NT’s new musical Hex is an unexpectedly dark take on Sleeping Beauty – review
Hex has not had the most straightforward journey to the stage. Announced with some fanfare to be the National Theatre’s big new musical for Christmas 2021, and with Rosalie Craig in the lead role, the first attempt to launch the show coincided with the arrival of the Omicron wave of Covid-19; company illness forced the closure of the initial run after a handful of previews.
The second attempt to bring this to the stage is more successful and this run has enjoyed an opening night, although sadly we’ve lost much of the original cast that was initially announced – including Rosalie Craig.
Has it been worth the wait? Well, we’d say Hex is something of a mixed bag, but we’re going to start with the positives, and there are certainly plenty of individually strong elements to this production.
For starters, it’s absolutely beautiful – the staging and the costuming both look terrific, the Disney-esque castle is a sight to behold, and the lighting design is something else; you’d have no idea we were in the midst of an energy crisis, watching this show.
