The notices are in for Golden Boy, Clifford Odets’ 1937 boxing drama, revived by Sam Yates at the Almeida Theatre with Josh O’Connor back on stage after a decade on screen, playing Joe Bonaparte, the violinist who trades his instrument for the prize ring. The critics part company over the play rather than the playing. Most are warm, several very warm, and their praise gathers around O’Connor, Hayley Squires, Daniel Mays and a much-discussed Zubin Varla, and around Yates’s decision to build a live string quartet into Rosanna Vize’s set. The dissent is about Odets himself: the Guardian and The Reviews Hub find the melodrama heavy going, and BroadwayWorld finds the evening short on heart for all the talent on show.
The verdict: thirteen reviews in so far: two five-star notices, six at four stars, two at three and one at two, with The Telegraph and WhatsOnStage also filing. Across the eleven that give a rating the average is 3.8 out of 5, and even the doubters single out Josh O’Connor and a strong supporting company.
What are critics saying about Golden Boy?
All That Dazzles
Reviewer: Daz Gale
“Time and time again, Almeida Theatre have proven what a reliable and consistent production house they are, with multiple transfers to the West End and New York in recent years, and no shortage of four and five stars for the majority of their productions a testament to their ability. Well, they have struck gold once again with Golden Boy. There are many reasons to love this pretty perfect production, with all of the cast and creative elements outstanding in their own right. However, it is the combination of Sam Yates’ direction and Josh O’Connor’s lead performance that make this not just pure theatre magic but pure gold. This is a production that packs a powerful punch, resulting in what is confidently a knockout hit.”
View from the Gods
Reviewer: Simon Jenner
“O’Connor and cast certainly provide a knockout – surely this has shot Odets into UK visibility in the way no revival has. Though it’s the pulled punches of the ending, how it’s played out, that haunts even longer. An outstanding revival of a playwright whose works should be far more visible.”
The Independent
“Josh O’Connor is a standout in a lacerating takedown of capitalist greed”
Reviewer: Alice Saville
“There’s no shortage of mid-20th century writers laying into the American Dream, but Clifford Odets’s 1937 play effortlessly delivers the knockout punch. It’s a bluntly brilliant satire of capitalism and the way it destroys people who mess with it – chewing them up like drunks who’ve become heedlessly entangled in an escalator. A shirtless, blood-smeared Josh O’Connor is a standout in the Almeida Theatre’s new revival, taking on the title role of an ambitious young boxing star whose arrogance masks his vulnerability in the jaws of a machine he’ll never master.”
The Standard
“O’Connor and company are a knockout”
Reviewer: Nick Curtis
“Indeed, for a contemporary audience, the heightened dialogue and the sweat-and-whiskey fug of Golden Boy threaten constantly to slip into parody, but Yates and his cast hold it together with sheer conviction and good faith. O’Connor’s presence on the fight card means the Almeida run is pretty much sold out. Let’s hope it transfers. Because if you embrace it, this show is a knockout.”
Time Out
“Josh O’Connor returns to the stage in this ravishingly string-swept revival of Clifford Odets’ American tragedy”
Reviewer: Andrzej Lukowski
“A hit in its day, Golden Boy will probably only ever be revived fitfully because it was written smack bang in the middle of a period that yielded the greatest stage tragedies in American history… and it’s not quite one of them. But Yates’ string-drenched production makes a virtue of Odets’ symbolism, and a tip-top cast see it home. A historically important play, but this revival makes it feel thoroughly alive.”
LondonTheatre.co.uk
“Josh O'Connor's performance packs a punch in this lesser-known Clifford Odets play”
Reviewer: Olivia Rook
“O’Connor is joined by a stand-out supporting cast. Mays’s desperate and slippery Tom, full of empty promises, is happy to use people to get ahead — even his lover, the realistic Lorna Moon (played with strength by Hayley Squires, recently seen in the devastating All My Sons) who has learned to protect herself after a lifetime of disappointments. Zubin Varla is unsettling as the macabre puppet master Eddie Fuseli, who wants a stake in Joe and helps to shred his humanity. Meanwhile, Stanley Townsend’s kind Mr Bonaparte, Joe’s loving father, is the warm heart of this play.”
London Box Office
Reviewer: Stuart King
“Unusually for the Almeida, the production which is directed by Sam Yates, boasts a fully carpentered set by Rosanna Vize which fills the usual semi-circle void and obscures the renowned London-brick back wall — that is, until a section previously covered by white bi-fold shutters is opened to reveal a string quartet under the musical direction of Roman Lytwyniw. The musicians play accompanying pieces by Isobel Waller-Bridge, which imbue a stirring and emotional depth to key moments. A punchbag too is used to good effect in the design; swirling under a barrage of blows, the onboard video cameras (courtesy of Jack Phelan) live stream to the back wall in black and white.”
The Guardian
“Josh O’Connor swings between hope and despair in boxing melodrama”
Reviewer: Chris Wiegand
“He is spurred on by a zealous manager, Tom, who even deploys his own lover, Lorna, to keep him satisfied. O’Connor transforms seamlessly as Bonaparte who hardens, bout by bout, with a resolve he deems fitting for the desperate 30s. His professional success and emotional spiral are observed by an anxious father, who irresistibly hymns music over money, and the ruthless gangster who has bought a stake in him.”
The Reviews Hub
Reviewer: Scott Matthewman
“And that’s ultimately what keeps Golden Boy from becoming a classic of the era. While its story has much to say, there’s nothing particularly original in its moral or the way it’s been retold. The excellent cast delivers a fine rendition of Odets’s play, but can’t disguise that it is no lasting classic of the era. This boxing drama doesn’t so much pull its punches as fail to land its killer blows.”
BroadwayWorld
“No shirt for O'Connor as the boxer, but no heart either”
Reviewer: Gary Naylor
“But, despite all that talent on stage and a superstar draw on the playbill, the production fails to establish a place in our hearts, the care we need to feel for those lost in capitalism’s seductive grip just not breaching the fourth wall. Absent that, you’re just left with another bout of ear abuse on the Tube home and an enhanced admiration for Raging Bull, Rocky and Creed.”
Production photographs by Marc Brenner.
Also reviewed by: The Stage (Dave Fargnoli, four stars, “Josh O’Connor gives a knockout performance”), The Telegraph and WhatsOnStage, whose reviews sit behind paywalls or could not be read in full.
For more critics’ verdicts on this autumn’s openings, browse our London theatre reviews.
Golden Boy runs at the Almeida Theatre until Saturday 31 October 2026, and reaches cinemas through National Theatre Live from Thursday 5 November 2026.
