Ruth Leon’s Pocket Reviews

Nobody could describe The Third Man, the new musical at the Menier Chocolate Factory, as joyous. If you know the movie, you know the setting – Vienna, immediately after WW2.

Dark, damp, full of characters you’d rather not meet even in daylight. There’s a creepy doctor, a creepy Baron, a creepy porter, and a nightclub singer so deeply depressed you think she’s going to expire right in front of you. Taking on all of these is an American writer looking for his best friend, Harry Lime, who seems to have disappeared. Or perhaps he’s dead.

The Third Man, while blessed with a lot of high-class creative talent – the book and lyrics are by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, music is by George Fenton and the director is Trevor Nunn – is regrettably undercast. A few stars or highly experienced West End performers might make the thriller and musical aspects work better.

Without Orson Welles to add the charisma and the menace, we find we don’t really care whether Harry is alive or dead.

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