Hit Machine ★★★★★ Soho Theatre | Jul 8 - Aug 15, 2026


Jonathan Caren's Hit Machine lives up to its title. Funny, moving and unexpectedly profound, it delivers both laughs and emotional punch while asking searching questions about family, memory and the price of turning pain into art. The play centres on two brothers bound together by childhood trauma and an enduring love of music, yet divided by the radically different ways they have learned to survive. Wes (Josh Radnor) is a high-powered music executive who has repressed the trauma of his upbringing beneath the polished armour of professional success in an industry famed for its ruthless politics. His younger brother Alex (Noah Galvin), by contrast, wears every wound on the surface. Unable to make peace with the past, he has drifted through life, his talent overshadowed by unresolved grief. When the brothers reunite, old resentments, shared memories and long-buried truths erupt with wit, tenderness and devastating honesty. Caren writes sibling relationships with remarkable precision, capturing the uneasy blend of affection, jealousy, loyalty and rivalry that defines so many families. Radnor and Galvin are superb, creating characters who feel utterly authentic. Their chemistry is effortless, and every exchange crackles with humour, pain and unmistakable love. Yet Hit Machine reaches far beyond domestic drama. Music is not simply the brothers' shared language but the play's central metaphor. Caren explores the tension between art as an act of healing and art as a commodity. Songs may spring from the deepest wells of human experience, but they are also packaged, marketed and sold, transforming genuine emotion into commercial product. The role of art as a provider of collective catharsis is contrasted with its present commercialisation and the cynical inducement and manipulation of essentially false feelings. Without ever becoming didactic, the play raises uncomfortable questions about how creativity and authenticity are exploited by the entertainment industry. Daniel Bailey's assured production never loses sight of the humanity at the story's heart, allowing its larger ideas to emerge organically from the characters. The finale, with its near-singalong exuberance, is both uplifting and quietly unsettling. It celebrates music's extraordinary power to unite, while ironically reminding us how easily that same power can be manipulated to manufacture emotions and generate profit. Few new plays balance humour, heartbreak and intellectual ambition with such assurance. Hit Machine is exactly that: a hit.

Rated: ★★★★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Bautista Araya

When, Where, Getting there:
Map & Location: 21 Dean St, London W1D 3NE, UK

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