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Spectator
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
‘This is as good as food gets in London' – Town, in Drury Lane, reviewed
Town – well-named, it has vitality – is on the ragged part of Drury Lane WC2 near the Majestic Wine Warehouse and Travelodge. Like musical theatre, whose home this district still is, it is so ebullient and desirous of being loved that it is impossible not to love it back, because it seethes with that rare thing in days of ennui: enthusiasm. It is Judy Garland before the drugs won out and Max Bialystock of The Producers before he lost the pearl in his cravat pin and fell to shagging little old ladies to fund bad plays. It is not exactly the fag end of Covent Garden reborn – we need ragged parishes in over-polished London – but it is more interesting than the awful deadness of the piazza, which is now Westfield-near-Thames. Town is joyful, and London, so wracked with criticism – fumes of self-hatred and decline – needs it. It lives in a red-brick Edwardian building with a grand doorway and pale pediment. It looks like a municipal swimming baths, and there is nothing wrong with that: every street should have one, as we only bother to remember during heatwaves, by which time it is too late to do anything about it. Inside, it is Star Wars meets Trash Disco: a Death Star ceiling; a bizarre oval central bar in apple green; shining red pillars; yellow glass partitions; chairs in cream and beige, because more colour would blow the diner's head off, and that is what the alcohol – this is also a serious bar – is for. The designer, who is clearly a madman in the style of Augustus Pugin, also did Ambassadors Clubhouse off Regent Street. He thinks minimalism is disgusting, and this is fine. Who can cope with minimalism in wretched days? To me, civilisation is a white dwarf star: it brightens before it explodes. Here we have expertise in service. The waiting staff are, to a woman, excellent: capable, beautiful and kind. They are like idealised nurses, or mothers. They are not young, which I appreciate, because I am not young either, and what ecstasy the colour-blocking in the room exudes, they match in flesh. Town, like a West End show – this is explicitly dining as theatre, it hums with pleasure – is well-reviewed. They know they have a hit, and they meet it. For £150 for two (including a lot of alcohol) you sit in the stalls. The food is from Stevie Parle of Joy at Portobello. I have eaten predictable, overpriced food in recent months – in a room decorated like a country house I narrowly avoided a plate of duck for £52, which is neurotic and absurd – but this has real love in it, and it feels both familiar and weird, as good food should. If it has a genre – though it seems to defy one – it is modern Mediterranean with seams of British flesh. We eat an immense round potato sourdough loaf with bone-marrow gravy and a sprig of rosemary as thick as a human finger, and then fall to meat: beautiful, creamy Coombeshead-cured mangalitsa shoulder; wine-cured wild-farmed beef with candied walnuts and cheese whizz, lying like a pliant animal in a garden; a fine, plain rump steak; duck and Amarone pappardelle, with cinnamon, chilli, juniper and smoked almond, prettier than it should be; beef-fat pink fir potatoes, which we could not eat because the colour-blocking had overstimulated us and we ordered too much. This is as good as food gets in London, and it is served with charming, if dystopic, mania. Go to Town before it explodes.
Telegraph
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Producers: What you need to know about the side-splitting musical comedy in the West End and how to find tickets
Mel Brooks's legendary musical comedy is back – and it's definitely not pulling its punches. This laugh-a-minute backstage show, set in 1959, follows an odd-couple pair of con artists, failing theatre producer Max Bialystock and timid accountant Leo Bloom, who team up to defraud investors by staging a deliberately terrible Broadway musical. It's totally outrageous showbiz satire, from the duo's chosen play, Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden, created by a deranged ex-Nazi soldier, to the flamboyant director and increasingly madcap rehearsal hijinks. By the time we reach the infamous Springtime for Hitler musical number, audiences are reduced to helpless hysterics. The Producers won a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards for its original Broadway run in 2001, and was also a massive success in the West End in 2004, starring Nathan Lane and Lee Evans. It has since been staged frequently, but this is the first time we've seen it in London since that initial run. Patrick Marber's smash-hit revival at the Menier Chocolate Factory is now transferring to the Garrick Theatre in the West End for a much-anticipated encore, starring Andy Nyman and Marc Antolin. How to buy tickets for The Producers You can find seats for the London production of The Producers on Telegraph Tickets. Check the site for the latest prices. The cast The fabulously outlandish roles in The Producers are a treat for actors. The original 1967 movie version starred Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, succeeded by Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick for the stage musical version. Subsequent casts have included Roger Bart, Cory English, Reece Shearsmith and Jason Manford. Now Andy Nyman has his turn as the colourful Max Bialystock. Nyman was nominated for an Olivier Award for Fiddler on the Roof, appeared in the Wicked movie, and co-created the play Ghost Stories. The cast also features Marc Antolin (Olivier nominated for Little Shop of Horrors) as Leo, plus Trevor Ashley (Hairspray) and Joanna Woodward (The Time Traveller's Wife). The Producers is directed by Patrick Marber. His writing ranges from TV comedy The Day Today to plays such as Dealer's Choice and Closer. He was Olivier nominated for directing Tom Stoppard's Travesties and won a Tony for directing Stoppard's Leopoldstadt. The details Where is The Producers playing? The Producers runs at the Garrick Theatre on Charing Cross Road, which is close to Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, and other theatres in London's West End. What is the running time of The Producers? The running time of The Producers is 2 hours and 30 minutes, including an interval. How long is The Producers running for? The Producers is booking to July 19, 2025. What is the minimum age for The Producers? The age recommendation for The Producers is 10+. Does The Producers have accessible tickets? Yes, the show has captioned, BSL and audio-described performances scheduled. Find more information on the theatre website. The review
