Theatre Reviews: Here We Are; House of Games
Risk and reward in Sondheim and Mamet
This week's Substack is being written from a train heading up to Sheffield. The illusion that I’m an important businessman writing important business documents is only shattered by me spilling coffee down myself.
In addition to the two shows I talk about below, I saw Tim Crouch's An Oak Tree at the Young Vic but I’ll save that experience for a dedicated post next week.
Here We Are - National Theatre, Lyttelton
book by David Ives
music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
inspired by the films of Luis Buñuel
2 hours 25 minutes
My only previous theatrical experience with Sondheim was seeing Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe in Merrily We Roll Along on Broadway last year. To survive New York prices I was sat at the very back of the theatre watching a tiny postage stamp of a musical. For the UK debut of Sondheim's final musical, his death in 2021 making that pretty absolute, I squeezed myself into the “slightly too close” cheap seats right at the front of the Lyttleton stage at the National Theatre. This proved to be a smart choice as rather than a production packed with wild choreography and show-stopping numbers, Here We Are is a much more surreal show in which the music stops half-way through.
The plot is based on two surrealist films by Luis Buñuel; The Exterminating Angel and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. It follows a group of wildly privileged New Yorkers as they search for a place to have brunch while the world around them shows signs of ending. After a day spent in pursuit of something to eat they retire to the Morandan Embassy (don't ask) for dinner and the interval. In the second half the motley crew find themselves unable to compel themselves to leave the room despite the door being wide open. At this point the music all but disappears, and the musical shift into the sort of surreal satire you might expect from Caryl Churchill, rather than from Sondheim's final hurrah.
The off-kilter energy of this musical is not unwelcome but is uneven and hard to settle into. The two halves of the musical / play have completely different energies; betraying the fact that each act is inspired by a different film, and that Sondheim passed away before the show was truly finished. As a result the musical feels almost avant-garde and considering this is event theatre, there is a surprisingly high level of risk in staging such an odd piece of theatre. As a result other reviews of this production cover the full range of star ratings.
The cast are similarly split into two camps. On the one side we have some pretty big names from the American stage and small screen in Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ally McBeal / 30 Rock / Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s Jane Krakowski. On the other we have UK theatre darlings Tracie Bennett, Chumisa Dornford-May, Richard Fleeshman, and the eternal everyman Rory Kinnear. Bridging the gap are Martha Plimpton and Denis O'Hare who have somehow balanced American TV careers with occasional appearances on the London stage. It’s a trans-Atlantic cast; eclectic, accomplished, and wildly skilled.
My personal highlight was seeing Jane Krakowski make her National Theatre debut after almost three decades of watching her on TV. Sadly the odd nature of this particular show meant that she was mostly leaning on her comedy chops rather than belting out any new musical classics.
It's undeniable that this is a landmark show; Sondheim's final musical can only debut once. But as a new musical opening at the National Theatre it is also undeniable that Here We Are doesn't quite come together. Perhaps it was never really finished; perhaps it just isn't Sondheim's best work. Whatever the case this show is an imperfect experiment, both an unmissable theatrical event, and a moderately underwhelming one.
One for the Sondheim completists. Or the Ally McBeal die-hards.
Seat: Stalls, D8 - £25
One option for cheap seats in the Lyttleton is to sit in the front four rows. You sacrifice an armrest and any rake in favour of staring directly into the actors' eyes. One caveat for this production is that you will also be sat very close to the orchestra and at times that means the lyrics getting drowned out.
Show: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Seat: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
Here We Are runs until 28th June 2025.
House of Games - Hampstead Theatre, Main Stage
BASED ON THE SCREENPLAY BY DAVID MAMET
STORY BY DAVID MAMET AND JONATHAN KATZ
STAGE VERSION BY RICHARD BEAN
DIRECTED BY JONATHAN KENT
1 hour 45 minutes
Since ranting about the recent decline in quality at the Hampstead Theatre last month, I feel self conscious about reviewing any new show there. I have put too much pressure on each new production being the one that proves that they have turned things around. I am pleased to report that House of Games on their main stage is a perfectly enjoyable way to spend an evening, but doesn't succeed in dismissing my concerns entirely.
I am less pleased to report that the man selling gyoza out front had a seven-minute wait when I arrived. I settled for a salmon bagel in the theatre café instead and tried not to let this affect my enjoyment of the show.
House of Games is a revival of Richard Bean's 2010 adaptation of David Mamet's 1987 film. As a result, it's also a clear example of the theatre's abandoned commitment to new writing. What this delivers in 2025 is a bit of a throwback; a play about con artists filled with twists, scoundrels, and a dame out of her depth. There's sex and violence, but all relatively bloodless, and menacing dialogue is quickly offset with witty asides. House of Games is here to deliver a fun night at the theatre, and there's nothing wrong with that.
House of Games follows Dr Margaret Ford (Lisa Dillon), a psychoanalyst and successful author, as she tries to settle a patient's gambling debts and instead finds herself falling for his creditor, a con artist named Mike (Richard Harrington). With alarming speed Margaret decides to make Mike and his team the focus of her next book of pop-psychology and rapidly enters their world of lies, tricks, and deception.
There's not much more I can say about the plot as this territory comes with an obligatory series of twists and double-crossings. The rest of the production is polished if unremarkable. The set is an impeccable recreation of a dive bar, the cast are all gamely leaning into their American accents, and, with no interval, the plot zips along nicely despite some scenes feeling a bit stilted. I was back out into the warmth of Swiss Cottage in less than two hours. The gyoza man was nowhere to be seen.
House of Games is unremarkable but perfectly serviceable. While Here We Are aims high and doesn't quite reach, House of Games sets its sights on “perfectly fine” and nails it.
Seat: Stalls, B5 - £25
Again, I took the cheaper seats that were “too close” and I have no regrets. A few scenes take place in an office that sits above the main stage and required some neck craning but I will accept the sore neck in return for the money saved.
Show: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Seat: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
House of Games runs until 7th June 2025.
All three of those Ally McBeal completists