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LONDON THEATER REPORT 1998 Send This Review to a Friend
Theater-going in London is always a treat. Invariably there are interesting productions to savor, and one can also seize the opportunity to preview some that eventually find their way to Broadway. Take Kevin Spacey's justly acclaimed starring performance in the Almeida Theatre's staging of Eugene O'Neill's THE ICEMAN COMETH. I caught the event at The Old Vic and was deeply impressed not only by Spacey's take on the character of Hickey but by the entire presentation and the riveting performances of others in the cast,
Spacey, who'll probably be seen in the role in New York next Spring, infuses the part with electricity as well as the climactic pathos demanded. It's hard to erase the memory of Jason Robards, Jr., in the role, the performance I still think is definitive, but no matter. Spacey has a stage magnetism of his own and from the moment he entered after O'Neill's meticulous build-up to Hickey's arrival, he was commanding. True, there might have been more nuance, but this was a sharp, well-conceived portrait.
Too often the supporting cast is uneven, yet for the most part this cast was exceptional, as was the set design that gave the bar where all the action takes place an authentic look as a haven for lost souls. The direction by Howard Davies was astute and minus the flash in which so many directors feel compelled to indulge in this age of hype and overkill, and the Almeida merits a salute for this bold revival. I hope the production we get in New York is as powerful, but in any event, it will be gratifying to see Spacey, best known in the United States as a film actor, give Broadway a repeat of his London stage triumph.
Another highlight of my London expedition was THE UNEXPECTED MAN, written by Yasmina Reza before she wrote the hit "Art." Translated from the French by Christopher Hampton, "The Unexpected Man" is a production of the Royal Shakespeare Company presented at the Duchess Theatre. What made the attraction special in this two- character play was the casting--Michael Gambon playing an author on a train and Eileen Atkins as the stranger seated across from him with a copy of his book.
Each would like to strike up a conversation but doesn't know how. For a long portion of the play their thoughts are communicated to us, but not to one another. Reza succeeds in clueing us in on the currents of their respective lives. Finally they do break the ice and that portion takes off in witty, further revealing dialogue.
Watching these two superb actors was mesmerizing. It is rare to see a combination of talent working to perfection. Most likely this is another play that will cross the Atlantic, but I hope that Broadway audiences get a chance to see Gambon and Atkins, as how well the piece works depends on having especially skillful actors.
I was far less enamoured of another play that was the talk of the town. CLOSER, written and directed by Patrick Marber and performed at the Lyric, examines relationships involving young people trying to get a grip on their lives and jolts audiences with explicit dialogue. It's creative and arresting at the outset, especially with the gambit of two men having computer sex. One plays a trick on the other by pretending to be a sexually excited woman. Each sits typing on a keyboard at opposite sides of the stage, while their steamy messages appear to the audience on a giant screen. That segment is hilarious, and there's more humor when the tricked man meets his blind date, a woman sent by the dissembler. She has no idea of the raunchy promises made in her name in cyberspace.
Despite a competent cast, after a while the characters become boring with their couplings and uncouplings and their chatter about sex and relationships. By the second act I couldn't much care what happened to any of them. Admittedly, there are many partisans of the play, which sharply divides audiences. "Closer" is also expected to turn up in New York, and it will be interesting to see the American reaction.
Hugh Whitemore's A LETTER OF RESIGNATION, which I saw at the Savoy, at first seems as if it is yet another delving into the Profumo sex scandal that rocked Britain in the 1960s. But soon it's clear that the play is really about former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, his career, his politics and the effect on his life of his wife's affair with Robert Boothby, a member of Parliament. The play probes Macmillan's character and thrives on clever dialogue and colorful performances, if one can use the word colorful with respect to Macmillan.
The chief attraction is the performance by Edward Fox as the Prime Minister. It is part impersonation, part dissection. Fox faced the problem of trying to evoke Macmillan's speech and manner as known to the public yet make him acceptably conversational in his private moments and the two are often at odds. But there is no question that Fox worked out a forceful stage presence and persona and it was enjoyable to see a play that sparkled with such intelligence. I'm not sure what Americans will make of it all if the play is offered on Broadway, but it was one of the highlights for me.
I encountered many who found it impossible to get a ticket to the hit play COPENHAGEN by Michael Frayn. No wonder. The drama at the National Theatre makes for a rare intellectual theatrical experience, and although it deals with the weighty subjects of ethics in the nuclear age and individual responsibility for the building of weaponry that can destroy the planet, "Copenhagen" works because of its sheer dramatic effectiveness. This is a three-character play involving real people and is based on their actual relationships and encounters, although Frayn admittedly ventured into the realm of imagination in his dramatization and probing for explanations.
In the cast that I saw David Burke played Niels Bohr, the renowned scientist who had a role in developing the atomic bomb, Sara Kestelman portrayed his wife Margrethe and Matthew Marsh was Werner Heisenberg, a German scientist who had worked with Bohr and whose subsequent wartime meeting with him in 1941 has been subjected to various interpretations. What really occurred at that meeting? Did Heisenberg aid the Nazis in their race to get the bomb or did he pretend to be helping while deliberately slowing the process?
Frayn has provided crackling situations and confrontations, weaving different time periods together seamlessly. Director Michael Blakemore placed the characters on an almost bare stage, allowing us to concentrate on their speech and movement. The drama builds toward a suspenseful conclusion, all the while entrancing us with literate talk and expression of ideas, yet with none of the preaching that sometimes characterizes plays with vital themes. Staging of such work does the National proud and offsets some of the criticism it receives for at times trying to be too popular by offering musicals such as a revival of "Oklahoma!" that could be staged in the commercial West End.
"Copenhagen" is a play with universality, but whether something so topical and intellectual could work in the harsh economics of musical-oriented Broadway remains to be seen.
Other shows that have created a recent buzz in London include the 17th centuury farce "The London Cuckolds;" a new version of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie;" Alan Ayckbourn's "Things We Do For Love" and assorted revivals of Shakespeare. But in some respects it was like being back in New York, spotting such familiar shows as "Beauty and the Beast," "Miss Saigon," "The Phantom of the Opera," "Cats," "The Old Neighborhood," "Smokey Joe's Caf?," "Chicago" and "Rent." After all, there's only an ocean between Broadway and the West End.
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