Choir Boy review: a stirring production at Bristol Old Vic

The Bristol Old Vic – the "oldest continuously working theatre in the English-speaking world", built in 1766 – is under new leadership, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. Nancy Medina hails from New York, but she did her MA at the Old Vic's theatre school, and is now back as artistic director, replacing Tom Morris. Her watchwords are community, "music, joy and resilience", and the focus of her first season is on raising spirits. She has planned a festive staging of "Arabian Nights", and a musical based on David Nicholls's "Starter for Ten", transposed to Bristol. But first up, as a "statement of invigorating intent", Medina has directed this lithe and ebullient revival of "Choir Boy", by the American playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney (co-writer of the Oscar-winning "Moonlight"). 

Medina's stewardship gets off to a "flying start" with this music-filled piece, set in an all black boys' private school in the US, said Susannah Clapp in The Observer. The play is a "plea for inclusiveness": it tells the story of Pharus (Terique Jarrett), who leads the school's choir, and who is subjected to horrific homophobic bullying. Appropriately for Bristol, it is also a "call for a new look at entrenched views of history". Jarrett gives a "beautifully calibrated performance: quick-tongued, teasing, floridly expressive". And the whole play "slides across the stage fuelled by song: spirituals and gospel are given voice by five marvellous unaccompanied singers". 

Jarrett is excellent, but the whole cast is "exceptionally engaging", said Donald Hutera in The Times. "And they sing – a cappella too – like angels", with hymns and spirituals used to link various scenes. This is a "funny and sensitive" play, and musically it's "often thrilling". But ultimately it's a good play rather than a great one, said Ryan Gilbey in The Guardian. It doesn't "achieve the cumulative force that might be expected, and a last-minute flurry of plot points suggests that McCraney is racing to the finish line". Still, it's a stirring production – fluidly and expressively staged – which shows "how harmony can persist even amid discord".

Bristol Old Vic (0117-987 7877; bristololdvic.org.uk). Until 11 November. Running time: 2hrs 30mins. Rating ****

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