The reviews are in for Tru, which opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory on Sunday 27 September 2026. Jay Presson Allen’s 1989 play puts Jesse Tyler Ferguson alone in Truman Capote’s New York apartment in December 1975, days after an extract from Answered Prayers cost the writer his circle of society friends. Rob Ashford directs, and Charlotte d’Amboise appears as The Swan. Thirteen critics have filed. They are near-unanimous on Ferguson and on Paul Farnsworth’s set, which turns the whole auditorium into the apartment; they divide on whether the script is worth the staging.
The verdict: thirteen reviews so far — one five-star notice, seven four-star, three three-star, and two outlets that published no rating. Across the eleven that scored it the average is 3.8 out of 5. Every one of them praises Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and almost every one praises Paul Farnsworth’s set; what divides them is Jay Presson Allen’s script, and how little Charlotte d’Amboise is given to do.
What are critics saying about TRU?
Theatre Weekly
Reviewer: Katie Shaw
“Tru is a magnificent production, guided by Rob Ashford’s direction and anchored by Tyler Ferguson’s faultless performance. He moves through the 90-minute stream of consciousness with an enviable ease, familiarity and precision: a seasoned captain of a ship. If you miss the chance to see Tyler Ferguson in this role, you are missing a career defining performance. This is certainly a must-see production; bravo to everyone involved.”
The Guardian
“A five-star performance of a three-star script about the life of Truman Capote”
Reviewer: Mark Lawson
“The title Tru has a silent e and question mark. Capote lied about his own life while publishing upsetting truths about others, issues more current than in his own life or this play’s. Here is a particularly frustrating example of an at least five-star performance of an at best three-star script. I’ve split the difference while wishing Tyler Ferguson a different text. A new play about Capote would require him to offer a stronger defence about treacherous use of others’ lives than a Broadway museum piece that sounds oddly light about addiction and betrayal.”
WhatsOnStage
Reviewer: Sonny Waheed
“Ferguson is quietly commanding as Capote. In a script full of quotable quotes and witty asides, it would be so easy to turn this into a performative caricature, but whilst he primps, preens and flounces with great effect, he gives a nuanced and controlled performance that showcases Capote’s anger, disdain and, ultimately, pain at where he’s ended up. He inhabits his trademark effeminate southern drawl with a naturalism that doesn’t distract but rather adds to the poignancy of it all.”
London Theatre
“Jesse Tyler Ferguson is captivating as the troubled, complex Truman Capote”
Reviewer: Aliya Al-Hassan
“Ferguson is captivating in the role: camp, catty, and totally unapologetic. Capote is a distinctly unlikable character in many ways, categorising his friends into ‘A’ or ‘B’ lists in a conversation with his florist and name-dropping at every opportunity. But Ferguson also elicits a huge amount of sympathy for this damaged man who struggles with alcoholism, narcissism, and, ultimately, acute loneliness. It would be easy to tip into parody of Capote’s unique vocal pitch and intonations, but Ferguson strikes a considered balance.”
The Reviews Hub
Reviewer: Richard Maguire
“Ferguson’s thrilling performance blows off most of the dust that has gathered on the play; many of the mentioned personalities, especially that of Babe, are lost on a more modern audience and a British one to boot. Charlotte d’Amboise has little to do but wander around the apartment and dance in what, in the original production, must have surely been the interval. Only once is her presence actually crucial to the plot.”
BroadwayWorld
Reviewer: Clementine Scott
“Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s take on Capote elevates him far above caricature, and reveals a facet of the writer different from Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Oscar-winning portrayal in the film Capote. This Capote gains sympathy for his lonely melancholy after a lifetime of social climbing, but loses it with his ruthless callousness towards his friends (whom he sorts into the ‘A list’ and ‘B list’). When addressing his scathing, thinly veiled portrayals of the Swans – in a recently published excerpt from his novel Answered Prayers – he is both defensive and despairing.”
West End Best Friend
Reviewer: Sarah Brown
“Jesse Tyler Ferguson gives a stellar performance as Truman Capote, shifting effortlessly between the fun-loving party animal - life and soul of the New York Elite, and the depressive, alcoholic narcissist, wallowing in self-pity and bitter regret. Ferguson's exceptional performance keeps the audience hooked for the 90-minute piece, which is as informative as it is entertaining.”
All That Dazzles
“Jesse Tyler Ferguson stars as Truman Capote in a production that rips up the rulebook to be like nothing you have seen before”
Reviewer: Daz Gale
“If there is one reason to see Tru, however, it is to marvel at the magnificence of Jesse Tyler Ferguson. A truly gifted actor, how he embodies Truman Capote really is nothing short of sensational. From the voice to the mannerisms, this doesn’t so much feel as a performance or an impersonation as it does a possession. You forget you are watching Ferguson and Capote, and believe you are watching Capote himself - that is the mark of a good actor, and Ferguson is a great one.”
The Standard
“Jesse Tyler Ferguson excels as a waspish Truman Capote”
Reviewer: Nick Curtis
“Ferguson, slouching and perma-hungover in a racoon coat and white hat, looks little like Capote, who resembled a white-blond, moon-faced, devil child. But he captures his insinuating, conspiratorial prattle and his vaunting self-belief. The actor, who has been making a second home on the London stage latterly, in Stephen Sondheim’s Here We Are and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar, almost made me forget how much I dislike soliloquies where a famous character reels off all the touchpoints of his or her life.”
Time Out
“The stunning immersive set slightly upstages star Jesse Tyler Ferguson in this Truman Capote monologue”
Reviewer: Andrzej Lukowski
“The actual play can’t really live up to the magnificence of the setting. That’s not the fault of performer Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who offers a funny, often very poignant channeling of the Alabama-raised author and socialite. That distinctive voice could so easily fall into parody – it was half a parody already. But Ferguson brings Capote to life, aided by the fact that the play is set at a very painful time in his life. It’s 1975, and he has recently published a chapter of his (ultimately unfinished) magnum opus Answered Prayers, and its savage depiction of the super-rich has spooked much of Capote’s social circle.”
South London Press
Reviewer: Michael Holland
“This one-man show, directed by Rob Ashford, actually has two people on at all times. It is Charlotte D’Amboise as The Swan, who pretty much swans about, lounges about, sometimes struts like a catwalk model, and says a few words that had little meaning. In fact, she was confusing to me. Maybe she was supposed to be his conscience. Perhaps the voice in your head that tells you to do the things you shouldn’t do. Could she be the listener when he rambles out loud to himself? Someone who does not talk back, leaving him as the life and soul of his one-man party?”
Production photographs by Johan Persson.
Also reviewed by: The Stage (Sam Marlowe, three stars, “Flavourful performance”) and The Times (Dominic Maxwell, “Jesse Tyler Ferguson is brilliant as Truman Capote”), whose reviews sit behind paywalls. The Stage’s rating is counted in the average above; The Times published none.
We covered the production twice before press night: Charlotte d’Amboise joining the company and the first look at Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Capote. Elsewhere this week the critics filed on Table 17 at the Kiln Theatre and Three Men in a Boat at the Rose Theatre, Kingston.
Tru runs at the Menier Chocolate Factory until Saturday 14 November 2026. Press night was Sunday 27 September 2026. Tickets start at £35.
