Review of The Choir of Man at Milton Keynes Theatre

The musical The Choir of Man has had a remarkable journey since its first appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017. Via Adelaide, Covid, North America, the show finally became a fixture at The Arts Theatre in London, running between 2021 and 2025, on either side of a theatre renovation. The show finally closed to embark on an extensive UK & Ireland tour, which now reaches Milton Keynes Theatre.

The Choir of Man offers an inventive theatre experience. Long before the show begins, audience members are welcomed upon stage, or more accurately, to The Jungle, the pub setting for the “story” of The Choir of Man. While within The Jungle, pre-show and interval, you are welcome to grab a pint at the functioning bar and have a chat with the cast, our characters for the evening.

However, you may have noticed the quotes around the word story, and that is where, in many ways, this is a very different experience. The Choir of Man does not really feature a storyline; it is just a gathering of men down the pub, with brief dips into their lives, with no true culmination.

Some might worry that this is a bad thing, but there is a notable joyfulness to this trip to the theatre pub. The cast of characters is highly caricatured, with names such as “Bore,” “Handyman,” and “Hard Man” being quite simplistic. Nevertheless, over the two hours, they become familiar to the audience, especially since many will have the opportunity to have a brief chat with one of them during the show.

The show consists mostly of songs and poetry, yes, poetry, a curious mix which does work, with the poetry moments, written by Ben Norris, performed by the main speaker of the show, the aptly named Poet, played by Lewis Dragisic. His performance, like theirs, is friendly and personable. The cast portrays the bloke down the pub with an endearing, infectious style that suits, without question, the limited storytelling, which amounts to chats down the pub.

Musically, it is strong, albeit one again at times suffering from the music drowning out many of the lyrics; however, here at least, they will be familiar to most as the show takes popular staples from those of Adele, Guns ‘N Roses, Avicii, and Paul Simon, among others. Standout musical moments include a strong performance of The Impossible Dream by Aaron Pottenger, Escape (The Piña Colada Song) by Joshua Lloyd as Barman, and an emotional moment from Poet, Dragisic, with Dance with My Father.

Technically, aside from the sound issues, The Choir of Man is strong, with very effective set and costume design by Oli Townsend and Verity Sadler, and pinpoint lighting by Richard Dinnen, including perfect timing during Niall Woodson's delightful tap routine.

It is fascinating to see that there are many negative or average reviews for The Choir of Man, but, upon deeper digging, you can see a somewhat apparent lack of understanding of the show and, dare I say, a pompous attitude toward it. While I cannot disagree with them having an opinion, as that is clearly what I am here for as well, and I certainly don’t pretend to be right either. However, what I see is a joyful production, which is appealing to those beyond shows, perhaps more stuffy critics would like, and a show where someone willfully says, on leaving, “that was bloody brilliant.” I am happy to agree. Accessible and thrillingly entertaining, The Choir of Man is a theatre experience more for the masses than many shows, and should be experienced at some point during its current extensive tour.

The Choir of Man is a truly memorable theatre experience.
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Performance reviewed: Tuesday 26th May 2026 at the Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes.

The Choir of Man runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday, 30th May 2026, before continuing its tour.

For further details about Milton Keynes, see their website at https://www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre/

For further details of the tour, see the website at https://thechoirofman.com/

Photographs: Mark Senior

Review of The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel is perhaps the perfect antidote to the troubled times we are in, harking back to when things were perhaps simpler and mass media and the press were less in your face. Not to say that bigshot Charlie Chaplin didn't make a name for himself in more than just the movies he made. This though is a warm show, filled with love. This show is based on the very real tale of the 1910 ship heading course for New York, which aboard were Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, unknown, but part of Fred Karno’s music hall troupe, and destined for different, but very major futures. Told by an Idiot's production with Theatre Royal Plymouth (and Royal & Derngate and Unity Theatre) breaks down the tale of the voyage of the SS Cairnrona with intriguingly created flashbacks of the life, generally of Charlie Chaplin. Therefore along the course of the voyage, we see Laurel's moment as understudy to Chaplin, the birth of Chaplin (brilliantly...

Review of The Pillowman at The Playhouse Theatre, Northampton

The Pillowman sounds such a friendly title, and to be fair, his story is one of the lighter aspects of Martin McDonagh's script. It still involves dead children though, if you want to get a clear vision of how dark this play is. Set in a police state of the future, Katurian (Toby Pugh) is taken in for the content of his often violent stories and a similarity to a spate of recent child killings. Here in detention cell 13, his police captors, Tupolski (Adrian Wyman) and Ariel (Steve While) play good cop, bad cop while holding over the threat of violence against Katurian's mentally disabled brother Michal (Patrick Morgan), being held in another cell. The Pillowman is clearly a very warped story, with the blackest of black comedy, and often also very offensive with it's racial stereotyping and disability. In fact, it is no surprise that a couple left in the interval, as I would happily admit that this play is far from everyone. I like a good black comedy though, and ...

Review of Northern Ballet - The Great Gatsby at Milton Keynes Theatre

This production of The Great Gatsby performed by Northern Ballet was my fifth encounter at the theatre of a full ballet production and as before, I happily share my review of the show with nearly zero knowledge of-the-art form and more of a casual theatre-goer. You could say that this is a poor direction to come in on a review, but I would say that casual audience are the ones to review this for. Over the years, Northern Ballet has set quite a high benchmark for ballet productions, and any audience member who is worth their salt as a ballet fan would no doubt have tickets for this new touring version of the 2013 version of The Great Gatsby , lovingly created by David Nixon OBE. So much is Nixon part of the very fabric of this show, that he not only provides the choreography and direction but also the initial scenario and costume design (assisted by Julie Anderson). So, discounting those ballet fans already sitting in the audience, what does this offer for the more casual theatre-goer ...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

Search This Blog