Douglas Adams’s sci-fi comedy about Earth’s destruction and Arthur Dent’s intergalactic adventures has become a stratospheric enterprise since the original radio series in 1978. That spawned six books, a TV series, a film, comics, stage adaptations – and branded bath towels.
Booming business indeed yet it is odd to see the sale of merchandise as part of this immersive show (there is one booth selling branded goods within the production and a second in the foyer), as well as a bar at every turn. That commercial opportunism grates. Is this an attempt to take the audience into Adams’s imaginative universe in a new, interactive way – or merely a cash cow?
