The Man Who Had All the Luck review, King's Head Theatre

Some productions stay imprinted on your mind. So it is with Arthur Miller's, The Man Who Had All the Luck. I  first saw it at the Donmar Warehouse with the brilliant Andrew Buchan, now famous for Broadchurch, in the title role of David Beeves. Beeves is a young man heavy with guilt because, while everything goes right in his life, nothing happens as it should for those around him.  His love interest, Hester, was played by the luminous Michelle Terry. Was it possible that a revival in a pub theatre on Upper Street could possibly match such a glorious memory? Well... yes and no.

A good play is a good play.  The Man Who Had All the Luck. Miller's first, heralds the darker, harder, grittier drama that would follow (A View From the Bridge/Death of A Salesman) but leaves the audience with hope. Beeves is an all-American hero. He's honest, hard-working, kind, fair, and increasingly successful - and it pisses everyone off to the point where he believes his good luck is at their expense. It is not until his wife threatens to leave that Beeves finally understands his fortune is not down to luck but hard work and good judgement. Still he cannot shake off the anxiety. All is good for now' he says. "For now is a very big piece of forever,' comes the reply.

The tiny auditorium at the King's Head Theatre is perfect for creating intimacy, but while there are powerful moments in Paul Lichtenstern's production, it hasn't yet bedded in. The pace is uneven, the characters lack inner lives, and there are odd decisions around staging. Moments where good audio would lift a scene - the testing and correction of a faulty car for example, or the sound of a newborn infant - are conducted in silence. Conversely, the most emotional exchanges morph from drama to soap-opera with tinkly piano-bites that get louder and louder and then suddenly stop.

In conclusion: The Man Who Had All the Luck is a terrific play, though it ran just four nights after opening on Broadway. This production is ambitious and clearly put together with love. There are solid performances, but a big cast means cut-backs on frills so characters need to be fully developed.  That will come. Buy tickets for the second half of the run.

References:
The Man Who Had All the Luck, Tickets


King's Head Theatre, Upper Street, Islington, London N1.   Run ends 27 September