Nell Gwynn

Usually when one goes to see something at theatre which has consistently rave reviews you feel fairly sure you are going to enjoy it. This one I am afraid left me cold. I really can't see what the fuss is about.

Yes Gemma Arterton is very good, she can act sing dance be funny. But the problem is entirely with the play, but the performance. It is not funny enough to be a farce, not serious enough to take an interest in or even think about the era in which it was set, and the musical/dance numbers only serve to break the flow, not add light relief. The fact that it is well done doesn't excuse the poor premise. But its not even all that well done. Most of the comedy is really at the puerile end of he scale. And the casting is most peculiar. Not least the very short Asian girl playing the tall buxom Nell's sister. Surely the least alike sisters on earth. If you are really not intent on making anything credible in the slightest, why put them in period dress at all and not just jeans and t-shirts.

One feels the critics were smitten by Gemma's most obviously attractive features and that taking the mick out of the manners of the aristocracy is in vogue, as is bawdiness if its set in the 17th century, but not the 21st which would be non-PC.