Review Round-Up: HIGH NOON at the Harold Pinter Theatre

High Noon is the stage adaptation of Fred Zinnemann's 1952 Hollywood classic, directed by Olivier Award winner Thea Sharrock (The Bodyguard), with a script by Oscar winner Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Dune). Marshall Will Kane is planning on retiring and spending his days with his new bride Amy Fowler, but his old enemy, the dangerous outlaw Frank Miller, is returning to town on the high noon train. High Noon stars Emmy and Tony Award winner Billy Crudup (The Morning Show) as Will Kane; Olivier Award winner Denise Gough (People, Places and Things) as Amy Fowler; Billy Howle (The Perfect Couple, On Chesil Beach) as Harvey Pell; and Rosa Salazar (Play Dirty, The Maze Runner) as Helen Ramirez.

What are critics saying about High Noon?

The Guardian

“A tense adaptation that turns the film into a debate play”

★★★★

Arifa Akbar appreciated how this adaptation reshaped the classic western as “a debate play whose McCarthy-era roots resonate powerfully today.” She found it “an odd experience initially”, often “wooden” in places despite its “handsome set”, but felt it eventually found its flow. She wrote, “Eric Roth’s script uses many lines from Foreman’s screenplay but fleshes out the debates on the ethical stance of a community in the face of wrongdoing and misguided American myths around immigration.” She was full of praise for Billy Crudup and Denise Gough’s talents; Crudup did justice to Gary Cooper’s original portrayal, while Gough “makes her part grittier and more modern than that of her film counterpart” and the “pair are convincing as a couple.” “It seems like a reluctant musical at times,” she thought, but ultimately felt “the percussive music and sound design are always arresting, as is the lighting, designed by Neil Austin, which brings emotional clarity and intrigue.”

Read the review here.

WhatsOnStage

“A suitably wild Western”

★★★

Sarah Crompton agreed that this adaptation;s “themes and relevance could not possibly be in doubt.” She thought Crudup played Kane “with a grave charisma and grace”, while “Gough, such an intelligent actress, doesn’t have quite enough to do with Amy… though she sings beautifully.” However she found “moral thrust of the film is somehow missing.” “The production,” she wrote, “is almost too well-wrought.” She thought Sharrock’s direction was “thoughtful and taut”, while the fight choreography was “realistic” and “Tom Hatley’s set design of slatted walls is evocatively lit by Neil Austin.” “There are terrific supporting performances too,” she wrote, with special mention to Rosa Salazar as Helen and Billy Howle as Harvey. Her verdict: “The rest is careful and elegantly enjoyable, but lacks that emotional punch.”

Read the review here.

The Independent

“A thoughtful Western with vital moments missing”

★★★

Alice Saville thought this “thoughtful staging” technically had all the “enjoyably kitschy tropes” of the Western genre, but caveated that “they're painted in muted colours, rather than nostalgic technicolour.” She felt Roth’s script “deftly outlines the impact of growing up in a society where violence is a currency”, while Crudup “lends a quiet integrity to the role of sheriff Marshall Kane.” On the Bruce Springsteen soundtrack, she felt “sometimes they heighten the atmosphere, sometimes they shatter it, a little, by interrupting moments that could be left to linger.” For her, the storytelling “feels a little slow, a little crowded, a little uncertain of what it is.” Her verdict: “it doesn't deliver either the adrenaline or the emotional punch that gives Western movies their enduring power.”

Read the review here.

Denise Gough, Bill Crudup, and the cast of HIGH NOON. Photo by Johan Persson.

The Times

“Billy Crudup breathes new life into the western”

★★★

Crudup, wrote Clive Davis, “delivers a more ambivalent version of an unassuming man who is trying to do his duty” than Gary Cooper did. But ultimately, he felt “Roth doesn’t quite persuade you that this is a story that needs to be remade”, and the play felt “a tad one-dimensional” compared to the film. Gough “brings a much more assertive edge” to Amy’s character, while Rosa Salazar “impresses, too, as Helen Ramirez”. He also praised Tim Hatley’s set design, but found that, with the play’s pacing issues, “the climactic shoot-out looks perfunctory.”

Read the review here.

London Box Office

“Falls flat and ultimately proves more mule than stallion”

★★★

Stuart King felt that the play “falls flat and ultimately proves more mule than stallion.” He found the inclusion of songs to be incongruous, and thought “they serve to offer relief from the otherwise often plodding narrative where tension manages to simmer but never quite reaches boiling point.” He noted that Roth’s script attempts to pad the “simple fable about honour and doing the right thing when faced with tough situations” with two sub-plots in order to fill the two hour running time. While Gough and Crudup were undoubtedly talented, he ultimately felt the stage adaptation failed to meet the high expectations that surrounded its widely anticipated premiere.

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TimeOut

“This stage adaptation of the classic Western feels like more of a curiosity than a convincing play”

★★★

Andrzej Lukowski called it “an impressive show in a lot of ways.” He wrote, “Thea Sharrock’s direction deftly conjures a dusty desert town using flexible sets, lovely period costumes (from Tim Hatley) and some sparse but effective gun slingin’.” He found Crudup and Gough “sensational”, and commented: “Both leads are formidable, charismatic presences who make the roles their own and fairly comprehensively do a different thing to Cooper and Kelly.” But he noted that the adaptation changes the film’s original allegorical meaning, with Miller as a “Trump proxy”. He also noted that “the story ends weirdly abruptly – it needs a much longer final act”, and that “some of the songs etc are just there to find Gough something to do.” He concluded: “High Noon the film is an all time classic. High Noon the play is an entertaining curio.”

Read the review here.

Billy Howle in HIGH NOON. Photo by Johan Persson.

The i Paper

“Don't watch this below par rehash of a classic”

★★

Fiona Mountford’s recommendation was to watch the film instead. “Crudup has none of the stature nor demeanour of Cooper,” she wrote, who “sounds like nothing more than a desperate door-to-door salesman.” Gough, meanwhile, “does fine work”, as does Rosa Salazar, with both female characters providing “the heart and soul of this piece”​​. Like others, she also noticed how “there are inescapable echoes of America’s current political turmoil in Roth’s script.” But she felt the production “has little sense of a ratcheting up of tension as the clock ticks down; it also cannot begin to compete with the film’s mighty denouement.”

Read the review here.

The Telegraph

“This adaptation of High Noon could never rival the classic film”

★★

Dominic Cavendish agreed that Crudup and Gough “can’t match Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly on screen, and Thea Sharrock’s stylish and yet grit-free production stokes only fitful tension.” He found the production: “picturesque but pedestrian: period costumes, slatted wooden walls for the set, flurries of song and dance.” He wrote, “Crudup cuts a frailer, more wavering figure than Cooper – his authority is not a done-deal”, while “Gough is given more articulacy and inner conflict as Amy.” He was also disappointed by how “the big gun-slinging denouement, albeit rushed in the film, here lacks the requisite adrenal quality.” Like Mountford, his recommendation was: “better to re-watch the film.”

Read the review here.

High Noon is playing at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 7th March 2026. If you loved seeing well-known faces Billy Crudup and Denise Gough up close and personal in High Noon, check our our list of Stars on Stage in London in 2026 to stay up to date with all the big-name stars who'll be taking the West End by storm this year.