Liam O’Dell November 28, 2025 One of the biggest science fiction novels of all-time has an immersive staging in the rather discreet venue that is Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. While an enthusiastic cast makes things engaging and entertaining, Arvind Ethan David’s script leaves you lost several light years from home… Now, to my shame, I have never read Douglas Adams’ much-loved sci-fi series, so allow me to give a summary of events based on what unfolded in front of me: we’re taken into a pub for a surprise farewell party for everyman Arthur Dent (an amusing, frazzled portrayal by Robert Thompson), overseen by his friend Ford Prefect (a wonderfully zany performance by Matt Colyer) and attended by his love interest Fenchurch (Tamara Saffir of Secret Cinema’s Grease ). Everything is pleasant enough – and once the audience has warmed up, there is a great camaraderie in helping Arthur and engaging in karaoke (which culminates in an awkward and jarring mashup of “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blondes and “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley). For our performance, we all took great pleasure in cheering on one audience member named Neil at regular intervals. That is until proceedings are interrupted by an alien race known as the Vogons who have marked Earth for destruction to carry out some building work. We hitch a ride from Ford’s relative Zaphod (Lee V G), visit the planet of Magrathea, and at one point contribute to the construction of a new Earth, but in all honesty, my curiosity and positive bewilderment at what was happening only stretched so far. The show eventually occupies itself with The Ultimate Question (that’s the one to which the answer is known as 42, but the question itself about life, the universe and everything is unknown), but I found myself having more than just that question on my mind. A romantic storyline is soon established between Arthur and Fenchurch, but fizzles out when she disappears prior to the Earth’s destruction. After that, we’re distracted by conversations on the ship and in the marketplace. There, the performance of a musical number on a small podium, against a small screen background, is uninteresting and unimaginative. Arthur having a chat with a digital Fenchurch was also confusing and lacked sufficient explanation. Is this supposed to be a love story? We see and hear so little of Fenchurch to suggest that. And what about the future of Earth? At the end of the whole piece there’s a big song and dance number with all the cast, and that question is left unanswered, which left me with the feeling that true fans of the Hitchhiker’s franchise will probably appreciate this production a lot more, having jumped that logistical hurdle of figuring out what exactly is going on. Not exactly great for those of us for whom this is our first entry point, however. You certainly get out of the show what you put in, though. We’re told beforehand that back-and-forth between the cast (outside of scripted dialogue) is welcomed, and if you heed those instructions, then there’s a good amount of enjoyment to be found in chatting with Arthur about sandwiches, with Zaphod about his election plans to make the galaxy “great again”, and with Humma Kavula (Aya Elmansouri) about snot and sneezes – right back achoo. A delightful bit of immersion can be found in the stage managers and bar staff interacting with the cast, as part of some playful and appropriate breaking of the fourth wall. The whimsical comedy no doubt contained in Adams’ original franchise is certainly present here, as evidenced in Tamsin Grieg’s Guide slagging off digital watch wearers and one elaborate set design featuring a wired up zorb ball. Source: https://liamodell.com/2025/11/28/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-review-riverside-studios-london-live-fenchurch-ford-prefect-summary/