'Just For One Day' review — celebrate Live Aid with this high-octane blast of nostalgia pop

Read our review of rock musical Just For One Day, starring Craige Els as Bob Geldof, now in performances at the Shaftesbury Theatre to 10 January 2026.

Almost exactly 40 years after the original event, this musical celebrating Live Aid has arrived in the West End, where press night was capped by a tub-thumping speech from Sir Bob Geldof addressing concerns about cuts to international aid. In short, he told us, it's down to us once again to feed the world.

The show plays on differing generational attitudes to Live Aid, opening with an exchange between Suzanne (Melissa Jacques) and her daughter Jemma (Fayth Ifil), who's off to study the 80s as part of her university history degree. Suzanne gives Jemma a book about the concert, but the teenager isn't convinced of its relevance. However, with the help of Geldof (Craige Els) and many others involved in making it happen, the story of that legendary day plays out.

Written by John O'Farrell and directed by Luke Sheppard, it's soundtracked by some of the many great songs that formed part of the event, from "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (the creation of which is the focus of the first half) to "Bohemian Rhapsody". We also get a rapping Margaret Thatcher (Julie Atherton), who refuses to grant Band Aid a VAT exemption, and meet Amara (Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky), an aid worker on the frontline of the Ethiopian famine, who highlights both the horrors that prompted the fundraising and the political complexities that prevented food reaching those who needed it.

Having premiered at the Old Vic last year and since visited Toronto, the production feels well-honed and slick. It's a high-octane blast of nostalgia pop, and though a few numbers feel awkwardly shoehorned in, most are skilfully woven into the story, such as "Message in a Bottle" when Geldof visits Ethiopia and realises more must be done, and a moving harmonised arrangement of "Blowin' in the Wind" as Amara wonders if the aid will ever arrive.

The cast is in excellent voice. All get their moment to shine – AJ Lewis and Eloise Davies in particular – while the band, who are situated at the back of Soutra Gilmour's tiered stage design, flanked by screens on three sides, is suitably rocking.

It's never easy portraying living celebrities without straying into impression, but the denim-jacketed, f-bomb-dropping Els perfectly captures Geldof's crazed energy and adenoidal Irish rasp. There are strong turns too from Tim Mahendran as the initially sceptical producer Harvey Goldsmith, George Ure as his namesake Midge, and Kelly Agbowu and Ashley Samuels as Marsha and Jim, representing the many unsung heroes behind the scenes.

Atherton's Thatcher is a joy, referring to Geldof as "Mr G" and swigging whisky as she gradually succumbs to his roguish charm, and there's also a love story between Suzanne and her record shop colleague Tim (Jack Michael Stacey), who leaves his musical snobberies at the door of Wembley stadium to rock out to Status Quo and Phil Collins.

It's a lot to cram into two and a half hours, but O'Farrell manages to cherry pick the highlights and give it all a sense of narrative cohesion. Although some may balk at its feel-good ending, while so many of the issues Live Aid set out to address are still ongoing around the world, its point seems to be more that at least this was a group of people trying to help.

It made me deeply nostalgic for my pre-internet 80s childhood, a time when a BBC news report could make such a singular impact. And, as jukebox musicals go, this one has more hits to draw on than most. It's wall-to-wall with tunes that will make you want to dust of your denims and, like Jemma, come to realise that for all its flaws, Live Aid is an event well worth celebrating.

Just For One Day is at the Shaftesbury Theatre to 10 January 2026. Book Just For One Day tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Photo credit: Just For One Day (Photos by Evan Zimmerman)