It was nice to get away from our increasingly insane country for a couple of weeks and come to London, with its incredibly diverse population and equally diverse visitors from around the world at a time when the US is actively repelling tourists, US green card holders are afraid to travel abroad given the arbitrary treatment being dished out at our borders, and even citizens like me are nervous about what can happen to us on re-entry if we have histories of dissent from the current regime. The UK, of course, ain’t perfect — increasingly penalizing free speech in the name of countering “terrorism, but it is not yet the dystopia that is Trump’s America.
How uplifting, then, to see the reprise of “Nye” by Tim Price at the National Theatre’s Olivier. Directed by the estimable Sir Rufus Norris, who just relinquished the reins of the theatre, it dramatizes the life of the great socialist labor leader and Member of Parliament Aneurin “Nye” Bevan of Wales, who was the political architect of the National Health Service in 1948 — free medical care for all, one of the monumental human achievements of the 20th century. The US still doesn’t have it, and what we do have — Medicare for older people and Medicaid for low-income people and people with disabilities — is being slashed egregiously by Trump and the GOP Congress. (Again, the UK system has also been slashed in the name of “austerity” of late, but the underlying commitment to medical care for all has not been lost. Yet.)
Nye is played by the great Michael Sheen — in pajamas in hospital at the end of his life, a costume he maintains throughout as we look back at his childhood and ascent to Minister of Health. And while being in a sick ward for the length of the play could be a metaphor for the health of the nation, his story is inspiring and uplifting — a coal miner as a minor who rises to improbable power. As a kid, he is bullied for his stammer by a monstrous teacher — but his classmates stand by him. He discovers free libraries and is truly besotted with the opportunity to read any book for free (bringing to mind the cruel censorship in US libraries these days).
But Price, who also wrote “The Radicalization of Bradley Manning,” is adept at telling the political story as well — Nye’s alliance with and complicated marriage to Jennie Lee (Sharon Small) who also becomes a Labour MP, his tussles with his party leader and later Prime Minister Clement Atlee (Stephanie Jacob) and his war with opposition leader Winston Churchill (Tony Jayawardena). In this complex story, all the diverse actors (except Sheen and Small) take on multiple roles over the course of 2 hours and 40 minutes and there is never a dull moment. It is an urgent, moving story of what is possible.
From the team that gave us “Prima Facie” about a hard-charging barrister (that won Jodie Comer a Tony), Susie Miller’s “Inter Alia” is gracing the Lyttelton stage at the National until Sept. 13 and will be coming to cinemas through NT Live worldwide from Sept. 4.
While led by a sensational and indefatigable Rosamund Pike as a hard-charging judge, this is not a one-woman show, as Comer’s was. Jamie Glover plays her husband and Jasper Talbot (who recently played a young Mick Jagger) is their sensitive (or is he?) teen son, who gets into some very serious trouble.
Director Justin Martin, who co-directed “Stranger Things” now on Broadway, says that “Inter Alia” (a legal phrase for “among other things”) is about “how we bring up boys.” But your focus will be on Pike balancing her high-powered judicial life and home. Expect this one to come to New York if Pike is not too wrung out. (I certainly was.)
I also saw “Brigadoon” from 1948 at the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park, directed and choreographed by the theatre’s artist director Drew McOnie, with a book adapted by Scottish playwright Rona Munro. While the outdoors is a perfect place for this tale of a Scottish village that is cursed to come alive for just one day every 100 years, this remains minor Lerner and Loewe, the team that later gave us “Paint Your Wagon,” “Gigi,” and the incomparable “My Fair Lady.” Great choreography — McOnie’s forte — and a fine ensemble, but only one really memorable song, “Almost Like Being in Love.” (Through Sept. 20.)
And a dear friend who was laid up in hospital gave me his ticket to the Opera Holland Park production of Tama Matheson’s “Beethoven: I Shall Hear in Heaven,” an epic portrayal by Matheson himself of the maestro of maestros throughout his life, plagued by early abuse and then profound hearing loss. It is interspersed with scores of sublime musical interludes led by Jayson Gilliam on the piano and backed up by the Quartet Concréte and the English Chamber Choir, mostly by Ludwig but also from Bach, Van Eyck, Haydn, and Mozart, who we see that Beethoven once met. Matheson’s wonderful show — deeply insightful about the creative process — has been around for four years and was just in London for two performances, but is one to watch out for. Plays about geniuses rarely make them sound like geniuses, but between the music and Matheson’s dialogue, this one does.
In the summer, die-hard theater lovers are off at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a lab where new talent has a chance to break through. There was also a Camden Fringe festival in the neighborhood where I stayed and I saw Leo Simpe-Asante’s “Godot’s To-Do List,” a brief take on the unseen character in Beckett’s classic. Turns out Godot was having just as much of an existential crisis as the characters that Beckett got on stage.
ALSO PLAYING AND COMING UP:
Out Mark Bartlett has “Juniper Blood” at the Donmar Warehouse — about a couple trying to escape the city for farm life, with consequences for their relationship. (Through Oct. 4.)
“Born with Teeth” stars out Ncuti Gatwa as Kit Marlowe and Edward Bluemel as Will Shakespeare directed by out Daniel Evans in a new play by Liz Duffy Adams at Wyndham’s, thru Nov. 1. It’s billed as a “daring imagining of their relationship” as they collaborate on the Henry VI history plays.
Out Rob Madge, who just brought his “My Son’s a Queer, But What Can You Do?” for a short run in New York, is back in London as the Emcee in “Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club” at the Playhouse with Hannah Dodd of “Bridgerton” as Sally Bowles. Through Sept. 20.
Missed it in New York? Out Sean Hayes’s Tony-winning performance as Oscar Levant in “Good Night, Oscar,” is at the Barbican through Sept. 21. And the Tony-winning “Stereophonic” is on at the Duke of York’s through Oct. 11.
It’s going to be a stellar fall and winter season
The National Theatre’s wonderful production of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” directed by Max Webster, that I loved last fall has gotten a West End transfer, now starring out Olly Alexander (of the gay TV drama series “It’s a Sin”) as Algernon at the Noël Coward (Sept. 18-Jan. 10). And Stephen Fry is fulfilling a longstanding ambition to play Lady Bracknell! It’s both very gay and very true to Wilde.
Indhu Rubasingham’s first show as the new director of the National Theatre is “Bacchae” by Nima Taleghani (who played Mr. Farouk in “Heartstopper” on TV) after Euripides at the Olivier. The cast includes James McArdle (“Angels in America”), Clare Perkins, Ukweli Roach, and Sharon Small (“Nye”) in this modern retelling of an ancient Greek story that will run from Sept. 13 to Nov. 1.
Brendan Gleason stars in Conor McPherson’s spooky “The Weir” (Sept. 12-Dec. 6) at the Harold Pinter.
Susan Sarandon and Andrea Riseborough star in the UK premier of Tracy Letts’ “Mary Page Marlowe” at the Old Vic (Sept. 23-Nov. 1).
Olivier Award-winning James Graham’s play, “Punch,” transfers to the West End at the Apollo (Sept. 22-Nov. 29) —based on the memoir by Jacob Dunne, who infamously killed James Hodgkinson with an unprovoked single punch in 2011 and was jailed for manslaughter, finding healing with Hodgkinson’s parents. It will be running concurrently on Broadway at the Samuel Friedman starting Sept. 9.
“Othello” comes to the Haymarket (Oct. 23-Jan. 17) starring David Harewood as the Moor, Toby Jones as Iago, and Caitlyn Fitzgerald as Desdemona.
A theatrical adaptation by Jack Holden of out Alan Hollinghurst’s novel “The Line of Beauty” (which was once adapted for TV) is at the Almeida and directed by Michael Grandage from Oct. 21-Nov. 29, but is already sold out, so best hope is for a transfer there or here.
Out Ivo Van Hove is directing Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons” at Wyndham’s with Bryan Cranston and Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Nov. 4-Mar. 7).
For National Theatre production information, got to nationaltheatre.org.uk.
For all others go to lovetheatre.com.
NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE IN NY
NT Live screenings coming to Symphony Space in NY include “Inter Alia,” which will be shown at NY’s Symphony Space on Sept. 25 at 7 PM via NT Live. There’s an encore screening of “The Importance of Being Earnest” when it starred Ncuti Gatwa and Sharon D. Clark on Sept. 13 at 6 PM. And the just-closed West End production of Shaw’s “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” starring Imelda Staunton and her daughter Bessie Carter will be screened on Oct. 28 at 1 p.m. Out Andrew Scott’s one man “Vanya” of the Chehov play — a hard ticket in NY — will be screened Nov. 1 at 2 PM. See info on these screenings and more at symphonyspace.
