Michael Landes and Molly Ringwald are the new Harry and Sally, but one can't help wishing that the paths of theatre's most irritating theatrical odd couple had never crossed.
Loveday Ingram's closed down, boxed-in production ensures that Marcy Kahan's stage adaptation never escapes the shadow of Rob Reiner's 1989 movie, and although it has its fair share of wisecracks, it seems not just sweetly old fashioned but at times positively twee in its examination of sexual mores. Much Ado About Nothing is sharper, sexier and much more savage.
Of the two new stars Michael Landes fares best, capturing the charm if not quite the cockiness of Harry, whose love 'em and leave 'em philosophy is challenged by his burgeoning relationship with Sally. Former brat-pack movie star Molly Ringwald has apparently played a number of stage roles in New York but you wouldn't know it from her performance here as a matronly and charmless Sally.
Unbecomingly dressed, and awkward when she moves, Ringwald's Sally passes the fake orgasm test, getting a round of applause from the audience as if she was an ice skater who has just executed a triple axel. It is not, however, that restaurant scene that gives the evening its one high point, but another when Harry and Sally are sidelined in favour of the blossoming romance between their infinitely more interesting best friends. It suggests that When Jack Met Marie would have been a far more intriguing proposition.
· Until September 5. Box office: 0870 901 3356.
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