Clementine Scott — Theater Critic

This is a promising premise, but the play, despite updates to the script for this revival, falls strangely flat. The two ambitious female characters articulate two opposite responses to racism and misogyny in their profession, but in practice, they often fall into Devil Wears Prada-esque stereotypes of the mentor and protege, never dropping the facade they wear at work. In one of several odd pacing choices in this script, crucial elements of their personal histories are withheld until the eleventh hour, so that when we finally start to understand these characters, we have barely any time left with them.

Both Andrews’s Electra and his Persona could more than stand on their own as imaginative takes on seminal texts that reward those with knowledge of the source material. But the production’s real strength is in the elegant parallels it draws, to form a new whole that enriches and enhances the work of both Sophocles and Bergman.

The script – by Every Brilliant Thing writer Duncan MacMillan – has a lot of heavy lifting to do to explain all this to those who may be rusty on their Westerosi history, and occasionally slips into clunky exposition, with characters stating their names, hopes, dreams and painful backstories as though in an introductory therapy session.

The metatheatrical style of Midnight feels perfect for someone like Platt, who may be exceptionally talented and the most memorable musical theatre voice of his generation, but possesses a distinctive, vibrato-laden voice that can divide opinion. This is a show where he can play something of a caricature of an esoteric well-known performer, all while indulging his voice’s rich emotional potential and natural comic timing in Mark Sonnenblick’s songs.

Pike is an inherently physical performer, and flaws in the script are glossed over by her constant bounding around the set, morphing from courtroom gravitas to dinner party femininity and back again. Though Glover and McAlinden do get revealing character moments towards the end of the play, this is effectively a one-woman show – an extended monologue, in which Pike lays bare Jessica's powers of observation and hypervigilance about factors outside her control.