Writer and Director: Matt Littleson
If there was ever a show of two halves it is this one. The title, One Night With Robbie Williams, is tenuous and the majority of the narrative is slight, and unexciting. However, the last 10 minutes is worth sticking around for, because here the writing finally blazes.
We meet Dorothy at a job interview. She appears nervous and clumsy. But within a few minutes, Dorothy reveals another side. She is forthright to the point of being rude when she’s required to list her strengths and weaknesses. Asking her prospective boss his age and then commenting on his early balding is an unlikely scenario and seems designed purely to bring in some cheap laughs. More interesting are her one-sided argument with her ex on the tube, and her night out clubbing, but the comedy is too broad and the story is paper-thin.
Attempting to give Dorothy some delineation is Megan Henson and, in the main, she is successful and the little flourishes of physical comedy such as when she stalks her ex through the underground system add some lightness to proceedings. But Dorothy is hard to like, and the script compels Henson to shout her way towards the finish.
Fortunately, this is not the end and the final scene comes as a shock, arriving out of the blue from another play entirely. Matt Littleson’s writing is now elegant and evocative, and Henson is so utterly convincing that it brings tears to the eyes. Of course, a large part of this scene’s power is down to fact that it comes as a surprise, but perhaps these closing moments should be signposted earlier on in the show to make sure the audience doesn’t tune out completely from the otherwise bland story based on Dorothy’s day.
The surprise is welcome, of course, but such a sudden change needs to be embedded more securely in the play to make the two sections feel part of the same whole. At the moment, the show is like a Gary Barlow concert, only exciting when Robbie Williams appears as special guest right at the end.
Reviewed on 31 March 2022
