Iron mask - a critical massacre?

“Ferocious critics kill off show put on for dying wife,” trumpeted London’s Evening Standard last Friday when, just three days after the opening night of Behind the Iron Mask, it was announced that the show would close.

The headline contains two interesting ‘facts’ but only one of them actually helps to explain why the show has failed so spectacularly. It was not due to the alleged ferocity of the reviews - we were only reporting what we were seeing, and would be failing in our duty if we did not do so before our readers might have been tempted to spend up to £43.50 a ticket to see it for themselves.

Mark Shenton in The Stage defends the critics.