Broadway star Ben Platt delivers a superb performance in the British debut of Mark Sonnenblick's intimate queer musical 'Midnight at the Never Get' at the Menier Chocolate Factory. The production, directed by David Cromer, runs from 21 July to 12 September 2026 and has earned a 4 out of 5 star rating from Time Out.
Atmospheric Setting and Star Power
The Menier Chocolate Factory's auditorium has been reconfigured to resemble an atmospheric 1960s NYC cabaret club, setting the stage for Platt's powerful performance. The two-hander musical serves as a great vehicle for Platt's talents as both a singer and actor, but the show offers more than just star wattage. It is a funny, sad, and wistful piece set in New York, 1965, where Platt plays Trevor, the singing half of a performing and romantic duo alongside songwriter Arthur, played by Gregor Milne.
Plot and Themes
The story unfolds in a smoky Greenwich Village club called the Never Get, where Arthur tells and sings the story of their turbulent relationship and contrasting careers. The era depicted is one where being gay is a threat to life and livelihood. Sonnenblick's writing creates a delicious blurring of reality and theatrical invention, partly through Trevor's casual asides, building Arthur as a fictional superstar of the great American songbook.
The score and lyrics are lushly evocative of Cole Porter, feeling like songs you almost remember. One of the show's strongest through-lines is when Arthur initially insists on keeping male pronouns in these classically framed love songs, turning them into a powerful social lens. The show also explores Trevor's increasing conflict with Arthur over the latter's insistence that achieving mainstream success is the route to equality, rather than the rising tide of 1960s activism. This dovetails with the age-old story of what people will sacrifice for success and what social acceptance looks like, leaving audiences to question whether Arthur's catchy standards are subversive or a cop-out.
Direction and Performances
Director David Cromer keeps intimacy, self-doubt, and regret central as Trevor wanders among the audience. The show's meta-theatricality and fourth-wall-breaking cleverness sometimes get in the way, but Cromer never loses sight of the core story's bittersweet heft. Gregor Milne does a great job embodying an Arthur who is as much a self-serving and self-lacerating spectral creation of Trevor's imagination as he is a real person, moving fluidly between boiling creative intensity and being the cruel echo of a broken relationship. The snatches of tenderness he and Platt sketch as he plays the on-stage piano are the piece's moorings.
Barry James delivers a lovely last act performance as Trevor faces his mortality, appearing fragile, poignant, but impishly defiant. However, the main plaudits go to Platt, who is simultaneously charismatic and achingly vulnerable. He sends a gorgeous shiver through every song and lands wisecracks with a practised twinkle, perfectly inhabiting the demeanour of a performer from yesteryear until, suddenly and heartbreakingly, dropping it in stillness.
Practical Information
'Midnight at the Never Get' is performed at the Menier Chocolate Factory, located at 53 Southwark St, London SE1 1RU. The nearest tube station is London Bridge. Tickets range from £55 to £74.50, and the running time is 1 hour 40 minutes. Performances run Tuesday to Saturday at 19:30 from 21 July to 12 September 2026.
