A new musical about the life of Oscar Wilde written by TV and radio presenter Mike Read has closed after just one night. So poor were both the ticket sales and reviews, the Shaw Theatre didn't see the point in continuing with the show, which opened on Tuesday and was due to run until 21 Nov.
Confirming the decision, a spokesman for the theatre explained: "After the first night, bookings were low and the reviews were poor".
Among those reviews, Benedict Nightingale of The Times theatre critic said: "As Oscar himself [lead actor] Peter Blake is just about OK. Yet it's hard to blame him when he must, for instance, fester in a preposterously impressionistic Reading Jail imagining he's cuddling children... whatever else Wilde was, he wasn't a sentimental prat."
The Guardian was equally scathing: "You begin to wonder whether the sound system is being affected by the hefty rumbling of Oscar Wilde turning in his grave."