The reviews are in for London City Ballet: Firebird – A Double Bill, the company’s three-night stop at Sadler’s Wells. Artistic director Christopher Marney pairs John Neumeier’s Ghost Light, made in lockdown and reworked for the company with guest Alina Cojocaru, with Glen Tetley’s 1981 Firebird, reconstructed in Tetley’s centenary year with Ellie Young in the title role. The critics agree that the company is in fine shape and that Joseph Taylor is an outstanding partner. They do not agree on which half of the evening works, and their preferences point in opposite directions.
3.9 / 5 from 7 criticsThe verdict: nine notices so far, seven of them rated: one five-star, four at four stars, one three-and-a-half and one three-star, which averages 3.9 out of 5. British Theatre Guide publishes no rating, and The Times showed none outside its paywall. The dancing is praised across the board, above all the duets for Joseph Taylor with Ellie Young and with Alina Cojocaru. The split is over the programme: Gramilano admires Ghost Light and finds Firebird empty, Lifted Leg thinks Ghost Light far too long and Firebird the more coherent piece, and LondonTheatre.co.uk finds the Neumeier the harder sell before Firebird lets the dancers dazzle.
What are critics saying about Firebird – A Double Bill?
Theatre Weekly
“A glorious celebration of both contemporary and classical dance”
Reviewer: Stephen Gilchrist
“It is haunting, to a recorded piano accompaniment of various pieces of Schubert, and it is beautiful.”
The warmest notice. Gilchrist is happy to let Ghost Light simply be beautiful without being about anything in particular, and calls Tetley’s gothic Firebird delicious, with Ellie Young outstanding in the title role and John Macfarlane’s designs a striking stage picture.
The Guardian
“Swoon! London City Ballet are positively glowing in a night of dreams – and ghosts from dance history”
Reviewer: Lyndsey Winship
“It’s only three years since this new version of London City Ballet formed and the company is looking very fine.”
Winship is enchanted by Cojocaru, who enters Ghost Light like a ghost of Odette, and reads the piece as a beautiful meditation on time. Firebird’s narrative is fuzzier and its finale less majestic than Fokine’s, but Young impresses and Taylor is called a great partner.
Bachtrack
“London City Ballet: a double bill of exceptional poignancy”
Reviewer: Deborah Weiss
“…this felt like a satisfying, revitalised production.”
Weiss finds Ghost Light poignant and complex, with the male duets and the Cojocaru and Taylor pas de deux especially memorable. The reconstructed Firebird wins Weiss over too, with Young and Taylor well matched, and the review credits Marney with keeping a precious legacy alive.
LondonTheatre.co.uk
“Dazzling work from the reborn company”
Reviewer: Emily Godwin
“While Ghost Light dwells on silences, Firebird is explosive, allowing the LCB dancers to dazzle.”
Godwin calls it an evening of two halves. Ghost Light has an arresting opening and fine duets but loses momentum, and the recorded Schubert feels too traditional for it. Firebird is haunting and passionate, with Macfarlane’s revisited designs startlingly beautiful.
London Unattached
Reviewer: Teresa Guerreiro
“Tetley’s choreography uses the language of classical ballet but with a different, more forceful accent.”
Guerreiro welcomes a rare London showing of Neumeier’s work, though Ghost Light’s fragmentary structure feels a little long. In Firebird, Young is superb as the captive bird and expertly partnered by Taylor, and the whole thing is judged a gripping work.
Gramilano
“London City Ballet’s Ghost Light haunts, but Firebird fails to ignite”
Reviewer: Matthew Paluch
“Firebird didn’t work for me, but the Neumeier was a truly interesting piece to watch.”
Paluch applauds Marney’s brave choices and finds real power in Neumeier’s pas de deux, though Ghost Light could lose a quarter of an hour. Firebird, by contrast, strikes him as very good dancing with little else going on, a work very much of its time.
Lifted Leg
Reviewer: Bruce Marriott
“Ellie Young and Joseph Taylor lead and smoulder.”
Marriott admires the ambition but thinks a small company is stretched by works made for far bigger ones. Ghost Light feels about 25 minutes too long, and Firebird can look threadbare against Stravinsky’s score, yet its duets are top-notch and it is the more coherent half.
British Theatre Guide
Reviewer: Vera Liber
“Three years now and he is firing on many cylinders.”
Liber praises Marney’s taste in programming and his research. Ghost Light is a disjointed but fresh dream of past lives, bound together by Schubert, and Tetley’s Firebird adds a gothic twist to the familiar story, capped by a surprise appearance from the original Firebird, Mette Hønningen.
Production photographs by ASH.
Also reviewed by: The Times (Debra Craine, “A fascinating Firebird returns from the ashes”), whose review sits behind a paywall.
For more dance this autumn, see our roundup of Acosta Danza: Cuban Baroque at Sadler’s Wells, and our report on London City Ballet joining The Royal Ballet’s FUTUREWORKS programme.
London City Ballet: Firebird – A Double Bill plays its final performances at Sadler’s Wells on Saturday 24 October 2026, and the company’s tour continues until 6 December.
For more information, visit the official website.
