Should A Critic Review An Unfinished Performance?

A critic should stay sober, stay awake and stay to the end. But what if it ends early?

A funny thing happened at the theatre on Thursday night. Or rather a funny thing should have happened and didn't. It was the press night of A Christmas Carol (ish), Ted Lasso star Nick Mohammed’s quirky song and dance spoof of Scrooge in which he takes the lead role in the guise of his regular hapless character Mr Swallow (pictured below as Santa, picture by Matt Crockett).

There was a star-studded audience in attendance, from Lasso cast members to Ghosts cast members (Ghosts' Martha Howe-Douglas is in the show) to Martin Freeman and Jack Whitehall. After a short delay the show started and looked great. And then it stopped as Howe-Douglas (pictured below with Mohammed, picture by Matt Crockett), David Elms and Kieran Hodgson as Scrooge's elf-like serfs were wrapping presents.

Had I stumbled into a performance of The Play That Goes Wrong by mistake? After a lengthy delay due to a software problem the first act resumed. All was looking good at the interval. Until instead of the second half starting the lights came up. There was still a problem and the second half was cancelled.

So as the audience headed for the bar where did that leave the critics who were due to file their reviews? I went home and planned to file as I had been commissioned. As I was about to hit send I saw an late-night email saying that there would be another press night arranged at a later date.

So. To file or not to file, that was the question. Or, to put it another way. I sent the review, explained the situation to the office and let the Standard decide. They removed my four star rating and ran it.

I assumed other critics would do the same, so I was surprised when the next day my review was the only one that appeared.

It was a glowing review of what I'd seen, and, having seen a version of the show in 2022 I had a pretty good idea of how the second half would pan out. Was I wrong to review?

I've heard stories in the past of a critic, no longer in the reviewing game, who had a habit of leaving in the interval, having made his mind up about the performance. I do think this is clearly wrong.

I've heard it said that the minimal requirement for reviewing is "stay sober, stay awake and stay to the end". But I've also heard that critics should not reference the second half of a performance to avoid spoilers. So how important is seeing the second half?

Maybe seeing the first half was enough in this case. That's how I felt anyway. Though had I thought that the show was a stinker maybe I'd have been reluctant to file the review as perhaps it would have redeemed itself after the half-time oranges.

There's another question though. Should a critic who is commissioned to write a review but can't through no fault of his own be paid the full fee? And would the Standard have been happy to pay me twice if I’d returned on another night? In words that might have cropped up in Ted Lasso, that's a whole other ball game that I'd rather leave to employment lawyers and/or the National Union of Journalists.

The good news is that the technical issues have now been solved. A Christmas Carol (ish) is back on and running at @sohoplace until December 31. It's highly recommended. No half measures. Buy tickets here.

Oh, and here’s the review.