ONE-4-REVIEW - 08/08/2626
The show combines music, storytelling and comedy to create an affectionate and entertaining portrait of a remarkable musician. Rather than presenting a conventional biography, it allows its central character to look back on a life shaped by music, ambition and the considerable burden of being remembered for one particular piece of music.
The performance gets off to a suitably chaotic start, with several attempts by the increasingly frustrated composer before he finally succeeds in playing his concerto. A ‘swear jar’ makes an early appearance, setting the tone for a performance that is as much about the personality behind the music as the music itself. There are plenty of musical jokes and some excellent one-liners, including a particularly amusing suggestion that composers may find inspiration in the everyday sounds around them, from doorbells to passing ambulances.
Ludwig is understandably frustrated at being known principally for the opening of his Fifth Symphony. His comparisons with other composers reveal a mixture of admiration, envy and professional insecurity, with Mozart in particular becoming something of an obsession because of the extraordinary success that he achieved during his lifetime.
There is plenty of biography along the way, including the story of Ludwig’s childhood as a prodigy, encouraged by his father to perform from an early age. But this never becomes a dry history lesson. The performer is an engaging raconteur, moving easily between the spoken material and some very accomplished piano playing. The combination works particularly well. The music gives the storytelling substance, while the humour and conversational style make the composer feel like a character rather than simply a name from a musical textbook.
Performed to a packed audience in an intimate venue, Ludwig: Unfinished Business proved to be an enjoyable hour of music and comedy. The enthusiastic response at the end was well deserved.
An entertaining, witty and accomplished performance, and one that I would highly recommend catching. (Howard) https://one4review.co.uk/2026/08/ludwig-unfinished-business-4/

BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE - 08/08/26
The audience enters the small shipping container on St Andrew Square (not Assembly Rooms as stated in the brochure) to Mike Hatchard as Beethoven sat at a keyboard, which he plays constantly throughout the show.
This is Beethoven a little before his death in 1827, but he is also aware of the world since his time, referring to the first five notes of his fifth symphony as his 'ringtone' and of the work of twentieth century composer Karlheinz Stockhausen as "inkblots", and even incorporates some more modern popular music ("roll over Chuck Berry," he says during one piece). He has been working on his tenth symphony but it is unfinished—and remains so to this day. He said he spent three days working on a sequence of seven notes and ended up with the version with which he started.
There is a lot of putting down of other composers—making use of the swear jar next to him with the regular 'plink' of a coin adding to the music—before talking about his own life, but not necessarily in order. He talks of his two fathers, both of whom he disliked, of being arrested as a 'tramp' when he was better known but the police didn't believe he was the real Beethoven until someone identified him, then back to when he says Mozart agreed to take him as a pupil, but he had to return to Bonn when his mother became ill and died, and by the time he got back to Vienna, Mozart had died—so he had to "make do with an elderly man called Haydn".
He twice refers to the subject of his "Für Elise", but tells us nothing. It would have been nice to have been told something about her before the end. But he does talk about his piano 'duels', demonstrating how he won one by requesting four notes from his current audience (he was given A, C, F# and B? at the reviewed performance) and improvising a piece based on them in a Beethovian style.
It's certainly an impressive performance from Hatchard, who plays music throughout in many different styles and from different composers to accompany his explanations and complaints. The script is informative and has gentle humour woven through it from Hatchard and co-writer-director Guy Masterson making a very pleasant way to spend an hour at lunchtime.
Reviewer: David Chadderton

Musical Theatre Review - 28/08/26
28/08/26
Actor-musician Mike Hatchard’s engaging impersonation of Beethoven brings new meaning to ‘triple threat’ musical theatre. It also offers a fun morning out.
Avoiding dancing and also singing, Guy Masterson directs Hatchard’s physicality and musicianship firmly towards his strength – pianistic acting – in order to conjure up Ludwig’s rivals: Mozart, Haydn and Bach.
Mingling with this heavyweight trio are Salieri, who is swiftly dismissed as nowhere near rivalrous enough; Stockhausen, who is praised for following through Beethoven’s errors; and rock ‘n’ rolling Chuck Berry who receives the fondest attention.
Musical excerpts from all these composers are indulged in and ornament Ludwig’s autobiography. Hatchard’s accurate recall of every example has an improvisatory feel. In the character of Ludwig, he appropriately chastises himself regularly for swearing in accompaniment to telling stories of encounters with the two fellow musicians he had met, and in the case of Bach, knowledge of his music and reputation.
Love interest comes in rondo form with repeated references to ‘Für Elise’, long a staple of school music room ‘Bagatelle’ tournaments, the twisting opening of which also tunes in nicely to a UK ambulance siren. For Ludwig the melody evokes a romantic scenario he isn’t prepared to reveal details of.
The invention of a ringtone focuses jokes about the music of the future (the promised ‘unfinished business’), as the famed opening of Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No. 5’ is bellowed diaphragmatically – ‘ha, ha, ha, hah’. Ludwig cheekily insists that this scores better than Mozart’s persistent inscription of his name at every perfect cadence!
And so we roll on, since ‘music lives, fights, bites, bleeds and leaves scars’ and there had to be a next Mozart. And a successor to Haydn, the dedicatee of the first piano sonata, because he kindly took over Ludwig’s training when Mozart died. Detours concerning Ludwig’s student life, duelling and spending time in jail are interpolated while Hatchard performs prodigiously on Ludwig’s ‘Broadvod’ piano (Broadwood), sometimes back to front.
You have to be there to witness the virtuosity of this intriguing homage co-written by Hatchard and Masterson. There is no pressure to applaud whatsover as Ludwig of the Beetroot field simply cannot hear you.
https://musicaltheatrereview.com/ludwig-unfinished-business-edinburgh-festival-fringe/

UK Theatre Web - 19/08/26
4 stars
Mike Hatchard certainly looks the part of Beethoven as he lets us into some of the secrets of Beethoven's life, loves, music and rivalries - especially with that damned Mozart! Music threads its way through the whole show with Hatchard performing many pieces by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and others to support points in his tale and occasionally mixing in some rock and roll! A very entertaining way to spend an hour.
https://uktw.co.uk/news/Ludwig-Unfinished-Business/7543.html

Tony Whitty - 24/08/26
Brilliant show. Mike is a superb performer and great musician.

Michael Lambert - 17/08/26
Brilliant, extrovert performance. So pleased to have seen it, as was my partner who is not a musician.

Julian Jessop - 14/08/26
Mike Hatchard channels Victor Borge in this whimsical taken on the life of Ludwig van. A lot of interesting period detail, with delightful piano intermezzos and quotations culminating in a bravura improvisation on random notes supplied by audience members.

Humphrey Crick - 13/08/26
Loved this show - and you don’t have to love Beethoven to do so! The actor is Beethoven and plays the piano very well, and brings him to life in a nicely comic way. Recommended!!