{"id":1079080,"date":"2026-07-09T19:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T19:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1079080\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T19:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T19:55:15","slug":"review-pride-at-the-national-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1079080\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Pride, at the National Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Matthew Woodyatt, Jhon Lumsden, Darren Lawrence, Matthew Durkan, Courtney Stapleton and Jordan Shaw in <\/strong><strong>Pride<\/strong><strong> [Manuel Harlan]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>PRIDE<\/strong><br \/><strong>Dorfman, National Theatre<\/strong><br \/><strong>5 stars<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pride, a timely musical based on the 2014 film and inspired by true events, illuminates the unexpected unity between a group of gay London activists and striking Welsh miners. It celebrates solidarity at a time when Margaret Thatcher was attempting to break the picket lines and prejudice against the gay community was compounded by the rise of Aids.<\/p>\n<p>The show opens in summer 1984, and 24-year-old activist Mark Ashton (Jhon Lumsden) rallies a group of friends to support the miners through fundraising.<br \/>He\u2019s joined by comrade Mike (Matthew Durkan), wonderfully camp actor Jonathan (Samuel Barnett), witty lesbian Steph (Courtney Stapleton) and newbie Bromley (Lewis Cornay), unsure of his sexuality.<\/p>\n<p>Together they form Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), and meet in Gay\u2019s The Word bookshop run by Jonathan\u2019s partner Gethin (Chris Jenkins).<\/p>\n<p>It takes time to find a willing community and when a village in the Dulais Valley, south Wales, agrees, the group deliver the funds in person.<\/p>\n<p>The women quickly welcome them, including miner\u2019s wife Sian (Sarah Pugh), although some men are wary and Maureen (Caroline Sheen) is openly hostile.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Beresford, who wrote the film\u2019s screenplay, provides the book for the musical.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s set to an uplifting score by Christopher Nightingale, Josh Cohen and DJ Walde, with songs inspired by protest anthems, pop and the Welsh choral tradition.<\/p>\n<p>Standouts include Barnett\u2019s You Might As Well Live, about Jonathan\u2019s HIV diagnosis, and his disco dance number; Cornay\u2019s rousing rendition of I\u2019m Into Guys; and Pugh\u2019s ballad about Sian\u2019s repressed ambitions (she later becomes an MP).<\/p>\n<p>Pride boasts a first-rate cast and is stunningly staged by Matthew Warchus. Although sold out, the show will surely be back. Unmissable.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Until September 12<\/strong><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/nationaltheatre.org.uk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>nationaltheatre.org.uk<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew Woodyatt, Jhon Lumsden, Darren Lawrence, Matthew Durkan, Courtney Stapleton and Jordan Shaw in Pride [Manuel Harlan] \u00a0&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1079081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,55607,18394,18395,2764,16,15,18396],"class_list":["post-1079080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-london","tag-lucy-popescu","tag-the-camden-new-journal","tag-the-islington-tribune","tag-theatre","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-west-end-extra"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116891780953675554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1079080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1079081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1079080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1079080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}