“A masterfully acted, visually exquisite and morally knotty production”

MRS WARREN’S PROFESSION

Garrick Theatre

Reviewed on 23rd May 2025

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Johan Persson

Previously reviewed at this venue:

MRS WARREN’S PROFESSION

MRS WARREN’S PROFESSION

MRS WARREN’S PROFESSION

HELLO, DOLLY! at the London Palladium

★★★★

“Nothing seems out of place in Dominic Cooke’s staging of this revival”

HELLO, DOLLY! at the London Palladium

Reviewed on 18th July 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Manuel Harlan

More reviews from Jonathan:

HELLO, DOLLY!

HELLO, DOLLY!

JOIN US