Even a many-tentacled alien who was blissfully ignorant of concepts like celebrity casting would surely – if beamed into the confines of Theatre Royal Drury Lane – get the impression that Tom Hiddleston is something of a big deal in these quarters. With a winning air of knowing smugness, he quips, vamps and wiggles his bum (quite a lot) through the role of Benedick in Jamie Lloyd's calculatedly naff, Noughties pop-ballad-filled reimagining of Much Ado About Nothing. His lover? Fellow Marvel star Hayley Atwell as Beatrice, who attempts to resist charms that large sections of the audience clearly can't.
The previous instalment of Lloyd's hubristic season of West End Shakespeares was a turgid, over-serious The Tempest. This follow-up is the opposite, taking an aggressively flip approach to one of Shakespeare's stranger, more challenging comedies. It's a bit wedding disco, a bit reality telly song contest, a bit Mum and Dad's big night out on the town now the kids are old enough to clean up their own Weetabix.
