WHEN the tweet was posted by Coleen Rooney accusing Rebekah Vardy’s account, it was like something out of an old-fashioned whodunnit.
It should lend itself perfectly to stage adaptations, it already wowed audiences as a TV series – but the West End play falls rather flat.
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Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ll know the tale but I’ll recap it anyway.
In October 2019 Coleen Rooney accused Rebekah Vardy’s account of leaking stories about the Rooney family to the press – which Rebekah denied.
It led to a high-profile legal case brought by Rebekah for defamation as a result of the tweet.
It concluded with a Rebekah losing her libel claim due to the judge finding it “likely” that her then-agent had been sharing information.
I had high hopes for seeing the show in London’s theatre district but it’s about as interesting as watching adverts during a football game.
The play follows the court case and to make it fit into a tighter time frame, they use bad football punditry narration to explain key points.
While I understand the reasoning for sticking to the court copy – it’s almost unbelievable that it all happened – I think it is dull for anyone who closely followed the case to hear it again.
The staging was set on fake grass with football pitch marking on it and the courtroom was set up with horrible see-through plastic chairs.
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In fact, everything about it takes a cue from football with opposing counsel taking penalty kicks when they score a point against the other.
It’s cringeworthy watching this take place – no matter how much I want to find it entertaining I can’t.
I really wish they’d gone down the WAG route to make it feel more personalised to the women at the centre – rather than their husbands.
Or they could have even made it into an old-style detective show to cash in on the coining of Wagatha Chrisite.
There are some amusing moments, but many of the comedic elements are over-egged meaning they aren’t as funny as they could be if played straight.
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Laura Dos Santos does an excellent scouse accent as Coleen Rooney and is engaging when she gives testimony on the stand.
Lucy May Barker does her best to be Rebekah Vardy and has some comedic moments, but I struggle to find her believable.
While I find Nathan McMullen annoying in his punditry role, his brief stints as Wayne Rooney are hilarious.
If he’d stayed playing the legendary footballer I think I’d have enjoyed the play a lot more.
Halema Hussain suffers a similar fate as her lines as Caroline Watt are well delivered but her punditry character is irritating.
While it’s certainly not the best thing I’ve seen on the West End, it isn’t the worst either.
The Wagatha Christie Trial
Ambassadors Theatre
★★★
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