Manon review: Royal Ballet raises the bar with superb cast
'Thrilling, grown-up entertainment' for ballet lovers

What a glorious start to the year for lovers of ballet, said Mark Monahan in The Daily Telegraph. Earlier this month, the English National Ballet "played a formidable hand" with its terrific revival of "Giselle". Now the Royal Ballet has raised the bar yet higher with a "positively incandescent" staging of "Manon", Kenneth MacMillan's "dark, sexy" masterpiece. The superb cast is led by Francesca Hayward on "knockout" form, and there's not a "single uninteresting character on stage", nor a dull moment. This is "thrilling, grown-up entertainment", and if you can't get to Covent Garden, catch it at the cinema (various screenings from 7 February). "Just go."
"Manon" was "quite the shocker when it premiered in 1974", said David Jays in the Evening Standard. Based on Prévost's novel "Manon Lescaut" (1731), it tells the story of a young woman who falls for a penniless student, Des Grieux, but takes up with a rich man to escape poverty, and ends up being arrested as a prostitute. It's a dark tale about coercion and sexual violence that some might think steers "dangerously close to misery porn", said Lyndsey Winship in The Guardian. But "whatever your feeling about the content, the craft is consummate". MacMillan's pas de deux are "packed with inventive, unexpected steps and lifts that capture the insatiability of young love in "sweeping phrases that don't stop to breathe". And the execution is simply superb.
"One of the Royal Ballet's brightest stars, Hayward has a ravishing flow of movement, with mercurial speed and temperament," said Zoe Anderson in The Independent. "From the opulence of the brothel to her prison rags, her extraordinary presence shines out, disrupting everything around her." As Des Grieux, Marcelino Sambé is a revelation – and this "beautifully matched" pair fling themselves with abandon into MacMillan's "fiendish, high-velocity" choreography, said Siobhan Murphy in The Stage. It's a superlative evening, which – as the lovers meet their fate leaves the audience "gulping with admiration and emotion".
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.
Royal Opera House, London WC2. Until 8 March Running time: 2hrs 45mins ★★★★★
Sign up to the Arts & Life newsletter for reviews and recommendations
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The new Stratus Covid strain – and why it’s on the rise
The Explainer ‘No evidence’ new variant is more dangerous or that vaccines won’t work against it, say UK health experts
-
‘Nightmare bacteria’ are rapidly spreading
Under the radar The infections are largely resistant to antibiotics
-
Codeword: October 1, 2025
The Week's daily codeword puzzle
-
Lou Berney’s 6 favorite books with powerful storytelling
Feature The award-winning author recommends works by Dorothy B. Hughes, James McBride, and more
-
Robert Redford: the Hollywood icon who founded the Sundance Film Festival
Feature Redford’s most lasting influence may have been as the man who ‘invigorated American independent cinema’ through Sundance
-
Book reviews: ‘All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation’ and ‘Mother Mary Come to Me’
Feature Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘balls to the wall’ memoir and Arundhati Roy’s terrifying mother
-
6 rustic homes on ranches
Feature Featuring copper kitchen counters in Colorado and a 380-acre property in California
-
Steve: a ‘gripping’ drama starring Cillian Murphy
The Week Recommends Murphy plays the frazzled headmaster of a boarding school for ‘delinquent’ boys in this bold Indie film
-
The Lady from the Sea: a ‘thrillingly contemporary’ Ibsen adaptation
The Week Recommends ‘Luminous’ cast dazzle in Simon Stone’s ‘hugely enjoyable’ production
-
Black Rabbit: slick crime thriller set in a high-end New York restaurant
The Week Recommends Two Manhattan brothers resort to ‘ever-more high-stakes’ schemes to tackle ‘huge’ gambling debts in the ‘glossy’ series
-
One Battle After Another: a ‘terrifically entertaining’ watch
The Week Recommends Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest release is a ‘high-octane action thriller’ and a ‘surefire Oscar frontrunner’