The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy review – flimsy extravaganza needs deeper thought

Riverside Studios, London
The madcap sci-fi tale is retold on a lavish scale, complete with in-show merch, but it never really blasts off

Douglas Adams’s sci-fi comedy about Earth’s destruction and Arthur Dent’s intergalactic adventures has become a stratospheric enterprise since the original radio series in 1978. That spawned six books, a TV series, a film, comics, stage adaptations – and branded bath towels.

Booming business indeed yet it is odd to see the sale of merchandise as part of this immersive show (there is one booth selling branded goods within the production and a second in the foyer), as well as a bar at every turn. That commercial opportunism grates. Is this an attempt to take the audience into Adams’s imaginative universe in a new, interactive way – or merely a cash cow?