Stage Review Wilko: Love and Death and Rock 'n' Roll

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cast of Wilko: Love and Death and Rock 'n' Roll

Wilko: Love and Death and Rock 'n' Roll

⭐⭐⭐

Writer: Jonathan Maitland

Director: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart

Writer, Jonathan Maitland uses the three aspects of the play's title, being a take on the famous Ian Drury and the Blockheads number: sex n' drugs [...]; to arrive at a fair and honest portrayal of the late music artist, Wilko Johnson.

Love: Wilko Johnson's first love was poetic verse, English Language and Literature, only to be matched by a deep interest in Astronomy. Growing up in Canvey, he was an Essex boy through and through. He left home early, went into education, married young and returned to Essex not long after.

Death: The play is a memory play as it begins with Wilko in later life at the hospital receiving his cancer diagnosis, news which was widely publicised at the time. Wilko was able to turn that negative into a positive because he used the gravitas of that news to raise his public profile once again. 

Rock'n' Roll: as the charismatic guitar player in British R&B band Dr. Feelgood (a band he co-founded in 1971) Wilko was a live wire in his performances. This iconic, four-piece, achieved great chemistry. Wilko was confident, opiniated and arrogant which made him very 'punk'.

This show consists of a small, but excellent cast of actors/musicians.

Actor, Johnson Willis embodies the characteristics of the older Wilko in speech and posture and is super in the role., but rather disappointingly when he is positioned in the guitarist role with Dr. Feelgood and we are all thinking of those fabulous, hot and sweaty, video clips that circulate from the 70s, with the band performing live songs like Roxette and She Does it Right ... with Wilko all suited up, we hope to see a glimmer of the same poise and energy and the chugging pull on the strings of the guitar in this fictional version of Wilko. It is not there, but, perhaps, it is impossible to imitate and should not be expected.

Actor Jon House, on the other hand, clearly laps up the role of late, frontman Lee Brilleaux, he's just great and plays the mouth organ so cleanly. 

It is evident from the high attendance in Coventry's Belgrade Theatre that Wilko remains a fascination for people. However, there is a degree of myth busting and bubble bursting in this show, in terms of him falling short of possessing raw talent as a musician, nevertheless, a showman, he most definitely was! By the man's own admission he had to learn to play along with more accomplished players on the hoof. During his time with Dr. Feelgood Wilko loathed performing covers and insisted on originality when possible. He was a deeply cultured man and this paved the way for him in life.

These stage plays about figures of popular culture are often of the same format, storytelling about the ups and downs of life and the light and shade of character filled out with musical interjections to hold the interest. It's long enough but it is an entertaining two hour show (with interval).

Review by Theatre Critic Debra Hall who attended Wilko: Love and Death and Rock'n' Roll at The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry on Monday 07 September 2026 at 7.30pm