The Marilyn Conspiracy – Paul Donovan applauds an intriguing multi-layered depiction, dominated by a stunning impersonation of Marilyn herself,

1 Sep 2026

PIXIE LOTT dom­in­ates this play about the life and, ulti­mately, the death of Mar­ilyn Mon­roe. The play comes at a timely moment, namely, the 100th anniversary of Mon­roe’s birth; something that is being marked by an excel­lent exhib­i­tion, Mar­ilyn Mon­roe — a Por­trait, at the nearby National Por­trait Gal­lery.

A lot is packed into the two-hour-plus play, that runs through the life and loves of this 20th cen­tury icon. Heavy on con­spir­acy the­or­ies, this mul­tilayered depic­tion also addresses the insec­ur­ity of Mon­roe’s life. Her demons, born of a troubled upbring­ing.

Totally in con­trol of her image when mod­el­ling, she struggles to get the recog­ni­tion she feels she war­ran­ted as an actor. Always the sex sym­bol, rather than the actor. Con­fid­ent, yet vul­ner­able.

The sense of con­spir­acy comes from the involve­ment with Pres­id­ent John F Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy. Indeed, the pro­duc­tion could argu­ably be per­ceived as a roller-coaster of ’60s con­spir­acies.

The close­ness of rela­tion­ship between the shady worlds of polit­ics, organ­ised crime, law enforce­ment and show­biz is well cap­tured. Mafia boss Sam Gian­cana, seem­ingly implic­ated in the demise of Mar­ilyn, with J Edgar Hoover’s FBI in the back­ground extract­ing lever­age, par­tic­u­larly on the Kennedys. Gian­cana and the mob were also later rumoured to have played a role in the assas­sin­a­tion of JFK.

The pro­duc­tion is well put together by dir­ector Philip Wm.  McKin­ley. The light­ing adds a sin­is­ter ele­ment. Everything, though, centres around Lott.

The nar­rat­ive is strong, run­ning through Mar­ilyn’s life’s and loves, from base­ball player Joe Di Mag­gio to play­wright Arthur Miller and the Kennedys. There are the chee­sey moments, like when, in the throes of pas­sion, Mon­roe asks JFK to repeat the part of his pres­id­en­tial address: “Ask not what your coun­try can do for you, ask what you can do for your coun­try.” Maybe, an ironic nod that Kennedy’s mul­tiple part­ners were serving their coun­try.

The whole play centres around a static set, made up of the bed where Mon­roe died. Lott is the nar­rator throughout, shim­mer­ing from one scene to the next.

One cri­ti­cism would be that maybe there is too much swap­ping around of char­ac­ters, with all but Lott and Ryan Ell­s­worth (Dr Ralph Green­son) hav­ing mul­tiple roles. So Julie Arm­strong plays house­keeper Eunice and J Edgar Hoover, while Simon Bass is Arthur Jac­obs, Frank Otash, Joe Kennedy and Lawrence Olivier. This can give a cer­tain cramped feel.

The pro­duc­tion is nar­row in that it does not stray much bey­ond Mon­roe’s sex life, there could have been more depth.

Over­all this is a pro­duc­tion cer­tainly worth see­ing. An intriguing con­spir­acy tale, sewn together by writer, Shar­leen Cooper Cohen. It cer­tainly raises ques­tions about what really happened to Mon­roe. Well dir­ec­ted and executed by a good cast, it is Pixie Lott who steals the show.

Runs until Octo­ber 29. Box office: (020) 8165-9933, Emer­ald.lon­don