
False jollity periodically mars Tom Littler’s handsome, starry production of Oliver Goldsmith’s 1773 comedy, which updates the action to a Wodehousian 1930s Christmas.
We’re on pretty safe ground with the central romance between Freddie Fox’s gauche Charles Marlow and Tanya Reynolds’s clever Kate Hardcastle. There’s a lovely, harumphing performance from David Horovitch as Kate’s father Richard, while Guy Hughes charms the audience with some fourth-wall breaching, ukelele-accompanied songs as her stepbrother Tony Lumpkin.