James Corden praised by critics for 'excellent' return to the West End

James Corden's return to London's West End after 12 years is being praised by critics for showing 'a new side' to the High Wycombe native.

Corden – who grew up in Hazlemere and announced his move back to the UK last spring – kicked off a four-week run in the West End on June 13, starring in Olivier-winning playwright Joe Penhall’s new political drama The Constituent at the Old Vic.

The 45-year-old plays an ex-serviceman “whose life is in freefall”, and who enters into a testing and complex relationship with a backbench MP, putting her “ideals of public office” to the test.

Although the undeniably topical play has received something of a lukewarm critical reception, many have described Corden as its saving grace – with The Telegraph praising his convincing characterisation of a “broken Britain, alienated from the system”.

In its on-trend three-star verdict, the Evening Standard also admits that Penhall’s “thin” subject matter nonetheless gives Corden the chance to “flex a different set of theatrical muscles”.

The Standard praises the Hazlemere native’s “strong” portrayal of his character Alec’s “intensity and increasing desperation”, also giving Motherland actress Anna Maxwell Martin her dues for similarly doing her best impression of an MP buckled under the weight of physical and online scrutiny.

In a generally lacklustre review that describes Penhall’s modern think piece as a “tepid” political study, The Times also gives Corden some credit for his performance – though not enough to fully inhabit the “leaden” dialogue intended to show Alec’s “anguish” at his situation in life.

As a reminder that theatre, as with many other things, is subjective, The Constituent received a four-star rating from the Financial Times, which described it as a “tense, focused” depiction of “what it means to serve” in multiple senses of the word.

Corden and Maxwell Martin are both “excellent”, the FT’s critic writes, respectively digging beneath their bluster and reserve to tap into a vulnerable complexity – with nowhere in the narrow and carefully arranged stage set “to hide”.

The Gavin and Stacey co-creator moved back to England at the beginning of 2023 and secured permission to build his dream home in Henley on the Bucks and Oxfordshire border last autumn.

While he hasn’t returned to his old stomping ground in Wycombe – that we know of – since hopping back across the pond, Corden described growing up in Bucks as “blissfully ordinary” in his 2011 biography, adding that he will always have “such an affection for it as a place”.

The Constituent will run at the Old Vic until August 10. Click here to get tickets now.