Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Riverside Studios)

Review by Daz Gale

⭐️⭐️

Since bringing more of a focus to theatre over the last few years, Riverside Studios in Hammersmith has played host to some truly out-of-this-world shows, and that is literally the case with their latest offering. Douglas Adams’ timeless classic The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is back thrilling audiences in a new immersive experience, hoping to showcase the story in a way that has never been seen before, but would this be able to answer all of the biggest questions and mysteries in life, the Universe and Everything - and more importantly, the mystery of how to create a great immersive experience? Spoiler alert: Not really.

First seen (well, heard) as a radio sitcom beginning in 1978, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy has won legions of fans and become a cult favourite in the decades since, with the novels, television series and film adaptation keeping the story alive. The original story centres around an ordinary Englishman named Arthur Dent who discovers Earth is about to be destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Luckily for him, he is rescued by his friend Ford Prefect in the nick of time and thrust into an adventure across the galaxy, meeting a whole host of weird and wonderful characters along the way.

This immersive experience follows the blueprint to that story to an extent, only it allows 100 or so audience members to be the main focus, forcing Arthur Dent to take a backseat. That is where the problems begin with this experience. It doesn’t know what it wants to be or, more importantly, how it is going to get there. There is a lot of goodwill involved in this creation, but the story becomes near-impossible to follow with the hastily cobbled together realisation of this world feeling something closer to the now infamous Willy’s Chocolate Experience than anything on the level this experience proposed to be.

It all starts well enough, as audience members are seated in ‘The Horse & Groom’ pub, gathered for Arthur Dent’s leaving party. Cast members mill around, interacting with the audience and using them in the story, with some fantastic callbacks as the experience progresses, though I did chicken out when Ford Prefect announced “Daz is now going to sing Whitney Houston for us” - I felt the audience had suffered enough by this point. It is telling that the experience was at its best before it had even begun, and that is mostly down to the talented cast taking on these characters. Interacting with them was a lot of fun, and showcased their strengths at improvisation. It is more telling that it all started to fall apart when they were no longer steering their own ship and had to follow the structure (I use that word loosely) of the impending disaster.

Though there has always been a joyous kookiness to the story of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, this experience showcased a fundamental lack of understanding for it, and where the level is, somehow shoehorning in awful musical numbers for no reason whatsoever. If two characters singing 4 Non Blonde’s ‘What’s Up’ (without a Nicki Minaj mashup) and Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’ at the same time sounds chaotic and illogical, you have no idea. What it added to the experience, I couldn’t tell you, but the second-hand embarrassment I felt is probably not what was intended. Sadly, this was not the only musical number of the experience, with each one more pointless and terribly executed than the last. Shockingly poor choreography, problematic projection and the sense that it was killing what little pacing was left stone dead made these among the weaker aspects of the experience.

Let’s talk about that pacing. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy runs at a supposedly breezy 90 minutes, whisking you through room after room in an experience that in theory should have been faster than travelling at lightspeed. It was therefore surprising at how much the experience dragged. Checking my watch (never a good sign) in what I was convinced must be nearing the end of the show, I was shocked to discover only 42 minutes had passed. Though 42 may be the answer, I didn’t realise the question was “How long has it been since this nightmare unfolded?”. This poor pacing is down to direction that was directionless, at its most aimless when the audience were instructed to move to the next room.

The cargo hold that was the second room was a real low-point of the experience, losing all goodwill that the first room had built in and showcasing how badly thought out and terribly executed this production is. As we moved into the third room, the audience sat and stood around expectantly for the first 5 minutes or so, waiting for anything to happen. It was only then people began to realise they were meant to be milling around, looking at the various things on offer in the room and talking to the multiple characters. Though with any immersive experience, you get as much as you put in and those who get more involved with interacting are sure to have a better time, there needs to be clear direction in what to do in each room, especially if one is distinctly different from the others.

The lack of people on hand to direct the audience through, manage their expectations and the flow of people is one of this production’s biggest shortcomings. Perhaps they were short-staffed, or perhaps it was an oversight, but it led to the whole thing feeling far more cheap and amateurish than some of the design elements would have you believe. I felt for anyone who had opted for the higher-priced VIP package. While this was meant to give you some sort of priority with reserved seating in each room, this was quickly abandoned, resulting in a free-for-all that meant people had paid more for essentially nothing more than a drink and pack of playing cards (a nice touch in itself, but not enough to warrant the extra price).

Some of the design aspects of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy saved this from being a total disaster, especially when it came to the creation of the iconic character Marvin the Paranoid Android, brilliantly voiced and moved by Andrew Evans, though the choice to randomly meet him in a corridor as you’re passing through is perplexing, and he becomes more of a side note, always somewhere in a corner rather than the main attraction - something that would give him real cause to be depressed.

I went into this immersive experience with plenty of goodwill and high hopes to discover a new world and truly escape into it. 90 minutes later I left with crushing disappointment and frustration at how any potential had been squandered due to poor planning that should have easily been caught before the show opened to the public. I didn’t have a clue what this experience wanted to be, but then neither did the experience itself. While the phrase “don’t panic” is closely associated with the story, panic is an emotion I couldn’t muster, as nothing could penetrate the sheer boredom I felt throughout.

An unmitigated disaster, as the story counts down to the imminent destruction of Earth, I found myself rooting for the aliens as it may have been kinder than continuing down this incredibly problematic path. I admire the ambition of all involved with this experience, but the vision has been lost to create something that feels irrevocably  aimless. Perhaps more could be done to improve this production, but it would mean the creative team ripping up the guide book and starting all over again. As it stands, this is one experience I wouldn’t recommend hitching a ride to.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy plays at Riverside Studios until 15th February. Tickets from https://allthatdazzles.londontheatredirect.com/play/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-live-tickets