HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD
Duchess Theatre
★★★★
“Pulman’s voice is the evening’s prettiest pleasure”
Entertainment delivered at conversational level is deeply unfashionable, to the point of feeling subversive. Nonetheless, Hooray for Hollywood has quietly, cheerfully pitched up at the West End, finding its place among a landscape of brazen, multi-media spectaculars.
In essence, this is a high-quality lounge act, and entirely unapologetic about it. If you are looking to spend a quiet evening with two excellent musicians, one singer and one singing pianist, a grand piano, and a century of Hollywood’s greatest tunes, here is the best game in town. Indeed, that’s the whole proposition here. There’s no hint of showmanship having moved on in the past 40 years, no ensemble, no spectacle. Just talent, and the confidence to know that is enough.
Liza Pulman and Joe Stilgoe have previous form together, and it shows. Their rapport is easy and unforced. Stilgoe, simultaneously accompanying and singing, makes the whole enterprise look effortless, which of course means it is nothing of the sort. The repertoire sweeps from The Wizard of Oz to La La Land, taking in West Side Story, Wicked and a great deal else besides. The show distils nearly a hundred years of musical cinema into two hours on a no-fuss stage.
Pulman’s voice is the evening’s prettiest pleasure. It is a beautiful instrument: clear, warm, and produced from the chest in the manner of an earlier generation of musical theatre. We are in Julie Andrews territory, rather than the nasal, pushed tone that has become standard in the post-Elaine Paige era. So much musical performance is now about demonstrating its own mechanics, but Pulman (clearly, highly-trained) makes singing seem like the most natural thing in the world.
The other pleasure is Stilgoe’s piano playing, which is glorious. It’s inventive, assured, and always in service of the song.
Lighting by Daniel Carter-Brennan and sound by Joe Barker are both assured and seamless. The Duchess is the smallest of the traditional London West End theatres. Sound and lighting are handled with the delicate touch the venue required for this no-frills show.
The script between the songs could do with more work. Their humour is deliberately old-fashioned and understated. But sometimes the audience is left wondering if there is any punchline at all.
Throughout the show, the audience rises together on a wave of familiar music. This mood is punctured by having to grapple with the jokes. For example, there’s a flippant line touching on the Caribbean and Mary Poppins being ‘all-inclusive’. Was the target the all-inclusive package holiday? I certainly hope so. Either way, that’s one to cut.
That aside, the evening is all elegance, escapism and generosity. Hooray for Hollywood will not win any prizes for contemporaneity and does not seek to. It is a show for people who still believe that a beautiful voice, a gifted pianist and a great song are more than sufficient. On the evidence of Monday evening at the Duchess, they are right.
HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD
Duchess Theatre then UK Tour continues
Reviewed on 13th April 2026
by Elizabeth Botsford
Photography by Matt Crockett
