A Knight's Tale

Brona C Titley, based on the Brian Helgeland film of the same name

Tristan Baker & Charlie Parsons for Runaway Entertainment, Isobel David, Adam Spiegel & Tulchin Bartner, Playing Field, Ramin Sabi, Shake & Stir, Tiny Giant Entertainment 

Opera House, Manchester

April 11-May 10, 2025; 2hrs 30mins

Scrap! Things get heated on the jousting field in A Knight's Tale

Buddy, you're a boy, make a big noise, playing in the street; Gonna be a big man someday... 

Thus opens A Knight’s Tale, prophetically, and with the tried and tested Queen number that grabs the audience from the moment it begins. The boy soprano (Theo Wake for tonight’s performance), gallantly riding a hobby horse while singing, and in medieval garb, is at once comical and nostalgic, and put me in mind of the shepherd boy opening the third act of Puccini’s Tosca.

I kid you not: this is epic, and that good. The stars shine down as the central desires driving young William, our hero, are revealed: to become the big man, achieve knighthood, to "change his stars" and of course to win the fair lady (the delectable Meesha Turner as Princess Jocelyn). 

It’s a fairy tale, based on the 2001 Hollywood film starring Heath Ledger (also with clever references to Chaucer’s opening Canterbury Tale of the same title) and held together by a very well-chosen repertoire of absolutely banging tunes from the 80s to the Noughties – every one a crowd-pleasing, rip-roaring classic (some of them borrowed from the soundtrack of the original movie).

If opening with a small boy leading the narrative of the ultimate join-in, stomp-stomp-clap anthem isn’t enough (you don’t even have to sing to participate – it was always a work of democratic genius), wait for the second number, which begins in style with a break-dancing knight in full medieval body armour.  

The set, costumes, choreography and movement are actually awe-inspiring throughout. Jousting happens on impressively clad horses, built around the actors (Andrew Cochan as William and Oliver Tompsett as his arch-rival Count Adhemar), also galloping valiantly on stilts. The peasant supporters wave football flags, gymnastic ribbons and giant foam fingers variously throughout, sometimes even playing medieval marching drums, always in Broadway-style formation. There are pyrotechnics, aerial moments, an impressive scissor lift that rises from the orchestra pit, and a moment in training when William is thrown from his horse into the pit. But of course, in the classic words of Chumbawamba, he gets knocked down, but he gets up again. Of course he does. Every time. 

The medieval touches go beyond sumptuous costume (designed by SIX’s Gabriella Slade) and story: there are beautiful early musical moments – the pastiche opening of Seal’s Kiss from a Rose, and an introduction to Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody from the orchestra on recorder (Mikey Davis). Yes, I checked, it was real. 

In perhaps the best musical theatre sex scene since Wagner’s Die Walkure, or maybe Jenna’s pineapple upside down pie from Waitress (I’ll just leave those there for you to Google), William (spoiler alert), having won fair lady, duets with her that, as Belinda Carlise once said, Heaven is a Place on Earth. And so it was for the couple, the entire company and the whole audience this evening. 

In a way it’s exquisite pantomime, with incredible production values and unforgettable tunes. Will’s merry band of men give us much of the comedy – joker Roland (Emile Ruddock), squire What (Eva Scott) later joined by female (Welsh) blacksmith Emily Benjamin. With a powerful belt she was indeed Every Woman. Meanwhile the romantic tensions growing between non-binary What and the Blacksmith are perhaps more intense and certainly more interesting than the fairytale romance at the centre.  

Perhaps my favourite character was Geoff Chaucer. There’s a great deal of skill in costume and movement in a naked man moving strategically around the stage, betwixt and between props, with only a giant parchment for modesty. Max Bennett is a joy; acting as narrator, his lines are clever, and he tells us so himself. He’s the father of English literature; of course he can break the fourth wall... 

If Mamma Mia shows us that the jukebox musical is an art form, A Knight’s Tale pushes the envelope, and its luck, one step further. The clever interweaving of amazing and iconic songs, from A-Ha to S Club 7 (two of my particular favourites of the evening) integrated with wit, charm and bucketfuls of adrenaline reminds us of the unadulterated joy of musical theatre at its entertaining best.

It’s a spectacle, a satire, a romance, and a thoroughly deserving brilliant night out. 

More info and tickets here