LONDON — A busty tabloid queen electrifies the Royal Opera House in Anna Nicole. At the National Theater, Frankenstein opens as the naked Creature flops out of a suspended pod onto the bare stage, slithering and writhing as he struggles to sit, stand, walk, run. In a tiny, 352-seat studio, the last poignant months of Judy Garland’s life are achingly evoked in End of the Rainbow.
British theater is thriving despite England’s harsh economy. Plays are booked months ahead. Musicals are booming: Billy Elliott sold its three millionth ticket; Wicked grossed more than $1.6 million in one week - a record. Dance and opera are also breaking records. London theater is on a roll, outperforming other industries. The happy problem for visitors is sorting through the cornucopia of superb productions. Let’s start with the plays.
One of the hottest tickets intown is Frankenstein, a play by Nick Dear based on Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel, brilliantly directed by Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) in a thrilling twist on a familiar tale. Each day, in an acting tour de force, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternate the roles of Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the unhappy Creature the scientist has stitched together from body parts, who moves from innocence to knowledge of being a man to violent revenge.
With flashes of her club act, smoky voice, instantly recognizable movements and kinetic energy, Tracie Bennett in End of the Rainbow conjures up Garland struggling for a comeback in her last few, tortured months. The Daily Telegraph’s Charles Spencer wrote, “One of the greatest musical theatre performances I have ever witnessed.” The hit show has been extended several times and will tour England and then, perhaps end up on Broadway.
War Horse opened two years ago, and the touching story of a farm boy and his beloved horse, a life-size puppet, that was sent to the World War I battlefields of France, is still mesmerizing London. A powerful anti-war drama with magnificent performances by men and beast, it brings the audience to tears. (A similar production is running at New York’s Lincoln Center Vivian Beaumont Theater.) REVIVAL MANIA
In a year abounding in revivals, The Children’s Hour is another hot ticket. Lillian Hellman’s drama of two New England boarding school teachers accused of a sexual relationship by a student was banned when it opened in 1934. Mild stuff now, but Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss (of TV’s Mad Men) give slow-burning, intense performances in a powerful production, with splendid support from Ellen Burstyn as the willful student’s aristocratic grandmother and Carol Kane as a ditzy teacher. (The show with the same cast is reportedly coming to Broadway in the fall.)
2011 is the centennial of Terence Ratigan’s birth,which has unleashed a virtual festival of his plays all over England. After the Dance (no longer running) just won the 2011 Olivier Award (Britain’s Tony) for Best Revival, but two other Ratigan hits are enthralling London. Cause Celebre, a riveting courtroom drama, is based on the true case of a woman and her teenage lover who murdered the woman’s husband. Flare Path is Trevor Nunn’s nostalgic revival of 1942 wartime at a country hotel by an air base where Royal Air Force pilots and their wives and sweethearts, notably Sienna Miller and Sheridan Smith, wait out bomber flights. Every detail of the ’40s - music, dress, hairstyles, language - is overwhelmingly evocative, a romantic and patriotic tribute to Ratigan’s fellow RAF pilots. Unless closing dates change, you have until June 11 to catch both of them.
As you can see, revivals often provide high-powered star turns. George Bernard Shaw’s classic Pygmalion brings Diana Rigg as the cockney flower girl and Rupert Everett as the professor to the Garrick Theater from May 12 to Sept. 3. And Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie, with Jude Law and Olivier award winner, Ruth Wilson, is at Donmar Warehouse from Aug. 4 to Oct. 8.
NOW FOR THE MUSICALS
Some are new, some revivals, some practically immortal, mostly all are dazzling, thanks less to the performances than to the British genius for breathtaking production.
Talk about timing. Betty Blue Eyes, based on Alan Bennett’s wickedly funny film, A Private Function, takes place during an impending royal wedding. No, not that one. The time is 1947 in postwar austerity Britain, and the royals are Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip. The star is Betty, an animatronic pig being illegally raised to provide a royal wedding feast. Cameron Mackintosh and Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre hope she brings home the bacon.
If Betty is animatronic, Toto is astonishingly real, and just about steals The Wizard of Oz, the new blockbuster developed from the everpopular film. In some ways it suffers from familiarity. Who could play the Cowardly Lion but Bert Lahr or sing Dorothy but Judy Garland? That is, until you factor in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s spectacular staging. A tornado sends Aunt Em’s little house flying around the stage, gathering into a swirling storm heading right for the audience. Three circular stages rotate and tilt, roll and dip, as Dorothy and her companions travel the yellow brick road past gaudy towns and humorous munchkins. To the familiar music,Webber and Tim Rice have added several new songs.
Danielle Hope won the part of Dorothy on BBC’s talent show, Over the Rainbow (a reality TV casting device Webber also used to cast Maria in The Sound of Music, Oliver! and Joseph). Despite the burden of filling Garland’s ruby slippers, Hope does a lovely job. Michael Crawford, as Professor Marvel and The Wizard, has a surprisingly small part. And Toto, played by four adorable Westies with near human responses, upstages them both.
Incidentally, seeing Garland simultaneously on two London stages - this early starring role as Dorothy and her last dissolute months in End of the Rainbow, with the iconic song linking them - is a poignant coincidence.
Coming down the musical pike for summer and into 2012 are two potential blockbusters: Ghost The Musical, based on the romantic Patrick Swayze-Demi Moore movie, with Brit soap star Richard Fleeshman (previews begin June 22). And, as if Shrek doesn’t get enough exposure, Shrek The Musical, which played for more than a year on Broadway, opens Friday, with new songs and scenes.
If you go
No matter when you’re in London, count on The Bard being there, too:
April 23-Oct. 2 - Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing at The Globe;
June 1-Sept. 3 - Much Ado About Nothing with David Tennant at Wyndham’s Theatre;
June 18-Sept. 11 - Richard III with Kevin Spacey in Sam Mendes’ production at the Old Vic. It transfers to the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of the trans-Atlantic Bridge Project, Jan. 10-March 4;
Aug. 27-Oct. 2 - The Tempest with Ralph Fiennes in a Trevor Nunn production at the TheatreRoyal Haymarket;
Oct. 28-Jan.12 - Hamlet with Michael Sheen at the Young Vic;
Dec. 1-Feb. 4 - Richard II at the Donmar Warehouse.
And check out the not-yet-announced 2012winter season at the Roundhouse, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s new London home.
The theatergoer’s bible is The Official London Theatre Guide for dates, venues, casts, prices and tickets (officiallondon theatre.co.uk).
Tip No. 1: “Booking until” doesn’t mean “closing”; in fact, it’s likely to mark a popular production with a future.
Tip No. 2: Plays, especially in small houses like Donmar Warehouse, Royal Court and even the National Theatre, often run for several weeks and then months later move to the West End; major West End theaters occasionally announce extensions.
For more information about travel to London and Great Britain, check out visitbritain.org or visit london.com. Or call VisitBritain at (800) 462-2748.
- Joan Scobey
Travel, Pages 56 on 05/01/2011