Joe Penhall’s play about the music industry has officially opened at the Old Vic Theatre. Here’s what critics have been saying about it…
The Stage: **** “Penhall puts the musical idea of tension and resolution into his characters to create a fascinating, quietly gripping examination of creativity and everything that goes with it.”
The Arts Desk: “Mood Music is a compelling play, that positively sings with great lines and throws Cat’s raw idealism against Bernard’s manipulative pragmatism.”
The Independent: **** “Roger Michell’s production has an incisive musical elegance.”
WhatsOnStage: *** “At its best, Mood Music is a fairly galling, and probably very astute dissection of a business which co-modifies creativity and makes a huge packet off the back of it.”
Broadway World: *** ” Roger Michell’s production remains essentially safe, neither offering a provocation to the traditional structures of theatre, nor to the industry it depicts.”
London Theatre.co.uk: *** “It tells a predictable story unpredictably, and is full of keen observations about the arrested emotional development of celebrities and how artistic collaborations are both forged and destroyed.”
Time Out: *** “Still, if it’s not perfect, it’s certainly impressively in tune with the current climate – no difficult comeback album for Penhall.”
British Theatre Guide: “By the end of what can be a fairly traumatic but absolutely gripping evening with full-on depictions of age and gender discrimination leading to visible distress, viewers will have obtained a much better understanding of the music industry, humanity in the raw and the sad fates of Amy Winehouse and her ilk when the dream goes sour.”
The Times: **** “Riff on the music biz never hits a false note.”
The Guardian: **** “this is a fine play that raises a host of issues without ever trying to resolve them.”
Mood Music will play at the Old Vic Theatre until the 16th June 2018. To book tickets click here or visit: Ticketmaster.co.uk, See Tickets.com, Last Minute.com, Theatre Tickets Direct.co.uk, Love Theatre.com and Encore Tickets.