'The Choir of Man' review — raise your glasses to an entertaining night at The Jungle

Read our review of The Choir of Man, which journeyed from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to the West End, now in performances at the Arts Theatre.

The Choir of Man has been on an extraordinary journey. The show about a group of men singing together in their local pub The Jungle has travelled from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, to Sydney Opera House, to Chicago, and in 2021, the West End. After a brief closure at the end of 2024 due to a planned redevelopment of the Arts Theatre, Nic Doodson and Andrew Kay’s show is back for a five-month run — and as declared by Paul McArthur, the Poet and show’s narrator, it remains “proper old-school pub fun”.

McArthur is one of nine named cast members, who form the show’s talented choir, performing everything from an a capella version of Sia’s “Chandelier”, to a wonderfully cringeworthy “The Pina Colada Song” complete with dad-dancing, and folk song “The Parting Glass”, which is sung atmospherically without microphones. Each cast member is named to capture their personality, from the Romantic Jason Brock, who drifts about the stage with a sorrowful air and breaks into a stirring rendition of Adele’s “Hello”, to David Booth’s middle-aged Bore, comically dressed in a knitted vest and sensible shoes. There’s also an exceptional tap routine from the Handyman, performed on the night by associate choreographer Adam Hilton, in which he dances his way across the length of a bar, on a table, and even on some crates.

But it’s less the individual personalities that are interesting here — though we do get some touching details about their backgrounds through a series of monologues delivered by McArthur — and more about the collective. The Choir of Man is a love letter to British pub culture, a place for men, specifically, to meet and share their stories. While there is a message about men’s mental health, driven home by the announcement after that curtain call that one person takes their lives every 90 minutes (the length of the performance), most of them young men, the emphasis of this show remains firmly on the music — and having a great night out.

This extends to the audience, who are invited to join the cast for free beers on stage before the show begins and are handed plastic pint cups throughout. Bags of Walkers crisps are even thrown into the crowd during the finale. Combined with the Arts Theatre’s cosy red interior and familiar alcohol-infused pub aroma, the atmosphere truly is convivial and welcoming. There is a great deal of good-natured audience participation, including for one lucky theatregoer a serenade from Rob Godfrey (Beast). But these slightly forced interactions may be a little too intense for some.

There’s also a juvenile scene, in which the three cast members sing the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Under the Bridge” while taking a communal wee in the men’s bathroom, their streams of urine timed to different lines in the song, which could be excised completely.

Yet what The Choir of Man lacks in depth, it makes up for in 90 minutes of booze-soaked fun. Raise your glasses to The Jungle!

Book The Choir of Man tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: The Choir of Man. (Photo by Mark Douet)