A reviews round-up for the world premiere production of High Noon at the West End’s Harold Pinter Theatre in London, starring Billy Crudup and Denise Gough.
High Noon is now playing at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 7 March 2026.
Read reviews from The Guardian, The Independent and more, with further reviews to be added.
Directed by Olivier Award winner Thea Sharrock (The Bodyguard), High Noon is adapted from Carl Foreman’s Oscar-winning 1952 movie by Oscar winner Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Dune).
High Noon stars Emmy and Tony Award winner Billy Crudup (The Morning Show) as Will Kane; Olivier Award winner Denise Gough (People, Places and Things) as Amy Fowler; Billy Howle (The Perfect Couple, On Chesil Beach) as Harvey Pell; and Rosa Salazar (Play Dirty, The Maze Runner) as Helen Ramirez.
The wider cast of High Noon includes Simon Chandler (Falling) as Howe and Minister; James Doherty (London Road) as Judge, Frank Miller and Gillis; Misha Handley (The Woman in Black) as Johnny; Joshua Hill (Dear England) as Ben Miller, Station Master and Cooper; Jonah Russell (A Raisin in the Sun) as Robert Jones, Scott and JP Pierce; Rebecca Lee (Jerusalem) as Mildred Jones; and Tim Steed (Jack Absolute Flies Again) as Henderson, Clerk and Charlie.
High Noon is hailed as one of the greatest westerns ever made, and starred Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. The stage adaptation unfolds in real time over the course of the show, similar to the movie, and is set in the American West of the 1800s.
High Noon is centred on the bond between Will Kane (Billy Crudup) and Amy Fowler (Denise Gough) – a love tested by impossible choices as the clock ticks down to the return of deadly outlaw Frank Miller (James Doherty) on the high noon train.
Joining Thea Sharrock in the creative team is design by Tony and Olivier Award winner Tim Hatley (Back to the Future, Life of Pi) and lighting by Tony and Olivier Award winner Neil Austin (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Frozen The Musical). Music is by Chris Egan, with sound design by Nick Lidster, choreography and movement by Lizzi Gee, fight direction by Kate Waters, casting by Jina Jay CDG and the general managers are Short Street Productions Ltd. The executive producer is Mark Rubinstein.
The show is produced in the West End by Paula Wagner and Tom Werner, alongside Thomas Tull, Danny Cohen and Len Blavatnik.
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High Noon is now playing at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 7 March 2026.
What are the critics saying about High Noon?
The Guardian
★★★★
“Billy Crudup brings classic Hollywood western back with a bang”
“Crudup and Denise Gough lead a tense adaptation that turns the film into a debate play whose McCarthy-era roots resonate powerfully today”
“… it’s an odd experience initially as Thea Sharrock’s production switches from one brief filmic scene to the next, and the endeavour seems as wooden as the clapboard saloon-bar slats that comprise the handsome set.”
“As a piece of theatre, it finds its flow. As a debate play, though, it gathers a locomotive energy”
“Eric Roth’s script uses many lines from Foreman’s screenplay but fleshes out the debates on the ethical stance of a community”
“Gough makes her part grittier and more modern than that of her film counterpart, Grace Kelly. The pair are convincing as a couple although their narrow characterisation hems in the full scale of their abilities.”
“It seems like a reluctant musical at times, the songs short and thin but the percussive music and sound design are always arresting”
“For all its early stiffness, it builds in momentum and there are moving moments. Ultimately, the political message speaks loudest, harnessing the McCarthyist fear of then and the Trumpian terror of today.”
Arifa Akbar, The Guardian
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The Times
★★★
“Billy Crudup breathes new life into the western”
“The Morning Show star is persuasive in the role immortalised by Gary Cooper in the 1952 film, but did it really need to be remade for the stage”
“Crudup, star of TV’s The Morning Show, delivers a more ambivalent version of an unassuming man who is trying to do his duty… his performance adding heft to the debut play from the Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (Forrest Gump).”
“In the end, though, Roth doesn’t quite persuade you that this is a story that needs to be remade.”
“With its burst of line-dancing, the early scene depicting Will’s marriage to his Quaker love Amy (played by the demure Grace Kelly in the film) has all the makings of a reboot of Oklahoma!”
“Denise Gough brings a much more assertive edge to a devout widow who will not compromise on her religious beliefs… Rosa Salazar impresses, too”
“… the lines that Roth has added about morality and confronting rule-breakers take on new force at the start of a year when the world seems to be in meltdown.”
Clive Davis, The Times
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The Independent
★★★
“A thoughtful Western with vital moments missing”
“Stage adaptation of the classic 1952 movie tells the story of a sheriff whose town turns its back on him”
“The 20th century’s great movie Westerns have given us so many enjoyably kitschy tropes… All those elements are technically present in director Thea Sharrock’s thoughtful staging of the 1952 movie High Noon, but they’re painted in muted colours, rather than nostalgic Technicolor. “
“Here, Billy Crudup lends a quiet integrity to the role of sheriff Marshall Kane”
“The script here is the work of venerable screenwriter Eric Roth (Killers of the Flower Moon, Forrest Gump), and his best moments sing. As Amy, Gough beautifully punctures Kane’s obsession with his gun”
“Sharrock’s production relies on the current theatrical vernacular for depicting mid-century America: rough timber, golden light, abundant haze.”
“This production tells its story carefully, but it still feels a little slow, a little crowded, a little uncertain of what it is. It feels like some vital moments are missing from Roth’s adaptation”
“This staging feels like a fitting tribute to him, and a conjuring of the paranoid times he worked in. But it doesn’t deliver either the adrenaline or the emotional punch that gives Western movies their enduring power.”
Alice Saville, The Independent
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TimeOut
★★★
“Despite terrific turns from Denise Gough and Billy Crudup, this stage adaptation of the classic Western feels like more of a curiosity than a convincing play”
“Putting a film western on stage is an odd idea that doesn’t seem any less odd having seen High Noon”
“It’s an impressive show in a lot of ways. Thea Sharrock’s direction deftly conjures a dusty desert town… It’s theatrical, too, in the sense that the cast sing a lot more Bruce Springsteen songs than they did in the film, and an ever-present clock implacably ticks down to the title time. “
” I wasn’t really a massive fan of Billy Crudup’s recent one-man show Harry Clarke. But he’s the best thing about High Noon”
“His new bride is tough, independent-minded Quaker Amy Fowler, played by the mighty Denise Gough, who imbues the character with an almost fanatical opposition to violence, and also sings Springsteen’s ‘I’m on Fire’ exquisitely.”
“Both leads are formidable, charismatic presences who make the roles their own and fairly comprehensively do a different thing to Cooper and Kelly. But is this story really a play?”
“… it still cleaves close to the structure of the film and that just doesn’t quite cut it on the stage. Magnetic as Crudup is, and solid as the gunplay bits are, none of it can negate the fact that the story ends weirdly abruptly – it needs a much longer final act.”
“It’s entertaining, looks great, has a superb cast and Bruce Springsteen songs…. But it still feels a lot like a screenplay plonked on a stage. High Noon the film is an all time classic. High Noon the play is an entertaining curio.
Andrzej Lukowski, TimeOut
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What’s On Stage
★★★
“Billy Crudup and Denise Gough in a suitably wild Western”
“Roth, who won an Oscar for his screenplay for Forrest Gump, constantly plays up the contemporary significance as his Marshall Kane (played with a grave charisma and grace by Billy Crudup)”
“Like the film, Thea Sharrock’s tightly wrought production unfolds in real time over just under two hours, with a large clock at the centre of the stage ticking down to the denouement.”
“Gough, such an intelligent actress, doesn’t have quite enough to do with Amy… though she sings beautifully in the contemporary songs by Bruce Springsteen and others that punctuate the scenes.”
“Crudup, deprived of Gary Cooper’s pensive close-ups, needs one great speech to outline his position. He keeps saying he must do what he must do, but the moral thrust of the film is somehow missing.”
“Sharrock’s direction is thoughtful and taut while encompassing dancing (choreography by Lizzie Gee) and some realistic fights courtesy of Kate Waters.”
“There are terrific supporting performances too, from Rosa Salazar as Helen… and from the disaffected deputy Harvey, played by Billy Howle”
“The rest is careful and elegantly enjoyable, but lacks that emotional punch.”
Sarah Crompton, What’s On Stage
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The Telegraph
★★
“This adaptation of High Noon could never rival the classic film”
“Even Denise Gough and Billy Crudup couldn’t save this production, which lacks all the necessary tension”
“It’s an intriguing idea for a night out… Alas, though: Billy Crudup and Denise Gough can’t match Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly on screen, and Thea Sharrock’s stylish and yet grit-free production stokes only fitful tension.”
“You can see, besides the commercial logic, why those involved identified a theatrical rationale for an adaptation. With its Aristotelian unities of action, time and place, the original screenplay by Carl Foreman has the taut quality of a Greek tragedy.”
“All kinds of approaches could have been taken here – a modish slant, with camera-work and mics, or a folkish ensemble enactment. Sharrock and co have gone for something picturesque but pedestrian”
“The compactness allows for fleet switches of location – a bar-room, church-hall, stables. But it doesn’t elicit the atmosphere and claustrophobia achieved on screen”
“Nor do the performances quite match up to the film. A capable and charismatic American actor, Crudup cuts a frailer, more wavering figure than Cooper – his authority is not a done-deal.”
“… the big gun-slinging denouement, albeit rushed in the film, here lacks the requisite adrenal quality – less high noon, more morning elevenses. Not a total misfire, then, but it doesn’t hit the mark – better to re-watch the film.”
Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph
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The i Paper
★★
“The original High Noon was spectacular – this retelling certainly isn’t that”
“I don’t often say this, but save your money and don’t watch this below par rehash of a classic “
“High Noon (quadruple Oscar winner in 1952) is an outstanding film that more than merits an hour and a half of anyone’s (re)watching time. It’s a western unlike any other: mean, moody, moralistic and magnificent. On stage, in this new adaptation by Oscar winner Eric Roth (Forrest Gump), High Noon is resolutely none of these things.”
“Crudup has none of the stature nor demeanour of Cooper”
“There are inescapable echoes of America’s current political turmoil in Roth’s script, with its theme of confronting the big, bad bullies, as well as men’s perennial recourse to violence.”
“Thea Sharrock’s production… has little sense of a ratcheting up of tension as the clock ticks down”
“As for Cooper’s iconic, acerbic final gesture, one of celluloid’s most memorable moments, there’s none of that here. Much as I hate to say it, save your money and watch the film instead.”
Fiona Mountford, The i Paper
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Average Rating: 2.9 Stars based on 7 reviews
CriticScore: 57 based on 7 reviews
High Noon
Harold Pinter Theatre, London
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📷 Main photo: High Noon at the Harold Pinter Theatre London. Billy Crudup & Denise Gough. Photo by Johan Persson
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