Lily Allen praised for ‘notably confident and scary’ West End debut in 2:22 A Ghost Story as critics laud chilling production for its ‘macabre playfulness’ in first reviews
- The production, which opened at London’s Noel Coward Theatre on August 3, received high praise from critics who praised Allen’s stellar stage presence
- Allen, 36, plays the character Jenny in the supernatural thriller about four friends caught up in a night of high tension
- She is joined on stage by former EastEnders star Jake Wood, City Of Angels actor Hadley Fraser and Julia Chan of Silent House
- The play follows Jenny, who believes her new home is haunted but her husband Sam (Fraser) remains sceptical
- They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren (Chan) and new partner Ben (Wood) and decide to stay awake until 2.22am to discover the truth
Lily Allen has received critical acclaim for her ‘notably confident and scary’ West End debut in 2:22 A Ghost Story.
The production, which opened at London’s Noel Coward Theatre on August 3, received high praise from critics who praised the ‘macabre playfulness’ of the production and Allen’s stellar stage presence.
Allen, 36, plays the character Jenny in the supernatural thriller about four friends caught up in a night of high tension.
Chilling: Lily Allen has received critical acclaim for her ‘notably confident and scary’ West End debut in 2:22 A Ghost Story (pictured on stage on August 5)
She is joined on stage by former EastEnders star Jake Wood, City Of Angels actor Hadley Fraser and Julia Chan of Silent House.
The play follows Jenny, who believes her new home is haunted but her husband Sam (Fraser) remains sceptical.
They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren (Chan) and new partner Ben (Wood) and decide to stay awake until 2.22am to discover the truth.
Allen saw praise for her ability to ‘scream at the screech of a fox’ and for her memorable stage presence from Daily Mail critic Patrick Marmion who gave the play four stars.
Drama: The production, which opened at London’s Noel Coward Theatre on August 3, received high praise from critics who praised the ‘macabre playfulness’ of the production and Allen’s stellar stage presence (above with Hadley Fraser as Lily’s character Jenny’s husband Sam)
He wrote: ‘It’s a case of following the formula to deliver the goose bumps. But deliver she does. She can scream at the screech of a fox and she can do furious flare-ups too – 0-60 in a fraction of a second.
‘She pays careful attention to the action, she has terrific stage presence and only bumps into the furniture on cue.
‘Likewise, Matthew Dunster’s production lays on a few too many Hammer Horror thunderclaps and fox screeches. But he certainly has us screaming and laughing by turns as a digital clock counts down.
‘Did it refrigerate my vertebra too? You betcha!’
Telegraph critic Fiona Mountford gave the performance four out of five stars, writing: ‘As the lead in this new ghost story from Danny Robins, creator of the international hit podcast The Battersea Poltergeist, the hope was that Allen would scare the life out of theatregoers, but in all the right ways.
Haunting: Allen, 36, plays the character Jenny in the supernatural thriller about four friends caught up in a night of high tension – she is joined on stage by former EastEnders star Jake Wood, City Of Angels actor Hadley and Julia Chan of Silent House.
‘So she does, in a notably confident performance that belies her newcomer status.
Julia Chan was also lauded for her performance, with Mountford adding: ‘It could have been a misguidedly audacious move to deploy a quartet of performers of whom three out of four are making their West End debuts. Yet the four slot together slickly and Chan makes particularly fine work of Lauren’s brittle composure.’
Time Out critic Andrzej Lukowski also gave the play four stars, saying the play had defied his expectations around Allen as an actress and writer Danny Robins’ debut play.
He wrote: ‘Nothing personal against the chart-topping singer (who to be fair has at least dabbled with acting before) but the West End is littered with the bones of forgotten celebrity vanity projects.
View: Telegraph critic Fiona Mountford wrote: ‘A notably confident performance (from Allen) that belies her newcomer status’
‘…And Allen is good! She bring a note of elegant froideur to the otherwise boisterous ensemble as Sam’s wife Jenny, who has just been left alone with her baby daughter in their creepy new fixer-upper while Sam went off on a star-watching trip to the Channel Islands.
Heaping praise on Robins’ writing which he branded ‘alive with wit and tension’, Lukowski wrote: ‘there’s no denying that Allen is the one who’ll put bums on seats. But ‘2:22’ is a rare and precious example of a Good West End Ghost Play – it’s worth seeing regardless of your feelings on its most famous cast member, and it deserves to have a life (afterlife?) beyond her.’
2:22 A Ghost Story – What the critics said
‘It’s a case of following the formula to deliver the goose bumps. But deliver she does. She can scream at the screech of a fox and she can do furious flare-ups too – 0-60 in a fraction of a second.
‘She pays careful attention to the action, she has terrific stage presence and only bumps into the furniture on cue – Daily Mail critic Patrick Marmion
Rating: 
‘There’s no denying that Allen is the one who’ll put bums on seats. But ‘2:22’ is a rare and precious example of a Good West End Ghost Play – it’s worth seeing regardless of your feelings on its most famous cast member, and it deserves to have a life (afterlife?) beyond her – Time Out critic Andrzej Lukowski
Rating:
‘A notably confident performance (from Allen) that belies her newcomer status
‘The four slot together slickly and Chan makes particularly fine work of Lauren’s brittle composure’ – Telegraph critic Fiona Mountford
Rating:
‘The singer is a skittish, magnetic presence as Jenny, a teacher and new mum convinced the London house she and husband Sam are doing up is haunted.
‘Though her performance is both assured and affecting, glamour and curiosity value are of course part of the equation.
‘I kicked myself that I didn’t see the final twist coming, but it’s brilliantly done. This is a superior, knowing piece of genre drama, well-executed, and buoyed up by Allen’s star power and skill. A great, spine-tingling night out’ – Evening Standard critic Nick Curtis
Rating:
‘Allen is slightly stiff as fretful but steely new mother Jenny, she wholly captures the simultaneous fury and vulnerability of a woman whom no one will believe, and there’s a great sly unpredictability about her.
‘Much more than simply a successful first foray into theatre for one British singer, 2: 22 stands on its own merits. Bar a handful of genuinely terrifying moments, it’s hardly The Exorcist but maybe that’s for the best’ – iNews critic Gwendolyn Smyth
Rating:
‘Allen knows her way around a stage and is part of an acting family, so it’s not much of a surprise that this isn’t the deer-in-the-headlights moment some might have feared…
‘But I’m not sure it’s in the best of taste to compare ghosts to refugees, given the very real suffering experienced by the latter, and some of the angst is very clunkily expressed: “I want to be more than just a sponge,” Jenny protests well into the second act, around the same time that we get the cod-philosophical “life is pointless and life is final.” – London Theatre critic Matt Wolf,
Rating: 
Going for it: Time Out critic Andrzej Lukowski also gave the play four stars, saying the play had defied his expectations around Allen as an actress and writer Danny Robins’ debut play
Evening Standard critic Nick Curtis branded Allen’s stage debut ‘spellbinding’ writing: ‘The singer is a skittish, magnetic presence as Jenny, a teacher and new mum convinced the London house she and husband Sam are doing up is haunted.
‘Though her performance is both assured and affecting, glamour and curiosity value are of course part of the equation.
‘I kicked myself that I didn’t see the final twist coming, but it’s brilliantly done. This is a superior, knowing piece of genre drama, well-executed, and buoyed up by Allen’s star power and skill. A great, spine-tingling night out.’
The praise continued for Allen with Annabel Nugent’s four star review in The Independent, with Nugent writing: ‘Allen is superb as Jenny. Exhaustion thrums a fraction below her very palpable fear – just visible enough in her performance to have you questioning Jenny’s version of events. Maybe she is just very tired.
iNews critic Gwendolyn Smyth also gave the play four stars but branded Allen’s performance ‘slightly stiff as fretful but steely new mother Jenny, she wholly captures the simultaneous fury and vulnerability of a woman whom no one will believe, and there’s a great sly unpredictability about her.
‘Much more than simply a successful first foray into theatre for one British singer, 2: 22 stands on its own merits. Bar a handful of genuinely terrifying moments, it’s hardly The Exorcist but maybe that’s for the best.’
The play’s rating dipped with a three star review from London Theatre’s Matt Wolf, who writes: ‘Allen knows her way around a stage and is part of an acting family, so it’s not much of a surprise that this isn’t the deer-in-the-headlights moment some might have feared.,,
‘But I’m not sure it’s in the best of taste to compare ghosts to refugees, given the very real suffering experienced by the latter, and some of the angst is very clunkily expressed: “I want to be more than just a sponge,” Jenny protests well into the second act, around the same time that we get the cod-philosophical “life is pointless and life is final.”
‘If 2 22: A Ghost Story is remembered as the play that posited Lily Allen as a viable theatrical presence, its primary debt is owed less to the likes of, say, Andy Nyman’s Ghost Stories than to the eternal challenge, at times truly fearful, that most of us will recognise inherent in simply being alive.’
Allen has already received glowing reviews from social media following her debut performance earlier this month.
Following the show, Twitter and Instagram were awash with praise with one viewer penning: ‘I had goosebumps at the end, the audience were screaming. What a play, what a show, what a cast. It’s unbelievable that was her west end debut’.
Tension: Allen also saw praise for her ability to ‘scream at the screech of a fox’ and for her memorable stage presence from Daily Mail critic Patrick Marmion who gave the play four stars
Plug: The star took to Instagram to plug the play after the press night
Fans took to the microblogging site to write: ‘WOW!! I had goosebumps at the end, @sophdoesthings was crying, the audience were screaming…
‘What a play, what a show, what a cast. @LilyAllen KILLED IT!!! I am so proud of her, it’s unbelievable that was her west end debut never mind opening night!…
‘Absolutely loved the play last night!! One of the best things I’ve seen in years – you were brilliant, as was the rest of the cast! Smiling face…’
‘No spoilers but that was incredible such an amazing play loved it so much! Now Shhh I won’t tell- you HAVE to book and see this !! #222AGhostStory’.
The play will run at the Noel Coward Theatre until October.
Yay! Fans took to Twitter to praise Allen’s debut performance earlier this month, writing: ‘WOW!! I had goosebumps at the end, @sophdoesthings was crying, the audience were screaming’
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