Review: Fatal Attraction at the Theatre Royal Haymarket

Fatal Attraction

Theatre Royal Haymarket

Reviewed on Wednesday 26th March 2014

Interestingly, as I took my seat at the stunningly beautiful Theatre Royal Haymarket I was probably one of the few audience members who had never seen the 1987 film of Fatal Attraction starring Michael Douglas, Glenn Close and Anne Archer.

You don't need to have seen the film to know the iconic story about Alex Forrest who becomes obsessed with successful New York lawyer Dan Gallagher after they spend a weekend together. Dan thinks he can just return to his wife and kid as if nothing happened, but Alex has other ideas. Despite not having seen the movie I was very familiar with the story so didn't quite find myself sitting on the edge of my seat.

Mark Bazeley plays Dan Gallagher and directly addresses the audience between scenes, justifying his actions and moving the story forward. However, he struggles to build up any sort of relationship with the audience; these sections aren't cringey but they don't do their job. Elsewhere I struggled to feel compassion for either Natascha McElhone who plays a manipulative Alex Forrest from the start or Dan's wife, Beth, who is too shallowly perfect - which is no fault of Kristin Davis who gives a good performance.

Rob Jones' design is glorious and smoothly flows in and out, unlike the story which lacks fluidity. Perhaps Trevor Nunn's production tries to follow the film too closely and is struggling to establish itself as a piece of theatre in its own right. It's much harder to adapt a film into a strong play, personally I think movie to musical adaptations are often more successful.

Why would anybody go and see this play when you can simply watch the film again for considerably less money? Because it's a safe option! Fatal Attraction will attract new audiences to the theatre which is no bad thing, and while it is far from groundbreaking it has been staged with class and is a high quality production. The second act is stronger, the suspense is built up carefully and the audience become suitably responsive. I'm sure those who passionately love the film will very much enjoy seeing the story brought to life on stage.

Reviewed by Andrew Tomlins (Editor)

Fatal Attraction runs at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until Saturday 21st June 2014.
Click here to book tickets.

Photo Credit:  Tristram Kenton

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