The reviews are in for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Marianne Elliott’s in-the-round revival of Edward Albee’s 1962 marriage-as-bloodsport, with Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup as Martha and George and Josh Dylan and Phoebe Horn as the young couple drawn into their long night of games. The notices that followed the press night on Wednesday 30 September are overwhelmingly warm, and the praise gathers most of all around Crudup, whose watchful George several critics rank above his co-star. Anderson’s Martha divides them more: magnificent for The Independent and “a supreme being” for WhatsOnStage, a touch lightweight or forced for theartsdesk and West End Best Friend. Miriam Buether’s slowly revolving living room wins near-universal approval, while the running time is the sticking point for The Guardian, the Daily Mail and Liam O’Dell, the one critic left unpersuaded.
The verdict: twenty-five reviews in, and twenty-four of them carry a rating: twelve five-star notices, ten four-star, one three-star and one two-star, an average of 4.4 out of 5. The Times publishes no score we could read. The thread running through almost all of them is Billy Crudup’s George, called “phenomenal”, “a revelation” and the evening’s standout by critics who otherwise part company over Gillian Anderson’s Martha and the three-and-a-half-hour running time.
What are critics saying about Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Independent
“Gillian Anderson is electric and disturbing in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
Reviewer: Alice Saville
“Anderson is magnificent as a drunken housewife who feeds on attention and drama like a wasp sucking up spilt wine. She hungrily ogles Nick’s taut chest, but her husband’s anger is even more delicious. Crudup is very funny in these early scenes, his tightly coiled energy revealing a suppressed darkness underneath. His furious intelligence soon emerges in a showstopper of a speech implicitly linking Nick’s research on genetics to the sterile rise of the Nazis, and the bleak obliteration of all the mess that makes life interesting. He then stages a series of amusements that he calls “games”, but are really just attacks on his fellow drinkers, tearing open the comforting narratives they use to protect themselves from painful reality – most of all his deluded wife Martha, whose vulnerability soon becomes painfully apparent.”
WhatsOnStage
“Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup toe-to-toe in the West End”
Reviewer: Sarah Crompton
“In this cockpit-like setting, Anderson’s Martha is a supreme being, conscious both of her own attraction and her own despair. Chin jutting, eyes blazing, it’s a raucous, charismatic performance, full of sharp insight, conveying the great arcs of Martha’s feelings in tight detail. Every fibre of her body is expressive and she notes unusual moments; I’ve never seen so clearly before that it is not George’s novel about his unusual past that embarrassed her, but his failure to be bold enough to publish it. As the night progresses, her growing desolation, her genuine terror at being forced to give up her dream, is deeply moving.”
Time Out
“If Gillian Anderson is good, Billy Crudup is phenomenal”
Reviewer: Andrzej Lukowski
“If Anderson is good, Crudup is phenomenal. The US character actor has been a West End fixture of late, with his solo show Harry Clarke and that odd stage version of High Noon. Neither were particularly amazing, but I think that’s more because neither was Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, not any fault of Crudup as an actor. Here he is tremendous as the at first urbane, likeable George, who seems like the milder, more sophisticated partner to the coarser, angrier Martha. Squint and he’s the victim in the marriage. But as the night wears on, there’s something sinister about his self-containment and his inability to match Martha’s outbursts: his restraint becomes ominous and nakedly manipulative as he prods and probes at a drunken Nick, spinning him fanciful stories and savouring each drop as he gets the dirt on the young couple’s marriage. Crupud is a model of restraint and nuance and that just makes his George all the more sinister – a virus quietly infecting everyone else's brains.”
LondonTheatre.co.uk
“Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup fight for the final word in Marianne Elliott’s production”
Reviewer: Olivia Rook
“Crudup’s pedantic George is a revelation. He is bristling with resentment towards his lot in life: after being bumped up the college hierarchy during the war, he now bemoans the return of his colleagues (“not one son of a bitch got killed”) and is threatened by the arrival of young academics like Nick who represent change. He carries the weight of wasted expectation, as “heir apparent” to his father-in-law (who is head of the university). Crudup excels in showing how these disappointments (as a husband, son-in-law, professor) chip away at George’s manhood. He wears a mask, lightly passing cruel judgements, asking intrusive questions, and malevolently pursuing his guests like prey, but even he has flashes of vulnerability: shattering a bottle, wrapping his hand around Martha’s neck, and growling like a caged animal when he hears her sounds of lovemaking with another man.”
theartsdesk
“An exhilarating evening of superb acting”
Reviewer: Aleks Sierz
“When Martha descends into self-recriminations, Anderson is very touching, but the energy is mainly with Crudup, whose growling vengeance emerges convincingly from his humiliation, while she often strikes me as a bit lightweight, even though she “wears the pants” in their marriage. By contrast, Nick’s traditionally domineering masculinity gets a few spot-on challenges from Honey, made reckless, as well as sadly vulnerable, by drink. As Martha begins to crawl around the set, and Honey melts all over the furniture, the two men also face their inner demons: who will emerge the stronger? See the show to find out!”
Theatre Weekly
Reviewer: Greg Stewart
“Crudup is an equally formidable counterpart as George. At times a character to be pitied, his deceptively measured demeanour conceals a penchant for psychological warfare and the final salvo is delivered with a calm devastation. It is the chemistry of Anderson and Crudup together that makes this such an astonishing piece of theatre, their verbal sparring crackles with wit and venom, the audience left in no doubt that this is a couple that know exactly how to hurt each other the most.”
The Reviews Hub
Reviewer: Nilgün Yusuf
“Acting Titan, Gillian Anderson gives an electrifying performance as Martha, the unfulfilled professor’s wife and daughter of the faculty president. A spiky, wise-cracking, boozing broad, she channels Joe Pesci in Capri pants, and no one would wish to be on the wrong side of her razor-sharp tongue. Pity poor George, her mild-mannered, long-suffering history professor spouse, calmly embodied by Billy Crudup. He’s the yin to her yang, but what he lacks in physical strength or drive, he makes up for with devious strategy.”
First Night Magazine
“Billy Crudup and Gillian Anderson are the hottest hot mess in town”
Reviewer: Guillermo Názara
“The rest of the company is just as competent as Anderson, whose only flaw is a tiny lack of extra vulnerability the moment her character begins to crack, demonstrating technique but not complete authenticity. Billy Crudup has redeemed himself from his insipid performance in High Noon earlier this year (not that anything in that show was any better), admittedly becoming the strongest member of the cast — playing a delightfully ironic and deeply layered George.”
Read About Stuff
“Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup soar as warring George and Martha in Marianne Elliott’s glorious revival”
Reviewer: Dan English
“There was great anticipation in the build-up to this revival about the lead pair, and categorically Anderson and Crudup live up to the hype. Anderson’s poise snaps to mania in a heartbeat as Martha fires from desperate to delirious, rageful to raunchy, all to get a rise out of her husband, who, due to his work, she exclaims is being lost to time. Whether sprawled on the set’s leather sofa or crawling on hands and knees around the stage’s perimeter, Anderson is in complete control in a piece that is as intoxicating to watch as Martha is intoxicated. It is a venomous portrayal, but one that also captures the vulnerability of the character, particularly during the play’s closing act.”
Theatre and Tonic
Reviewer: Ziwen
“The actors' nuanced performances bring a remarkable sense of authenticity to the story. Anderson’s Martha constantly scans George with a razor-sharp gaze. She moves with the grace of a leopard, elegant yet intensely predatory. As the night deepens, however, the abandon in her laughter gradually acquires a note of sadness, and she becomes increasingly childlike. Crudup’s George immediately gives me the impression as cultivated yet deeply frustrated. He seems to have already given up on himself to some extent, speaking with a wry mixture of irony and self-deprecation. When pushed to his limits, however, something more quietly sinister begins to emerge. He sometimes seems almost indifferent to Martha, yet he is constantly struggling against both Martha and himself. In truth, he cares about her far more than he is willing to admit.”
The Standard
“Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup are outstanding”
Reviewer: Nick Curtis
“The shifting dynamics and brutally funny repartee of the central couple are immaculately mapped. Anderson is as good as you’d hope and expect as the bleary, destructive Martha, but Crudup is a revelation as George, wounded but quick-witted and nimble, like a greying mongoose battling a striking snake. After the London misfires of his solo show Harry Clarke and a prattling, musical High Noon, we finally see what the Broadway fuss was about.”
Daily Mail
“Gillian Anderson revels in the bile of this sell-out 3hr 20min booze cruise of marital acrimony that opens the gates of domestic hell”
Reviewer: Patrick Marmion
Despite appearing altogether too healthy for raging alcoholic Martha, Anderson revels in her bile – scarlet talons complementing her turquoise cashmere cardie and green-patterned pedal-pushers.
Crudup looks like the classic grey man, but beneath that defeated exterior lurk sly wiles – and barefaced tricks of his own.
He is contemptuous, yet curious, in a forensically detailed performance as the crumpled academic with the life force of a twitching cadaver.
London Box Office
Reviewer: Stuart King
“A feast of caustic barbs delivered with wry humour and sexual tension, this production takes a gentler approach to the internecine excoriation inherent in Albee’s text. While the end result is gentler than the battling titans of the film, it is none the less effective and perhaps more redolent of our touchy-feely times.”
LondonTheatre1
Reviewer: Chris Omaweng
“At three hours twenty-five minutes (there is one interval and one ‘pause’, the latter not being long enough to leave the auditorium), it is undoubtedly a long evening. But it is a rewarding one too. Strong performances from a cast able to stamp their own authority on well-known characters made for a very satisfying night out. There were ebbs and flows, though overall this production was comical and chilling in equal measure.”
All That Dazzles
Reviewer: Daz Gale
“What elevates this production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is the chemistry shared between Anderson and Crudup. Martha and George may not be the most loving of couples, with their war of words getting nastier by the minute, but there is an undeniable electricity between the two actors portraying them. This works both in their favour and against them, as the play is undoubtedly at its best when the two are on stage together. However, this also means that when one of them is absent, their presence is missed, with one fairly long scene in the second Act without Anderson leading to a rare dip in pacing.”
The Upcoming
Reviewer: Antonia Georgiou
“It’s a faithful adaptation, and one that still rings true despite its adherence to the original’s 1960s aesthetic. Much like the fantasist couple’s marriage is one of artifice, the piece exposes the facade of the American nuclear family, brilliantly symbolised by the trickery of that aforementioned revolving stage. History professor George never reached lofty academic heights, always in the shadow of his college president father-in-law, with Martha reminding her husband of his mere “associate professor’s salary.” And Martha and Honey fail to fulfil the roles of motherhood expected and imposed by society – Martha incapable of selfless love and Honey sickly and sans “child-bearing hips”.”
SeatPlan
Reviewer: Alice Perry
“Director Marianne Elliott’s in-the-round production brings the audience suffocatingly close to the action and the slow, almost imperceptible revolve cranks the dial up on Martha and George’s repeated games and ritual humiliations. However, as with any in-the-round set-up, some of the audience will inevitably spend stretches of the play staring at an actor’s back. I noticed this particularly in the stalls, where the intimacy comes with a trade-off: several key monologues are delivered with part of the audience’s view obstructed.”
West End Best Friend
Reviewer: Alexandra Tullah
“Billy Crudup is the standout. His George feels completely natural and there is a real ease to him, particularly in the comic moments, but underneath that humour is a character you begin to feel sorry for. Crudup manages to make George funny and deeply human, and there are moments where you almost forget you're watching him act at all. He is remarkable here.”
Everything Theatre
Reviewer: Faye Elder
“Anderson and Crudup show that they are at home on the theatre stage. The constant tension, scheming and power play between the two is acted out with such conviction that you’re constantly both despising and pitying them. Anderson characterises Martha’s playful seduction and biting humiliation of her husband with such ferocity and charm. Paired with Crudup’s sarcasm and violence, they both act out a highly toxic relationship that unfolds into unimaginably dark psychological games.”
The Guardian
“Gillian Anderson fights tooth and nail in marital meltdown”
Reviewer: Arifa Akbar
“Anderson makes a formidably angry Martha as she needles away, poking George in every place it hurts. She is all hard edges and armour, agitating for a fight from the off, with a big, dirty laugh and a bawdy flirtation with Nick. Crudup is put-upon, dusty, literally all (in) grey. He initially leads with passive aggression, mansplaining Martha’s behaviour to the room and batting off her barbs with intellectual superiority or sarcasm, before entering into more confrontational territory.”
Liam O’Dell
Reviewer: Liam O’Dell
“Tonally – and in a way that’s indicative of the production lacking a steady rhythm – conflict emerges in random outbursts and shouting which takes things from 0 to 100 pretty quickly, rather than steadily ramp up the tension in a way which makes these moments justified and credible. One could even argue that that would make more sense, considering the runtime, but this production can’t even be seen as a slow burner, as the emergence of the one prevailing plot point at the end is not sufficiently signposted or singled out in the acts prior.”
Production photographs by Johan Persson.
Also reviewed by: The Telegraph (Claire Allfree, five stars, “Gillian Anderson is a total knock-out in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”), the Financial Times (five stars, “Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup slug it out in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”), The Stage (Dave Fargnoli, four stars, “Vicious repartee absolutely crackles”) and The Times (Dominic Maxwell, “sozzled sniping with an A-list duo”), whose reviews sit behind paywalls.
The first production photographs from the run are in our gallery of Anderson, Crudup, Dylan and Horn on stage. For more of this week’s press nights, see what the critics made of Hay Fever at Wyndham’s Theatre and Jerker at Waterloo East Theatre.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is booking at @sohoplace until 19 December 2026.
