Axe falls on Greta Scacchi show

Greta Scacchi has gone to ground as she comes to terms with the imminent closure of what should have been a triumphant return to the West End stage after a 12-year absence.

The 40-year-old film star has cancelled all interviews to promote her new show, The Guardsman, which she and all concerned with the production hoped would run at the Albery Theatre at least into the New Year.

However, poor reviews and lack of audience interest have killed any chance of that and it will close on 28 October - little more than two weeks after opening - with losses amounting to around £250,000.

"It's very depressing," said producer Paddy Wilson, who had to give the cast the bad news the day after that inauspicious first night. "This was my big show for the autumn. It has a great cast with Greta, Michael Pennington and Georgina Hale and it looks wonderful. It is a great theatre and the best time of year to launch a show.

"But the critics and the audience don't want it. The reviews have been universally bad and the audience are not buying tickets. I was expecting an advance of £100,000 or so but we only got £30,000. I just think I have lost the plot because artistically it has been good."

The critics, however, did not agree. This newspaper's Nicholas de Jongh found this "old theatrical warhorse, otherwise known as a 1911 sex-war comedy, lumbering into town, looking as if it was almost on its last legs". Nor was he impressed by the two leading actors, Miss Scacchi and Mr Pennington, who play a pair of star actors six months into an uncertain marriage. He, fearing she is unfaithful, dons an unlikely disguise as a guardsman to test her fidelity.

According to de Jongh, neither actor is a natural comedian. He wrote: "With Georgina Hale and Laura Macaulay grossly overacting as retainers, the lead players miss comedy chances."

The Daily Telegraph says that "this compelling and erotic comedy has been turned into a crude and laboured farce". The Independent talks of "this misconceived production". The Daily Mail finds it "disastrously low on energy" and Miss Scacchi "stumbling in the shallows of this 1911 comedy".

Their views were questioned by Paddy Wilson. "They all say it is a dated play but it is about entertainment. Shows don't have to give you a vision of life," he said.

"Sometimes you put on a show which is purely entertainment. Theatre should be allowed to do that."

According to some reports, the death sentence had been passed on The Guardsman even before it opened by The Ambassador Theatre Group, which runs the Albery. The group had already rescued the production when a backer pulled out at the last moment. Mr Wilson had to ask the leading actors to accept a reduced rate of pay for the first two weeks to enable the show to continue.