Plays spring forth

LONDON — What a glorious turnaround!

Not too long ago theatergoers and critics worried that musicals were pushing out plays. This year the sound of music has given way to the joyous celebration of plays, and of London’s best theater year ever. The Society of London Theatre (SOLT), custodian of the theatrical flame, reports that playgoing was spectacularly up 26 percent, while musicals fell 2 percent and record attendance hit well over 14 million.

It’s not only the year of the play, but also the triumph of intimate playhouses, a reminder that small venues like the Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse and Almeida often do big things. This year, for instance, the Royal Court garnered by far the most total nominations for Laurence Olivier Awards, the British equivalent of Tonys in the United States, and two of its productions - Enron and Jerusalem - were winners. Enron won for Best Director (Rupert Goold). Jerusalem won for Best Actor (Mark Rylance) and Set Design. It’s as if a show from an Off-Broadway theater beat out the heavy hitters on Broadway!

In a week of spring theatergoing that encompassed a number of spectacular productions, the surprise standout for me was War Horse - a surprise because it’s based on a children’s book, its main characters are puppets, and it first opened three years ago (at the National Theatre) before moving tothe West End. The story doesn’t begin to convey the play’s emotional wallop: At the outbreak of World War I, Joey, the beloved horse of a young farm boy, Albert, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. Not old enough to enlist, Albert goes to find him and bring him home.

The stars of the show are the horses, lifesize puppets created out of cane, fabric and rope, whose movements, whinnies, balkings, breathing, and completely convincing equine behavior make you quickly forget that brilliant puppeteers, usually three per animal, are providing the horse play for this powerful anti-war drama. It’s the magnificent performance by men and beast that brings the audience to tears.

War Horse is in London until Feb. 12, 2011, and then moves to New York’s Lincoln Center on March 17.

The chaos and drama of the infamous energy company, Enron, gets a widely applauded razzle-dazzle songand-dance production that’s part vaudeville and part Star Wars, and brings a vividly clear understanding of the company’s financial turmoil through its major players, Jeffrey Skilling (a brilliant Sam West) and Ken Lay (a wonderfully smarmy Tim Pigott-Smith). Lehman Brothers turn up as Siamese Twins in one huge suit, a barbershop quartet sings share prices, and the California power failures inspire a light saber routine.

Enron has extended its London run to Aug. 14 but West and Pigott-Smith leave the cast May 9. Enron opened in previews on April 8 with Norbert Leo Butz at the Broadhurst in New York.

The afternoon after I saw Enron, I went to The Power of Yes, David Hare’s journalistic (as opposed to theatrical) investigation into Britain’s financial meltdown. My head was spinning from the juxtaposition. The author’s technique of interviewing dozens of anonymous and wellknown players, from Gordon Brown and Alan Greenspan to George Soros, to explain options, subprime, credit and leveraging was more like a graduate economics class than a play. I was tempted to tap The Author, the play’s central character, on the shoulder and say, “Excuse me, Mr. Hare, go see Enron, whichexplains it all very clearly.”

Also winning raves this season is Jerusalem, a dark, wildly comic paean to England’s “green and pleasant land,” here a long-gone rural enclave in the Wiltshire woods where Johnny “Rooster” Byron, a larger-than-life village Falstaff, oversees a druggy/drinking group of drifters. If you aren’t in time to see the electrifying performance by Mark Rylance, who won this year’s Best Actor Olivier Award, before Jerusalem closes April 24, the good news is that you can still catch this astonishing actor in London from June 26 to Aug. 28 in La Bete, as a low-brow street clown who loves a classical dramatist, played by David Hyde Pierce (and thereafter in New York when La Bete goes to Broadway). As for Jerusalem, it’s hard to think anyone else can take over the Rylance role but keep an eye out for it;it’s must-see theater.

Jerusalem and Enron came from the Royal Court, one of the smaller venues that usually mounts its plays for a limited time, sometimes just three to six weeks, so the production you’re eyeing may not be there when you are. But because it is home to the most exciting actors, directors and playwrights, odds are great that whatever isshowing will be interesting. A good strategy is to check out the most inventive venues, among them the Almeida, Donmar Warehouse, Menier Chocolate Factory, National Theatre, Old Vic and the Royal Court.

Big name movie stars also boosted this boffo year, and when they’re good stage actors as well, the results are glorious.

“Celebrities are more than a box-office draw,” noted Emma De Souza, a spokesman for SOLT. “Jude Law was superb in Hamlet. He not only brought new theatergoers to the West End, but also to Shakespeare.”

Kim Cattrall, who opened to raves in Richard Eyre’s new production of Private Lives, brings Sex and the City fans to what is arguably Noel Coward’s greatest play. She is an irresistible Amanda, from her first appearance in a fluffy, white bath towel to aspectacular pillow fight scene with co-star Matthew Macfadyen, another TV star, better known in London than here.

The down side of celebrities headlining plays is that they usually have relatively short runs and can’t extend, at least not with those big-name draws. Law’s Hamlet is gone, and unless you get to London before May 1, you’ll miss Cattrall, too.

But there’s always Andrew Lloyd Webber. Love Never Dies, which follows the Phantom from the Paris Opera House to the fairgrounds of early 20th-century Coney Island, has obsessed the West End all year. The critics were widely split, most at least lauding the music and the singing of the two leads, not to mention the Gothic set, costumes and ingenious staging. But no matter; its self-styled “Phans” don’t care. Love Never Dies is slated to open in New York on Nov. 11and in Australia in 2011, and, it’s safe to say, will run in London for years. (Note: It’s helpful to have seen the original musical first - I hadn’t. If you want a backgrounder, The Phantom of the Opera is still going strong in London after 24 years.)

The other musical taking London by storm is Legally Blonde. Yes, the one from Broadway. In January it set up shop in the historic Art Deco Savoy Theatre for a long run, and even if you’ve seen the musical and/or the movie, you’ll get a kick out of the most excited, feel-good audience since Mamma Mia! Even middle-aged matrons were sporting pink boas, the heroine’s favorite color. Sheridan Smith, a perky Reese Witherspoon lookalike, is adorable, as is the entire cast, especially her “Greek chorus” of sorority sisters.

London’s sophisticated critics were embarrassed to be blown away by its wit, pace and panache. As Charles Spencer wrote in The Telegraph, “OMIGOD! I tried, I really tried to hate this show, but resistance is futile .... the theatre has worked a strange alchemy. The stage show has its tongue in its cheek throughout, it knows it is ridiculous and infantile, and celebrates the fact with knowing wit.”

As always, the play really is the thing at Shakespeare’s Globe, where this year’s season runs from April 23 (Shakespeare’s birthday) to Oct. 3. Kings & Rogues is the unifying theme, a look at some of the Bard’s most regal rogues and most roguish kings. Enter Falstaff, ofcourse, in three productions: a revival of the Globe’s 2008 comic hit, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and the premieres of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, often called Shakespeare’s greatest achievement, with Roger Allam as the gloriously large Sir John Falstaff.

Watching a production at the Globe, a facsimile of the Elizabethan original, is 16thcentury time travel, especially if you buy “groundling” tickets for £5 ($7.50) to stand in the yard in front of the stage. A 21st-century tip: Rent a pillow and backrest for the bench seating.

It’s a grand year for theatergoing in London.

Top prices for plays are generally about $60 (£40), and for most musicals about $90-$100 (£60-£65). Society of London Theatre runs “tkts,” the only official discount booth, in the clock tower building in Leicester Square; in addition to day-of-performance tickets, you can now buy seats up to a week in advance for theater, opera and dance, plus music and sportsevents. Most tickets are half price, plus a few at 25 percent off and at full price. Watch out for imitators in the area. Society of London Theatre also sells tickets online at

of ficiallondontheatre.co.uk, no commission. Call the box office direct; telephone booking numbers are listed on the Web site above.