The Artist – Reviews Round-up

"A scintillating celebration of Hollywood’s silent stars"

"Theatre Royal Plymouth’s stage adaptation of the Oscar-winning film is an artistic triumph that has ‘West End-bound hit’ written all over it"

"The pitfalls of a stage version are obvious. So it’s all hugely impressive that this project by director-choreographer Drew McOnie (now running the Regent’s Park’s Open Air Theatre), who has co-adapted the work with Lindsey Ferrentino, should arrive looking so faultlessly assured. Not only is it an artistic triumph that deserves to go far, it’s arguably even an advance on the film."

"McOnie has enlivened the interval-less evening with some fitting video wizardry – courtesy of Ash J Woodward... But it’s the stage-craft that captivates most."

"Every beat of the piece abounds with playfulness and surreal inventiveness. From the moment the maestro (Isaac McCullough) raises his baton, to usher in a comically silent chorus-line, to the point where Fairchild’s slumped Valentin puts his best foot forward and, startled, stumbles on a tap-shoe sound, the production doesn’t misstep."

"Fairchild is brilliantly partnered by Briana Craig as a cartwheeling, adorably pushy Peppy. But everyone’s on song"

"Stylish and slick"

"Drew McOnie’s adaptation of the French neo-silent film hit is an artful treat"

"This new work from choreographer and director Drew McOnie is not just a love letter to a movie that was itself a love letter to the movies. It is also a deliciously clever, deft and diverting live adaptation of French writer-director Michel Hazanavicius’ 2011 BAFTA, Oscar and Golden Globe award-winning hit."

"... McOnie and his crack creative team affectionately respect their source material, while daringly reinventing it for the stage. The result is high-class popular entertainment, fizzy, stylish and slick, yet also emotionally grounded."

"McOnie’s staging is crisp and economical, and Christopher Oram’s art deco designs are handsome."

"A pathos-flecked romantic comedy, it’s a jubilant triumph."

"Peppy stage show adds volume to silent cinema hit"

"Drew McOnie’s version of the Oscar-winner is a visual treat, with expressive physical movement, lustrous dance routines – and an irrepressibly waggy puppet dog"

"Lightning has struck twice for Michel Hazanavicius’s irresistible 2011 homage to Hollywood silent cinema. The Oscar winner is now reframed as an effervescent and delightfully inventive stage show, which anticipates a longer life after a short run in Plymouth. Directed, choreographed and co-adapted by Drew McOnie, it retains the old-school charm and wit but goes beyond a retread, makes unexpected additions and more emphatically celebrates the transition to the talkies."

"McOnie combines theatre and prerecorded film throughout a production that unfolds within set designer Christopher Oram’s glowing art deco proscenium arch and has a superbly integrated video design by Ash J Woodward."

"... McOnie’s lustrous dance routines add extra volume to the characterisation, whether it’s incorrigible ham George Valentin (Robbie Fairchild) pirouetting at a party after chewing the scenery in his latest blockbuster, or his long-term screen partner Constance (Rachel Muldoon) thrusting her rear in frustration at the spotlight-hogger."

"It’s a visual treat, from Oram’s costumes in a palette of black and white to his set deftly suggesting picture palaces, mansions and back lots (lit by Zoe Spurr). McOnie choreographs delightful flights of fancy for the era’s genres, including a swashbuckler film danced with cutlasses. It’s an adaptation brimming with love and respect for the original"

"This sparklingly inventive adaptation has legs"

"A captivating cast take on the Oscar-winning French movie at Theatre Royal, Plymouth, in a musical that deserves a bigger audience"

"Full marks for imagination. If you’re weary of seeing hit films repackaged, scene by scene, for the stage, there’s much to admire in Lindsey Ferrentino and the director/co-adaptor Drew McOnie’s sparkling adaptation of the Oscar-winning French movie about the dawn of the talkies."

"It’s not quite a conventional musical. McOnie builds svelte set pieces around standards including Sing, Sing, Sing, Fascinating Rhythm and It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing), yet this is no straightforward mix of song and dance and wisecracks."

"The dapper Robbie Fairchild, veteran of the Broadway and West End production of An American in Paris, makes a hugely sympathetic Valentin. Briana Craig is the charming and suitably named Peppy Miller, who comes to his rescue. Craig may not be your traditional long-limbed hoofer, but she is a captivating presence none the less."

"This ever-inventive show deserves to find another life beyond its brief run."