Review Roundup: West End's WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, opened last night, January 12 at London's Playhouse Theatre after beginning previews last month, stars Tamsin Greig,Haydn Gwynne, Jérôme Pradon,Anna Skellern, Ricardo Afonso, Haydn Oakley, Willemijn Verkaik and Seline Hizli.

On the streets of Madrid, a city pulsing with art, industry and passion, Pepa's world is unravelling. Her lover leaves her. And then she meets his wife. And his son. And his new girlfriend. Meanwhile, Pepa's best friend is tangled up in her own romantic crisis with a suspected criminal, leaving Pepa with only the taxi driver to help navigate the Gran Vía ahead.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Henry HItchings, Evening Standard: In the first half the show itself teeters on the verge of a nervous breakdown, with an especially uncertain opening number. Bartlett Sher's production takes too long to look fully at ease. The score is by David Yazbek - who also provides lyrics, while the book is by Jeffrey Lane - and though it pulses with Latin rhythms and clever twists, there aren't enough genuinely flavoursome tunes. Thanks to a fizzier and more fluent second half this is a musical that leaves one feeling well entertained. But even if its vitality in the end proves charming, the journey is a rather bumpy one.

Michael Billington, Guardian: Clearly the makers of the musical have decided that songs will intensify the story's emotion. So Pepa is allowed to spell out her crisis in On the Verge and the model, Candela, sings of her problems in becoming a terrorist's moll (a tricky number in the present situation). But, although David Yazbek's Hispanic-flavoured music and lyrics are perfectly proficient, only one song genuinely enhances the situation. Invisible, sung by Haydn Gwynne as Ivan's recently incarcerated ex-wife, Lucia, memorably charts the way society treats discarded middle-aged women as pariahs. Even though Gwynne sports a striking pink Courrèges outfit, the costume itself becomes a symbol of Lucia's desperate desire for attention.

Sarah Hemming, Financial Times: Most important, it thrusts the onus on to the cast to draw out the bruised feelings behind the fizzing disarray. Greig brings her touching tragicomic expertise to Pepa and a rich, rough emotional truth to her musical solos. Gwynne is superb as the ex-wife and her painful song about the invisibility of middle-aged women gets to the heart of the show. It's still a little stiff and uneasy: the madcap pace feels particularly forced at the outset. In fact the team could go further in surrendering the style to the surreal logic of the plot: we are accustomed to mashed-up classics. But this becomes a joyous evening: an affectionate, poignant and defiant tribute to female resilience.

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail: Tamsin Greig's brilliant public persona, ineffably sardonic with that nasal voice and insistent gazelle face, may outwardly be all wrong for a comedy set in post-Franco Madrid. Yet her stage presence proves irresistible. As for the gross gender stereotypes, this show may irk the more mirthless egalitarians but in the end it becomes a cheerful, life-affirming lament about sisterly solidarity in the face of rotten, beastly men. Magnifico!

Dominic Cavendish, Telegraph: David Yazbek's warm, Latin American-flavoured music and lyrics sometimes incline to the generic, the words a paella of yesterday's left-over sentiments but the way it's all served up, you don't especially notice. And it never proves like the Valium-saturated gazpacho that provides a pivotal chemical plot-twist to the farce-like action. Instead, no, against the odds, this is an real Madrid tonic.

Paul Taylor, Independent: There's a wonderfully jabbing end-of-the-tether quality to the Act One finale ("Welcome to the edge, the verge, the ledge") where Greig, in specially trained and remarkably serviceable voice, is joined by the rest of the teetering brigade. And Haydn Gwynne is bliss as the bonkers Lucia, a mad Fury swathed in the 1960s outfits (including a lunatic pink Jackie Kennedy number) that pre-dated the incarceration caused by her husband's desertion, but hauntingly communicating in "Invisible", which is the best song of the evening, the tragic price she has paid for this long suspension of time.

Photo Credit: Alastair Muir

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