“Three cheers for Terry Gilliam!” – rave reviews for a musical the Old Vic tried to cancel

Last year, the Old Vic cancelled Monty Python star Terry Gilliam’s production of the Stephen Sondheim musical,?Into the Woods , after the venue’s sensitive younger theatre staff – along with a group of ‘emerging artists’ recruited to the theatre’s?Old Vic 12 ?project – said his perfectly lawful views on trans rights made them feel “uncomfortable” (Times ). The decision to cancel Gilliam came shortly after the acclaimed film director committed the “unspeakable crime” – as he himself put it sarcastically (Independent ) – of [gasp!] taking to Facebook to defend artistic freedom of expression and throw his weight behind “socially aware, dangerously provocative and gut-wrenchingly funny” African American comic Dave Chappelle, before urging people to [splutter!] watch his contentious Netflix show.

Responding to his cancellation, Gilliam said it was “very sad that a great cultural institution like the Old Vic allowed itself to be intimidated into cancelling our production”. Likening the younger members of staff who lobbied Old Vic bosses to scrap his show to “Neo-Calvinists”, he added: “They are totally closed-minded. [To them] there is only one truth and one way of looking at the world. Well, ‘f*** you!’ is my answer to them.” (Times ).

Fortunately, on the morning that news of Gilliam’s cancellation broke, Danny Moar, the Director of Bath’s Theatre Royal (and Stephen Sondheim devotee), stepped in to save the day and show a bit of “theatre solidarity”. (Times ).

According to the?Times ?theatre critic, Quentin Letts, the resulting production is a “joy” to behold. No doubt it will be “sickening” for London’s Old Vic to hear this, he sighs (with perhaps a little more glee than is strictly compatible with regret), but the fact is that the show is a “success”. For a few days after the Old Vic theatre cancelled Gilliam’s production, “it seemed the gatekeepers of the arts had demonstrated a Stalinist power to suppress free speech”. Thanks to the quick-thinking of Bath’s Theatre Royal, however, “Stalinism proves as porous as the Maginot Line”. Letts then recounts how “at the finale there [was] not only the usual vibe about humanity defying adversity but also of theatre solidarity seeing off the wicked witch of wokery”.

“Three cheers for Terry Gilliam” and his “visually astonishing” musical, says the?Telegraph ’s Chief Theatre Critic, Dominic Cavendish: “For reasons of artistic self-expression alone, it’s a must-support rather than a mere must-see.”?

“Gloating may be unseemly,” writes Patrick Marmion for the?Mail , “but Terry Gilliam?has earned the right to crow about his stunning new production of Sondheim’s fairy-tale musical.” It is a “relief”, he adds, “to see that artistic merit can still triumph over small minds”.

Speaking of which, any members of the public wishing to see something a little more “comfortable” this autumn than a camp, funny, dark, rollickingly good musical co-directed by a man who occasionally recommends comedic content to his Facebook followers, might like to consider the Old Vic’s forthcoming?Whose Planet Are You On??Staged to mark International Day of Climate Action 2022, the production “brings together four monologues exploring the impact of individual actions and the force of collective responsibility on the future of our planet”. Tickets still available (lots and lots).

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