The reviews are in for Garry Starr: Classic Penguins, the mostly naked one-man comedy in which Damien Warren-Smith’s clown, in a ruff, a tailcoat and a pair of flippers, sets out to save literature by performing the Penguin Classics catalogue. Directed by Cal McCrystal, it opened at The Other Palace on 22 October after seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe, in the West End and Off-Broadway. The notices are close to a clean sweep. The four-star critics are a shade cooler about how far one joke and a willing audience can carry an hour, but nobody disputes the energy, the timing or the nerve of the performance at its centre.
4.7 / 5 from 6 criticsThe verdict: seven reviews in so far, all from the trade and independent press, and the scores sit about as high as they go: four five-star notices, two at four stars, and one, from The Chiswick Calendar, with no rating. Across the six that score, the average is 4.7 out of 5. Where the critics part company it is only by degree. LondonTheatre.co.uk concedes that the evening rests on a single joke and Theatre Weekly hands much of the credit to the audience, but every reviewer singles out Damien Warren-Smith for his stamina, his timing and the charm that gets a room to play along.
What are critics saying about Garry Starr: Classic Penguins?
West End Best Friend
Reviewer: James Springthorpe
“This blisteringly barmy bonanza is a spectacle of non-stop laughter and joy.”
The most unreserved notice of the set. Springthorpe calls Damien Warren-Smith’s clowning the glue that holds an hour of audience participation together, and admires the way each title is swept off the shelf and folded into the next. His advice is to leave any inhibitions in the foyer.
Read James Springthorpe’s full review at West End Best Friend
Theatre and Tonic
Reviewer: Penny Walshe
“Classic Penguins is a masterclass in writing, clowning and physical theatre.”
Walshe rates it the best Garry Starr show yet. She credits Cal McCrystal’s direction with keeping a performance that barely stands still tightly structured, and reports that the nudity stops registering almost at once. The audience participation, she adds, never turns a volunteer into the butt of the joke.
London Unattached
“How to save Penguin paperbacks from extinction? Perform them naked whilst wearing flippers”
Reviewer: Sarah Trivuncic
“Run, don’t waddle, to feeding time at the zoo: two months of this literary lunacy has arrived from Edinburgh to Victoria.”
Trivuncic leans into the chaos, cataloguing the crowd-surfing, the trapeze and the volunteers who end up as undressed as the star. She likens the evening to a one-man game of charades built on book-title puns, and is struck by the fitness and core strength the performance demands.
Jackstage
“a whimsical race through the literary greats... in the buff!”
Reviewer: Emma Knott
“…it feels like being transported back to the magic of Edinburgh Fringe in its outrageously clever and laugh-out-loud genius.”
Knott enjoys the touches around the sketches, including a mock wildlife documentary proposing that the penguins wrote the novels themselves. She praises Warren-Smith’s rapid-fire commitment and McCrystal’s direction, and notes that this is the show’s longest run to date, a second chance for anyone who missed it at the Fringe.
LondonTheatre.co.uk
“this gloriously absurd comedy show is riotous fun”
Reviewer: Emily Godwin
“Garry Starr: Classic Penguins at The Other Palace is a fundamentally silly show, but one you can’t help but laugh at.”
Warm, but more measured than the five-star camp. Godwin accepts that the evening is essentially one joke, with a heavy reliance on gags about the male anatomy, and is won over by its inventiveness, its pacing and Warren-Smith’s mischievous charm in coaxing the audience along. She reads it as a good argument for fringe-style performance.
Theatre Weekly
“Every bit of the absurd is packed with the right amount of wit”
Reviewer: Pely Carney
“Warren-Smith is a master of timing, his childlike impulses absolutely infectious”
Carney finds something tender under the mayhem: in his account, Warren-Smith’s vulnerability turns embarrassment into a sense of liberation. He treats the audience as the show’s real engine, and enjoys both the sound operator’s cheeky cues and literary references pitched to reward the well-read without shutting anyone out.
The Chiswick Calendar
“London welcomes Damien Warren-Smith”
Reviewer: Bridget Osborne
“It was hilarious, bizarre, zany, original, surprising, unexpected, bold, fearless and very, very funny.”
Osborne avoids spoilers by reviewing through word association, and describes a house that was primed and ready before the lights went down. She is plain that the full nudity will rule it out for some, praises the music choices and the sound cues, and says she has not laughed so much in ages.
For more on this production, see our guide to everything you need to know about Garry Starr: Classic Penguins, and for the latest critical verdicts from London, our roundups of The Pianist at the Park Theatre and The Master Builder at the Arcola Theatre.
Garry Starr: Classic Penguins is booking at The Other Palace until Sunday 3 January 2027.
