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The Ladykillers Reviews Roundup:

This is emphatically not a replica of the movie, and one or two gags, such as a rotating blackboard that constantly flattens one of the gang, are overworked. But it is an exuberantly inventive evening, one existing in its own right at a tangent to the original, and proving that an ingenious William Rose idea, even when put to a farcical purpose, can still smell as sweet.

Verdict: **** Michael Billington - The Guardian (read the full review here)

Capaldi is animatedly creepy as Marcus, and he combines enjoyably with his gang. James Fleet delights as a blundering Army major with an enthusiasm for cross-dressing. Clive Rowe relishes his role as a dim-witted ex-boxer who repeatedly loses track of his cover story. There's nimble work from Stephen Wight as pill-popping wide boy Harry, who is forever being smacked in the face and attempting to pocket anything that's not nailed down, and from Ben Miller as the villainous Louis, deft with a knife and uncomfortable around old ladies. And Marcia Warren brings a sweetly gentle touch to Mrs Wilberforce.

Verdict: **** Henry Hitchings - The Evening Standard (read the full review here)

The show is packed with cracking comic performances. Peter Capaldi can’t quite erase memories of Guinness’s definitively disconcerting professor, but he brings the unwholesome sanctity of a defrocked priest to the stage as well as sudden moments of evil every bit as vile as his brilliant turn as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It.

Verdict: **** Charles Spencer - The Telegraph (read the full review here)

Mrs Wilberforce is played to perfection by Marcia Warren (pictured), so venerable an actress that she received applause at the first night the moment she appeared.  I always find this Broadway practice odd — a sort of ‘well done for still being alive’. The plentiful applause for Miss Warren at the end is, however, indisputably deserved.

Verdict: **** Quentin Letts - The Daily Mail (read the full review here)