After nearly a week of staggered press performances, and one starry gala evening, the reviews are now out for the West End transfer for The Elephant Man, which is now running for a limited 12-week season until 8 August 2015 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Scott Ellis‘ production already comes trailing four Tony Awards nominations – including Best Revival of a Play and Best Actor for Hollywood film star Bradley Cooper – and a huge demand for tickets.
London critics, by and large, are impressed by the performance by Hollywood hunk Cooper, who transforms himself into the tragically disfigured Joseph Merrick, but rather less so by Bernard Pomerance‘s 1977 play, which many now consider dated.
But when you have a Hollywood star making their West End debut, especially one so stratospherically high as Cooper is now, and with:
- a Russian model girlfriend (and ex of footballer Cristiana Ronaldo) in tow;
- less than a week to go before the Tony Awards are announced (this Sunday 7 June)
- a new blockbuster film out …
… reviews are only ever going to make the smallest impact at the box office. The run was extended pre-opening and many performances are already sold out. So what should you know about The Elephant Man, Bradley, girlfriend Irina Shayk, the film Aloha and more? Read on.
OVERNIGHT REVIEWS
Quentin Letts: From the moment he assumes Merrick’s lopsided stance, Cooper becomes Elephant Man totally… The show may not be five-star material but his performance lifts it into the top division.
Paul Taylor: Cooper is every bit as good as the vast majority of reviewers claimed when Scott Ellis’s fine production opened on Broadway… Wonderfully humane yet wholly unsanctimonious.
Michael Billington: Cooper is very good indeed as the eponymous hero. Eschewing medical realism, he simply evokes the malformations of Joseph Merrick’s body… You long to see him in classic roles.
Ben Lawrence: Bradley Cooper is a revelation… The Hollywood actor shows theatrical prowess but he’s let down by a sluggish production of Bernard Pomerance’s play.
Natasha Tripney: Despite the big names, this is an underpowered account of the life of Joseph Merrick… Cooper does alter his whole physicality. But it can’t help but feel like an actor’s exercise.
Stu Black: Celebrity-led West End theatre is often underwhelming but American actor Bradley Cooper is by far the best thing about this stiff production. He excels in a dated play.
INTERVIEWS
There has been a rush on tickets, on the back of the play’s success at New York’s Booth Theatre – where it became their first production to gross more than $1 million in a week.
Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper has to hang upside down on an inversion table to straighten his back after playing Joseph Merrick on stage every night in the West End.
As the American actress prepares to bare all on the West End stage in The Elephant Man, after her Broadway success, she tells Jasper Rees how she was wooed by her leading man.
GIRLFRIEND GOSSIP
Bradley Cooper keeps a cap on while sitting and watching the French Open tennis match on Sunday in Paris, France. The 40-year-old Aloha actor was joined by some pals and must have…
Bradley Cooper’s new girlfriend Irina Shayk attended a London showing of The Elephant Man Tuesday night. The Daily Mail has pics of the 29-year-old Russian model…
Bradley Cooper not only has found a new love in Irina Shayk, but also a big fan! The supermodel, 29, was spotted leaving the Theatre Royal Haymarket…
Bradley Cooper and his girlfriend Irina Shayk took over the West End opening night party with their glamorous appearances. Looks like the ex girlfriend of Cristiano Ronaldo and…
He’s the latest big Hollywood star to hit London’s West End, and Bradley Cooper is going down a storm with his Brit fans. The actor was greeted by a huge crowd as he left the theatre…
Cooper and Irina Shayk tried to keep a low profile at a recent black-tie gala in New York, but were later seen “making out” in a dark corner at Rihanna’s afterparty “till 3 or 4 in the morning”.
TONY AWARD CHANCES
Among movie star nominees, Helen Mirren looks good to win for The Audience, but Bradley Cooper, nominated for The Elephant Man, finds himself in a much more competitive race for Best Actor.
Their faces grace the covers of national magazines, and heads turn when they walk down the street. But this season, they threw themselves into Broadway plays now in the Tony running.
FOUL FILM NOTICES FOR ‘ALOHA’
“Where to begin with Aloha? Begin by not going to the movie,” one disappointed critic writes. 10 stinker reviews of Cameron Crowe’s rom-com stars Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams.
Let me say right up front that I will always root for Cameron Crowe. That’s the kind of blunt, sincere, slightly inappropriate statement one of his characters might blurt out at an odd moment.
Get Tony nominated, make your West End debut in a London transfer: by press standards, it’s still just a drop in the ocean of noise generated by the release of a new Hollywood film, even a bad one.
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