Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Reviews: What the Critics Say

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, with Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup, opened at Soho Place Theatre on 30 September 2026. Most critics gave it four or five stars, and the Guardian and the Times gave three. Both leads were praised almost everywhere. What split the reviews was whether the evening is frightening enough, and whether it's too long.

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The Critics' Verdict

Five stars came from the Telegraph, the Independent, the Financial Times, Time Out, WhatsOnStage and London Theatre, and from Theatre Weekly and First Night Magazine. The Evening Standard, The Stage, BroadwayWorld and The Upcoming gave four, and so did Everything Theatre, All That Dazzles and West End Best Friend. The Guardian and the Times gave three, and the lowest score was two, from the critic Liam O'Dell.

At the top, the Telegraph's Claire Allfree called it "an absolute knock-out evening" and finished with "What a play. What a production." The FT's Sarah Hemming summed it up in two words: "Shockingly good." The Stage's headline line was "Vicious repartee absolutely crackles" (4/5).

The three-star reviews admired a lot of it but wanted more bite. The Times's Dominic Maxwell found "so much to admire here, but too little range".

What the Reviews Praised

Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup. This is what almost every critic came for, and almost every one of them was happy. The Telegraph called Anderson "simply formidable", and WhatsOnStage's Sarah Crompton found "a raucous, charismatic performance, full of sharp insight" (5/5). Crudup did even better with some critics. The Standard's Nick Curtis said "Crudup is a revelation as George" (4/5), and Time Out's Andrzej Lukowski put it simply: "If Anderson is good, Crudup is phenomenal" (5/5). If you're booking for the two stars, the reviews say you won't be disappointed.

Being that close to it. At Soho Place the audience sits all the way round the stage, and nobody is far away. The Independent's Alice Saville said the staging puts you "so close to its players that you end up feeling skin-crawlingly guilty by association" (5/5). Time Out called Soho Place "the perfect venue" for this play. If you've seen it before in a normal theatre, this is the difference.

The other two. Josh Dylan and Phoebe Horn play the young couple who get dragged into it all, and they came out well. The Times said Dylan "convinces utterly as Nick", and the Telegraph found Horn "particularly good". The Standard's only complaint was with how Albee wrote the pair, calling the parts "underwritten and functional".

It's funny. More than you might expect from its reputation. WhatsOnStage called it "an unusually funny production", and the Independent said the first act plays as "a lively comedy of (very bad) manners" before it turns.

Where Reviews Were Mixed

Is it dangerous enough? This was the big split. The Times thought "It lacks danger", and that playing it so close made the leads "underegg the melodrama". The Guardian's Arifa Akbar agreed it didn't feel "dangerous or emotionally eviscerating enough" for too long, and found the couple's games "a little cartoonish at times" (3/5). The five-star reviews felt the opposite. The Independent said "If you want to be deeply, profoundly disturbed by a night at the theatre, there's no finer way to do it than this." If you want the full horror of the film, two critics thought this version goes easier on it. Most thought it doesn't.

The length. It's about three and a half hours with an interval, and several critics felt it. The Guardian called it "tortuously long", the Times thought it felt "a good half hour too long", and the Standard described "exhaustive, almost exhausting length". London Theatre's Olivia Rook called it lengthy "though not to its detriment" (5/5). If a long evening puts you off, that's the one thing to weigh up.

Anderson or Crudup? Not a complaint, but the critics didn't agree on who's best. The Standard and Time Out made Crudup the star of the night. The Telegraph and WhatsOnStage put Anderson at the centre, with Crudup the quieter of the two. Either way, you're seeing both.

Is Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Right for You?

Book it if you want to see two big stars in a great play, up close. That's what the five-star reviews are about.

Book it if you saw the Elizabeth Taylor film, or the 2017 West End production, and want to see it done in the round. The FT's Sarah Hemming compared it with the 2017 one and still gave this five stars.

Think twice if you want a light night out. The theatre warns of strong language, intense verbal conflict, and references to alcoholism, infertility and child loss, and the critics who loved it found it disturbing.

Think twice if three and a half hours is too long for you. Even some of the reviews that liked it mentioned the length.

The run is almost sold out, so the hard part is getting in. Call us on 020 7193 9050 and we'll check what's actually free on your date.

Book Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Tickets

At Soho Place Theatre, 4 Soho Place W1D 3BG, by Tottenham Court Road station, until Saturday 19 December 2026. Evenings are at 7pm, with matinees on Wednesday and Saturday at 1:30pm. It runs about 3 hours 30 minutes including an interval, and it's recommended for ages 14 and up. Seats run from around £40 up to around £110, with premium seats from around £120. All-in pricing, so the price you see is what you pay.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? tickets • Call us on 020 7193 9050

Sources

The Telegraph (Claire Allfree, 5/5) · WhatsOnStage (Sarah Crompton, 5/5) · The Independent (Alice Saville, 5/5) · Financial Times (Sarah Hemming, 5/5) · Time Out (Andrzej Lukowski, 5/5) · London Theatre (Olivia Rook, 5/5) · Theatre Weekly (Greg Stewart, 5/5) · First Night Magazine (5/5) · Evening Standard (Nick Curtis, 4/5) · The Stage (Dave Fargnoli, 4/5) · BroadwayWorld (Alexander Cohen, 4/5) · The Upcoming (Antonia Georgiou, 4/5) · Everything Theatre (Faye Elder, 4/5) · All That Dazzles (Daz Gale, 4/5) · West End Best Friend (Alexandra Tullah, 4/5) · The Guardian (Arifa Akbar, 3/5) · The Times (Dominic Maxwell, 3/5) · Liam O'Dell (2/5)