A string of Hollywood stars have turned up in the West End this year, said Sarah Crompton on What's on Stage. The latest is Billy Crudup, who has crossed the pond to reprise his role in a play that brought him off-Broadway acclaim in 2017.
David Cale's "Harry Clarke" is a funny, smart and "effortlessly engrossing" one-man piece about a fantasist and conman from the American Midwest who starts to speak in a fey upper-class English accent as a child, then moves to New York, where he reinvents himself as a sexually omnivorous Cockney wide-boy. And Crudup is simply superb in it. He doesn't quite nail the accents, but he "charismatically mines each twist and turn", and lands his lines "with immaculate timing". It amounts to a "real tour de force of storytelling and performance".
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The play "is a tribute to that much loved cultural figure, the gay (or at least queer-coded) conman", said Alice Saville in The Independent. In "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Saltburn", these "enigmatic" figures feel like the "product of 20th century homophobia and the double lives it forced so many men to lead", and you sense their "slippery charisma" is at least partly a survival tactic. But the character here has "none of the inner darkness that would make sense of his baroque fabrications".
-
September 13 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday's political cartoons include court-approved racial profiling and America's moral compass
-
Giorgio Armani obituary: designer revolutionised the business of fashionIn the Spotlight ‘King Giorgio’ came from humble beginnings to become a titan of the fashion industry and redefine 20th century clothing
-
Crossword: September 13, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
Giorgio Armani obituary: designer revolutionised the business of fashion
In the Spotlight ‘King Giorgio’ came from humble beginnings to become a titan of the fashion industry and redefine 20th century clothing
-
Video games to curl up with this fall, including Ghost of Yotei and LEGO PartyThe Week Recommends Several highly anticipated video games are coming this fall
-
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale – a ‘comfort’ watch for fansThe Week Recommends The final film of the franchise gives viewers a chance to say goodbye
-
The Paper: new show, same 'warmth and goofiness'The Week Recommends This spin-off of the American version of The Office is ‘comfortingly and wearyingly familiar’
-
Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons – ‘riotously colourful’ works from an ‘exhilarating’ painterThe Week Recommends The 34-year-old is the first artist to take over Dulwich Picture Gallery’s main space
-
Born With Teeth: ‘mischievously provocative’ play starring Ncuti GatwaThe Week Recommends ‘Sprightly’ production from Liz Duffy Adams imagines the relationship between Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe
-
10 upcoming albums to stream during spooky seasonThe Week Recommends As fall arrives, check out new albums from Taylor Swift, Jeff Tweedy, the Lemonheads and more
-
Art review: Lorna Simpson: Source NotesFeature Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, through Nov. 2
