The Elephant Man, Theatre Royal, review: Bradley Cooper is terrific as John Merrick

Bradley Cooper is every bit as good as the vast majority of reviewers claimed when Scott Ellis’s fine production opened on Broadway last December. There had been banter beforehand about the presumed irony of the casting – the actor, once dubbed the “Sexiest Man Alive” by People magazine, tackling the real-life role of the hideously deformed John Merrick.