Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Adapted by Richard Greenberg from the novella by Truman Capote Director: Nikolai Foster Theatre Royal Haymarket, London SW1 (020-7930 8800) Until 17 September, then on tour Running time: 2hrs 30mins (including interval)
Its producers have made rather a meal of opening this new stage version of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the 1958 Truman Capote novella immortalised by the 1961 film, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. It began its life in Leicester in March, and after “yonks on tour” and a month into a West End run – with the popstrel Pixie Lott as New York girl-about-town Holly Golightly – we critics have finally been let in. So what were they worried about? Not the lead performance. The 25-year-old acquits herself “commendably well in a part that requires her to carry a tune (tick), sustain an American accent (tick), and generally look rather fabulous (double-tick)”. No one will win any acting awards here, but Lott has a nice line in “flashing smiles, pouting lips and raising her eyebrows in an attitude of coquettish amusement”.
It’s not enough, said Michael Billington in The Guardian. Lott is a “musician to her fingertips”, and it would be good to see her in a role that gives fuller rein to her voice, but as an actor she has yet to learn the “art of repose”. She does “more costume changes than Danny La Rue”, she nicely conveys Holly’s instinctive sexual ardour – but she is never still. And “she never really captures Holly’s childlike innocence or suggests the hillbilly origins under the character’s sophisticated veneer”.
The much bigger problem is the “dreary” script, said Fiona Mountford in the London Evening Standard. Greenberg goes back to the original novella, so there’s no will-they-won’tthey romance between Holly and writer neighbour Fred (Matt Barber). He’s probably gay (“the script shoehorns this in none too elegantly”), and it’s hard to believe in theirs as one of the great friendships. “Even the cat looks distinctly underwhelmed by the whole thing.” Some “pruning” is also needed, said Holly Williams in The Independent. And some rather cartoonish supporting performances unbalance things: “Holly needs to be the exceptionally bright spark, not one of a cast of crazy characters.”