Few press nights this month have split the critics as sharply as Three Men in a Boat, the world premiere of Al Smith’s adaptation of Jerome K Jerome’s 1889 novel, directed by Christopher Haydon at the Rose Theatre in Kingston — the town the boat sets off from. Jonny Weldon, Bronté Barbé and Richard David-Caine play the three friends, with Calum Donald-Bruce working the Montmorency puppet and songs by Grant Olding. The notices run from four stars to two, and they do not meet in the middle: the same slapstick, innuendo and end-of-the-pier energy that one critic calls stupendously silly fun another finds exhausting and a third calls a mangled mess. Almost everyone, on both sides, singles out the dog.
The verdict: eight reviews in so far — four four-star notices, two three-star, one two-star and one outlet whose page carries no rating, which averages 3.4 out of 5 across the seven that score. That average is misleading and worth saying so: this is not a consensus with a wobble in it but a genuine disagreement about whether the production’s music-hall excess is the joke or the problem. The puppetry and the cast’s energy are the only things every critic likes.
What are critics saying about Three Men in a Boat?
WhatsOnStage
"Stupendously silly and full of frivolous fun"
Reviewer: Aliya Al-Hassan
"It could hardly be more apt that a new adaptation of Jerome K Jerome’s 130-year-old comic novella is now playing at Kingston’s Rose Theatre. Following three friends and a dog as they take a calamitous boat trip up the Thames from Kingston to Oxford, Al Smith’s madcap new version is stupendously silly and full of frivolous fun."
The Spy in the Stalls
"A riotous, riverside romp"
Reviewer: Hannah Bothelton
"Written by Al Smith and based on Jerome K. Jerome’s classic comic novel, this inventive musical gleefully taps into panto and music hall traditions, with cheeky innuendo, knockabout slapstick and a non-existent fourth wall. The dialogue is full of wicked one-liners and devastating Victorian disdain, set against escalating absurdity to keep you on your toes. There’s emotional depth too, touching on strained friendships, pre-wedding jitters and grief with surprising clarity. A couple of moments could be tighter, particularly a tongue-twister routine that goes on a tad long, and the somewhat leisurely build to the finale. Even so, it’s a charming caper that cleverly refreshes a British classic for modern audiences."
Read Hannah Bothelton’s full review at The Spy in the Stalls
West End Best Friend
"An eminently silly adaptation which is greatly enjoyable once audiences accept its inspired lunacy"
Reviewer: Chris Abbott
"Among the hapless human trio on board, Richard David-Caine is an actor whose mere physical presence creates humour and who can indicate exasperation one moment and flirtation the next. Equally impressive and nicely contrasted is Jonny Weldon in pink trousers and rainbow jacket as the more bumptious member of the trio, always claiming more than he should and with a high energy performance opposite the more languorous David-Caine."
The Guardian
"Quirky novella makes for perky, fun-forward theatre"
Reviewer: Mark Lawson
"Bronté Barbé plays, with false moustache and lower voice notes, the eccentric Harris who, with lugubrious George (Richard David-Caine), joins pompous hypochondriac Jerome (Jonny Weldon) on a river trip that starts from Kingston. As with all quirky, discursive books, the challenge of adaptation is imposing momentum and tension. Al Smith’s dramatisation neatly juggles chronology (the sixth chapter is his first scene) and anchors the book’s best set pieces (swan attack, putrid cheese, a murder investigation) in a new narrative where the blokes are heading to Oxford for Harris’s wedding, his choice of best man a bugbear."
Everything Theatre
"Funny, energetic and winningly performed"
Reviewer: Mike Carter
"Singing and tonal shifts aside, the cast are high-energy and good value. Jonny Weldon is a hoot as the flamboyantly dressed Jerome. Richard David-Caine, familiar from Horrible Histories, gives an irresistible, long-legged, gangly comic turn while also tugging at our heartstrings as a recent widower. Bronté Barbé’s short-sighted bumbling as Harris gets many of the biggest laughs. Then there’s Calum Donald-Bruce as Montmorency, the fox terrier. With a wonderfully expressive, expertly handled puppet, he steals the show more than once."
Theatre and Tonic
"This mangled mess at the delightful Rose Theatre"
Reviewer: Stephen Gilchrist
"For all the energy of the company, and I do not criticise them as being responsible for this compendium of unfunny physical comedy and jokes, some anachronistic with fourth wall breaches, the incomprehensible narrative, and forced humour this boat is holed beneath the waterline and sank with all those on board in the murky waters of Thames."
Time Out
"This wildly OTT stage version of Jerome K Jerome’s Victorian travelogue is just far too much"
Reviewer: Caroline McGinn
"It’s fun at first, but you can’t sustain an entire full-length play on patter, strolling songs and knob gags. There’s not much development and the introduction of deeper emotional content briefly and late on is jarring. It’s a shame, because there are lots of bright ideas on the stage and the actors are very good, especially David-Caine, who has a lanky charismatic physicality reminiscent of John Cleese, and deserves stronger material."
Also reviewed by: The Stage, where Neil Norman gave four stars to what the paper called a "mischievous makeover of Jerome K Jerome’s perennial classic" — the review itself is paywalled, so the rating, the byline and that line are all we can report first-hand. Time Out’s page carries no star rating, so its entry above runs without one rather than with a number we have inferred.
Best of Theatre has followed this production from the start: see our first production photographs, the earlier rehearsal images, and our other recent London theatre review roundups.
Three Men in a Boat runs at the Rose Theatre, Kingston until Saturday 10 October 2026.
