The Game's Afoot, Madame Tussauds, review: 'The detail in each little room is wonderful'

Madame Tussauds in London provides the latest interactive theatre show following Punchdrunk, Door in a Wall, You Me Bum Bum and The Crystal Maze

Inspector Lestrade and Mortician in The Game's Afoot at Madame Tussaud's (Rah Petherbridge Photography)

First let’s address the waxwork elephant in the room: Madame Tussauds is a big corporate entity that has jumped on the interactive theatre bandwagon (once the preserve of students, or maverick entrepreneurs who grew their shows organically over time, eventually gaining huge success – see Punchdrunk, A Door in a Wall, You Me Bum Bum Train and The Crystal Maze, to name just a handful.

But what might normally be dismissed as a show just for tourists has gained some credibility by taking on the people behind last year’s fantastical production of Alice Underground at The Vaults under Waterloo station in London. In comparison, this feels more rushed, both in terms of the timing (participants have just one hour to sleuth their way through the rooms, interrogating suspects and examining clues) and, I suspect, in the amount of time that Les Enfants Terribles had to piece the whole thing together. It’s smaller-scale, with fewer rooms to explore than Alice, but rather than timed scenes in each room, the audience are able to roam freely. The production has the depth and credibility we’ve come to expect from Les Enfants, with plenty of red herrings laid among the 100 or so clues and sinister characters to keep you guessing.

The setting, by the way, is in rooms underneath Madame Tussauds, which is located right by Baker Street Tube station, so you won’t be searching for evidence in Johnny Depp’s hat or Madonna’s hair. You are in Victorian London, Doctor Watson is at home at 221B, but Sherlock Holmes is not: you must solve the case in his absence.

The detail in each little room is wonderful, and you could happily spend the full hour rifling through the paperwork in Holmes’s flat, or poking around the cadavers’ effects in the mortuary. Running around and speaking to everyone is recommended if you care about solving the case though.

The acting is patchy, but that might be down to early nerves and at least it maintains a bar high above recent disastrous sprawls into the immersive, such as Goosebumps Alive at The Vaults, which was hammier than a hog roast.

There were some kinks that have yet to be ironed out. For some reason Inspector Lestrade, played by a woman (hooray!), is caked in clown-like white face and bright red lips (weird). Charlotte Newton John, who played Cecilia, one of the suspects, is strangely stand-offish to the point where I thought the actor might be struggling with this whole engaging-with-the-audience business. But on the whole, it was a thoroughly enjoyable hour, I just wish we’d had more time to rifle through all the neat little details of the set and really get to know the suspects.

Until 30 September, tickets from £46.50. 0844 248 1322, thegamesafoot.co.uk