Shirley Valentine review: Sheridan Smith is ‘dazzling’ in one-woman play 

Smith delivers a ‘continuously enrapturing’ performance at Duke of York’s Theatre

Sheridan Smith in Shirley Valentine 
Sheridan Smith in Shirley Valentine 
(Image credit: Helen Murray)

Sheridan Smith and Shirley Valentine is “a match made in theatre heaven”, said Jessie Thompson in The Independent. Smith is a “national treasure”, while Willy Russell’s one-woman play – about a middle-aged Liverpudlian housewife yearning for a more fulfilling life – has been “beloved” since it was first staged in 1986. “It sounds like it should work, and it really, really does.” Smith’s comedic talents are brilliantly deployed here; but as an actress, she also has a “rare forte for insinuating some quiet sorrows beneath the social fizz”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. The result is a performance that is “continuously enrapturing”.

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