The Crucible: Just How Does it Stack Up With the Competition?

Guest post from KatharineD, comparing the reviews of The Crucible to other theater from this season.

Source:The Old Vic email newsletter

As the press reviews for The Crucible started to pile up on Friday 4th July, the day after opening night, it became clear that the result was better than could ever have been reasonably expected. All day Friday, I struggled to keep up with the flow, as one review after another appeared online. The Telegraph- 5 stars, The Times, The Guardian, Time Out, and The Evening Standard, all followed suit with the same rating – five stars. Waiting for   The Independent,  the last important review to make its tardy appearance, reminded me of the night The Return Of The King was raking in Academy Awards, and no one wanted the run of success to come to an abrupt halt. Gratifyingly, Paul Taylor from The Independent agreed with his fellow reviewers from the other important print outlets, and also awarded the production 5 stars.

Once the initial, heady euphoria died down, I began to wonder just what six 5 star reviews actually signified- how common an occurrence was this in the English theatre scene, where important theater  is judged to be some of the best in the world?

I’d read that Michael Billington of The Guardian, rarely hands out 5 stars, so I thought it would be interesting to search The Guardian to see how many productions Billington had awarded a top rating to this year. Out of an astonishing 102 stage reviews from January through to 3rd July this year, just four were considered worthy of 5 stars, Versailles, Testament Of Mary, Skylight and The Crucible. I tracked the success of the other three shows against the ratings they garnered from the remaining big five print outlets, and none came close. Skylight, starring Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan, managed three 5 star reviews.

Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan in Skylight

I recalled the rave reviews I’d been reading about A View From The Bridge, starring Mark Strong and Nicola Walker, which ended it’s run at the Young Vic in June. It seemed apt to compare two recent Arthur Miller productions, staged in twin theatres; it was also extremely well regarded, and as it happens, The Guardian was it’s only 4 star review amongst a sea of 5’s. Almost as good as The Crucible, but not quite.

Nicola Walker & Mark Strong in A View From the Bridge

Other Desert Cities  staged this season at the The Old Vic received 4 stars across the board.

What if we were to take a look at the critical success of Coriolanus, staged late last year at the Donmar, with Tom Hiddleston headlining the cast? A number of people I know either saw the production in person, or in the broadcast at the cinema, and thought very highly of it- all the major reviewers gave it 4 star.

Similarly, the critics gave four stars to the Sam Mendes directed King Lear starring the acclaimed stage actor Simon Russell Beale, earlier this year at The National.

No doubt it’s partly due to the uncommon run of 5 star reviews for The Crucible that  prompted the article by Mark Shenton in The Stage, ‘Are Critics Too Generous’, which Perry discussed a couple of days ago here . Just exactly how uncommon unanimous 5 star reviews are,  I haven’t ascertained, but clearly those six reviewers saw something in Yael Farber’s staging of The Crucible that they felt set it apart from other critically acclaimed productions and was deserving of 5 stars.