Evening Standard nominees announced

This year’s London Evening Standard Theatre Awards long-list of nominees has been announced.

The nominees cover some of the most high-profile of this year’s West End shows with a starry list of performers, directors and playwrights alongside some serious new talent. The Royal Court scores particularly highly with a range of acting and creative nods – including four nominations for Clybourne Park.

See the full list of London Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2010 nominees here

The shortlist of nominees will be announced a week prior to the awards ceremony, which will be held this year on 28 November at the newly reopened Savoy Hotel. The judging panel for the awards includes theatre critics Henry Hitchings of the Standard, Charles Spencer of the Telegraph, Susannah Clapp of the Observer, Georgina Brown of the Mail on Sunday and Matt Wolf of the Herald Tribune. Chair will be Evgeny Lebedev, who is chairman of the Standard and also the son of the proprietor Alexander Lebedev.

In terms of musicals it’s a good list for Sir Cameron Mackintosh who sees his 25th anniversary production of Les Misérables tapped, plus his West End transfer of Broadway hit of Hair – which closed after a relatively short run at the Gielgud Theatre. Also listed is the Menier’s Sweet Charity at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, which is about to close on 6 November, alongside long-runner Legally Blonde at the Savoy and current critical success Passion at the Donmar Warehouse.

In the Best Actor category up-and-coming stars such as Benedict Cumberbatch and Rory Kinnear are matched alongside established heavy-weights, from Roger Allam and Jonathan Pryce to David Suchet and Simon Russell Beale, the later for his turns in the National’s London Assurance and current West End hit Deathtrap. Alfred Molina also gets a nod for the Donmar’s Red after losing out at the Tony’s to co-star Eddie Redmayne.

Best Actress nominees feature a range of talent from high-profile crowd-pleasers that will guarantee plenty of red carpet coverage (Keira Knightley, Gemma Arterton, Sheridan Smith) to hard-hitters Judi Dench, Zoe Wannamaker and Fiona Shaw.

Best Plays feature both boxing shows to have played in London this year – Beautiful Burnout by Bryony Lavery at the York Hall and Sucker Punch by Roy Williams at the Royal Court. It’s a big awards for the Court who also get nods for Cock by Mike Bartlett, Clybourne Park by Mike Bartlett and Posh by Laura Wade.

Director nods feature a who’s who of current hitmakers, ticking pretty much every director box including Howard Davies, Rupert Goold, Michael Grandage, Nicholas Hytner, and director of the moment Thea Sharrock. Also Dominic Cooke gets a well-deserved nod for Clybourne Park, which transfers from the Royal Court to the West End in January.

Lez Brotherston is a notable inclusion in the Designer category with four of his productions credited: The Rise and Fall of Little Voice at the Vaudeville, Measure for Measure at the Almeida, Women Beware Women at the National and Design for Living at the Old Vic.

Most Promising Playwright nominees pay tribute to the Royal Court’s progressive programme of nurturing new writing talent, with 3 playwrights nominated: DC Moore for The Empire, Anya Reiss for Spur of the Moment and Nick Payne for Wanderlust. Equally impressive is the Bush, which is once again proving to punch well above its weight, with James Graham for The Whisky Taster, Nick Payne (again) for If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet and Penelope Skinner for Eigengrau all nominated.

The Outstanding Newcomer category is dominated by onstage talent, with a surprise nod to the Spice Girls’ Melanie Chrisholm for her much-praised stint in Blood Brothers, alongside upstarts including Laura Dos Santos for Educating Rita, Henry Lloyd-Hughes for Rope and Posh, and Simon Godwin for his direction, and Isabella Laughland and James Musgrave for their performances, in the Royal Court’s Wanderlust.

See the full list of London Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2010 nominees here

Evening Standard Theatre Awards – Nominees 2010

Awards announced: 28 November 2010

BEST ACTOR

Roger Allam: Henry IV Parts One and Two (Shakespeare’s Globe)
Bertie Carvel: Rope (Almeida)
Benedict Cumberbatch: After the Dance (National’s Lyttelton)
Martin Freeman: Clybourne Park (Royal Court)
Alex Jennings: The Habit of Art (National’s Lyttelton)
Rory Kinnear: Measure for Measure (Almeida)/ Hamlet (National’s Olivier)
Adrian Lester: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Novello)
Alfred Molina: Red (Donmar Warehouse)
Jonathan Pryce: The Caretaker (Trafalgar Studios)
Simon Russell Beale: London Assurance (National’s Olivier)/ Deathtrap (Noël Coward)
Adrian Scarborough: After the Dance (National’s Lyttelton)
David Suchet: All My Sons (Apollo)

THE NATASHA RICHARDSON AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS

Gemma Arterton: The Little Dog Laughed (Garrick)
Nancy Carroll: After the Dance (National’s Lyttelton)
Judi Dench: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Rose, Kingston)
Tamsin Greig: The Little Dog Laughed (Garrick)
Jenny Jules: Ruined (Almeida)
Keira Knightley: The Misanthrope (Comedy Theatre)
Amanda Lawrence: Jiggery Pokery (BAC)/ Henry VIII (Shakespeare’s Globe)
Rosaleen Linehan: The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Young Vic)
Helen McCrory: The Late Middle Classes (Donmar Warehouse)
Lesley Manville: Six Degrees of Separation (Old Vic)
Anna Maxwell Martin: Measure for Measure (Almeida)
Elena Roger: Passion (Donmar Warehouse)
Fiona Shaw: London Assurance (National’s Olivier)
Sheridan Smith: Legally Blonde (Savoy)
Sophie Thompson: Clybourne Park (Royal Court)
Zoë Wanamaker: All My Sons (Apollo)

BEST PLAY

Cock by Mike Bartlett (Royal Court)
The Big Fellah by Richard Bean (Lyric Hammersmith)
The Habit of Art by Alan Bennett (National’s Lyttelton)
Beautiful Burnout by Bryony Lavery (York Hall)
Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris (Royal Court)
Ruined by Lynn Nottage (Almeida)
Posh by Laura Wade (Royal Court)
Sucker Punch by Roy Williams (Royal Court)

THE NED SHERRIN AWARD FOR BEST MUSICAL

Hair – Gielgud Theatre
The Human Comedy - A Young Vic/The Opera Group production co-produced with Watford Palace Theatre
Legally Blonde - Savoy Theatre
Les Misérables (2010) - Cameron Mackintosh production at Barbican Theatre
Passion - Donmar Warehouse
Sweet Charity - Menier Chocolate Factory; transferred to Theatre Royal Haymarket

BEST DIRECTOR

Dominic Cooke: Clybourne Park (Royal Court)
Howard Davies: The White Guard (National’s Lyttelton)/ All My Sons (Apollo)
Rupert Goold: Romeo and Juliet (RSC Stratford)/Earthquakes in London (National’s Cottesloe)
Michael Grandage: Red (Donmar Warehouse)/ Danton’s Death (National’s Olivier)
Jeremy Herrin: Spur of the Moment (Royal Court)
Joe Hill-Gibbins: The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Young Vic)
Nicholas Hytner: The Habit of Art (National’s Lyttelton/London Assurance (National’s Olivier)/Hamlet (National’s Olivier)
James MacDonald: Cock (Royal Court)
Roger Michell: Rope (Almeida)
Laurie Sansom: Beyond the Horizon and Spring Storm (National’s Cottesloe)
Thea Sharrock: After the Dance (National’s Lyttelton)
Lyndsey Turner: Posh (Royal Court)

BEST DESIGN

Lez Brotherston: The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Vaudeville)/Measure for Measure (Almeida)/Women Beware Women (National’s Olivier)/Design for Living (Old Vic)
Miriam Buether: Sucker Punch (Royal Court)/Earthquakes in London (National’s Cottesloe)
Bunny Christie: The White Guard (National’s Lyttelton)
Rob Howell: Private Lives (Vaudeville)/Deathtrap (Noël Coward)
Vicki Mortimer: The Cat in the Hat (National’s Cottesloe; transferred to Young Vic)
Christopher Oram: Passion (Donmar Warehouse)/Red (Donmar Warehouse)
Mark Thompson: London Assurance (National’s Olivier)

THE CHARLES WINTOUR AWARD FOR MOST PROMISING PLAYWRIGHT

James Graham: The Whisky Taster (Bush)/The Man (Finborough)
DC Moore: The Empire (Royal Court)
Nick Payne: If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet (Bush)/Wanderlust (Royal Court)
Anya Reiss: Spur of the Moment (Royal Court)
Atiha Sen Gupta: What Fatima Did (Hampstead)
Penelope Skinner: Eigengrau (Bush)

THE MILTON SHULMAN AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING NEWCOMER

You Me Bum Bum Train created by Kate Bond and Morgan Lloyd (LEB Building, E2)
Melanie Chisholm for her performance in Blood Brothers (Phoenix)
Laura Dos Santos for her performance in Educating Rita (Menier Chocolate Factory, transferred to Trafalgar Studios)
Simon Godwin for his direction of Wanderlust (Royal Court)
Daniel Kaluuya for his performance in Sucker Punch (Royal Court)
Isabella Laughland for her performance in Wanderlust (Royal Court)
Henry Lloyd-Hughes for his performances in Rope (Almeida) and Posh (Royal Court)
James Mcardle for his performance in Spur of the Moment (Royal Court)
James Musgrave for his performance in Wanderlust (Royal Court)
Nikesh Patel for his performance in Disconnect (Royal Court)
Shannon Tarbet for her performance in Spur of the Moment (Royal Court)

THE GOLDEN SEAGULL AWARD
Presented on behalf of Moscow Art Theatre.

THE LEBEDEV SPECIAL AWARD
For outstanding contribution to theatre.

Cameron Mackintosh talks Betty Blue Eyes

Book tickets to Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre in London

Theatre impresario Cameron Mackintosh talked to Michael Ball today about his new musical project, Betty Blue Eyes.

Speaking on The Michael Ball Show on ITV1, Mackintosh revealed that it will be his next musical. The new show, which is written by Mackintosh protégés George Stiles and Anthony Drewe (Mary Poppins, Just So), is based on Alan Bennett’s screenplay A Private Function.

The original 1984 film starred Michael Palin and Maggie Smith and is set in a small Northern town shortly after the war, when rations were still biting hard. A group of local businessmen plan to hold a patriotic party to celebrate the impending royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip, and decide to illegally raise a pig for the occasion. But hen-pecked chiropodist Gilbert Chilvers (Michael Palin) and his wife Joyce (Maggie Smith) have other plans…

Late last year Mackintosh told the Daily Mail: “The title (of the show) is in honour of our lovely Queen. Well, they are both catalysts of the story. We have the marriage of Elizabeth and Philip – and our heroine, the pig, is Betty Blue Eyes. I haven’t checked the Queen’s eye colour recently, but they’re rumoured to be blue.”

The musical is slated to begin rehearsals early next year, trying out at the West Yorkshire Playhouse before coming to the West End at Easter. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee begins the following year in 2012.

Mackintosh also talked about the 25th anniversary celebrations planned for Les Miserables, and said that the show is, “doing better than it has for 15 years”.

He was at pains to emphasise that the new touring production had “new costumes, new sets and new direction” following a recent public spat with original directors of the musical Trevor Nunn and John Caird, who were not invited to work on the 25th anniversary tour, which will play its original home at the Barbican Theatre in September. Gareth Gates, who is starring in the touring production, joined Mackintosh on the show, to sing Empty Chairs At Empty Tables from Les Mis.

Mackintosh also spoke to Michael Ball about the current resurgence in musical theatre: “Ten years ago if you said you were in the theatre you’d duck” he said, but now it’s trendy, with people “fed up with just sitting looking at a computer”. Despite popular TV talent shows, such as BBC1′s Over The Rainbow, finding new a new generation of musicals stars, Mackintosh said that  “if you have a raw talent and you have a platform then you can make a career” but that few people have the staying power to make a career out of the theatre.

Cameron Mackintosh, producer of some of the world’s most successful shows including Miss Saigon, Cats, Mary Poppins and current West End musicals Oliver!, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Avenue Q and Hair!, also revealed that his favourite musical of all time is My Fair Lady.

LINKS

Book tickets to Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre in London

Book tickets to Les Miserables at the Queen’s Theatre, the O2 Arena and the Barbican Theatre

Stiles and Drew official site

Listen to a song from Betty Blue Eyes

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Actor Winners

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Actor Winners

Best Actor

2012 Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller for Frankenstein
2011 Roger Allam for Henry IV Parts 1 & 2
2010 Mark Rylance for Jerusalem
2009 Derek Jacobi for Twelfth Night
2008 Chiwetel Ejiofor in Othello
2007 Rufus Sewell for Rock ‘N’ Roll
2006 Brian Dennehy for Death Of A Salesman
2005 Richard Griffiths for The History Boys
2004 Matthew Kelly for Of Mice And Men
2003 Simon Russell Beale for Uncle Vanya
2002 Roger Allam for Privates On Parade
2001 Conleth Hill for Stones In His Pockets
2000 Henry Goodman for The Merchant Of Venice
1999 Kevin Spacey for The Iceman Cometh
1998 Ian Holm for King Lear
1997 Antony Sher for Stanley
1996 Alex Jennings for Peer Gynt
1995 David Bamber for My Night With Reg
1994 Mark Rylance for Much Ado About Nothing
1993 Robert Stephens for Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2)
1992 Nigel Hawthorne for The Madness Of George III
1991 Ian McKellen for Richard III
1989/90 Oliver Ford Davies for Racing Demon
1987 Michael Gambon for A View From The Bridge
1986 Albert Finney for Orphans
1985 Antony Sher for Richard III and Torch Song Trilogy

Actor of the Year in a New Play

1988 David Haig for Our Country’s Good
1984 Brian Cox for Rat In The Skull
1983 Jack Shepherd for Glengarry Glen Ross
1982 Ian McDiarmid for lnsignificance
1981 Trevor Eve for Children Of A Lesser God
1980 Roger Rees for Nicholas Nickleby
1979 Ian McKellen for Bent
1978 Tom Conti for Whose Life Is It Anyway?
1977 Michael Bryant for State Of Revolution
1976 Paul Copley for King And Country

Actor of the Year in a Revival

1988 Brian Cox for Titus Andronicus
1984 Ian McKellen for Wild Honey
1983 Derek Jacobi for Cyrano De Bergerac
1982 Stephen Moore for A Doll’s House
1981 Daniel Massey for Man And Superman
1980 Jonathan Pryce for Hamlet
1979 Warren Mitchell for Death Of A Salesman
1978 Alan Howard for Coriolanus
1977 Ian McKellen for Pillars Of The Community
1976 Alan Howard for Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2) and Henry V

Best Actor in a Musical

2012 Bertie Carvel for Matilda The Musical
2011 David Thaxton for Passion
2010 Aneurin Barnard for Spring Awakening
2009 Douglas Hodge for La Cage aux Folles
2008 Michael Ball for Hairspray
2007 Daniel Evans for Sunday In The Park With George
2006 James Lomas, George Maguire and Liam Mower for Billy Elliot – The Musical
2005 Nathan Lane for The Producers
2004 David Bedella for Jerry Springer – The Opera
2003 Alex Jennings for My Fair Lady
2002 Philip Quast for South Pacific
2001 Daniel Evans for Merrily We Roll Along
2000 Simon Russell Beale for Candide
1999 The cast of Kat and The Kings
1998 Philip Quast for The Fix
1997 Robert Lindsay for Oliver!
1996 Adrian Lester for Company
1995 John Gordon Sinclair for She Loves Me
1994 Alun Armstrong for Sweeney Todd
1993 Henry Goodman for Assassins
1992 Alan Bennett for Talking Heads
1991 Philip Quast for Sunday In The Park With George
1989/90 Jonathan Pryce for Miss Saigon
1988 Con O’Neill for Blood Brothers
1987 John Bardon and Emil Wolk for Kiss Me Kate
1986 Michael Crawford for The Phantom Of The Opera
1985 Robert Lindsay for Me And My Girl
1984 Paul Clarkson for The Hired Man
1983 Denis Lawson for Mr. Cinders
1982 Roy Hudd for Underneath The Arches
1981 Michael Crawford for Barnum
1980 Denis Quilley for Sweeney Todd
1979 Anton Rodgers for Songbook

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Play Winners

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Play Winners

Best New Play

2012 Collaborators by John Hodge
2011 Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris
2010 The Mountaintop
2009 Black Watch by Gregory Burke
2008 A Disappearing Number
2007 Blackbird by David Harrower
2006 On The Shore Of The Wide World by Simon Stephens
2005 The History Boys by Alan Bennett
2004 The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh

The BBC Award for Best New Play

2003 Vincent In Brixton by Nicholas Wright
2002 Jitney by August Wilson
2001 Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall
2000 Goodnight Children Everywhere by Richard Nelson
1999 The Weir by Conor McPherson
1998 Closer by Patrick Marber
1997 Stanley by Pam Gems
1996 Skylight by David Hare
1995 Broken Glass by Arthur Miller
1994 Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
1993 Six Degrees Of Separation by John Guare
1992 Death And The Maiden by Ariel Dorfman
1991 Dancing At Lughnasa by Brian Friel
1989/90 Racing Demon by David Hare
1988 Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker
1987 Serious Money by Caryl Churchill
1986 Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton
1985 Red Noses by Peter Barnes
1984 Benefactors by Michael Frayn
1983 Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
1982 Another Country by Julian Mitchell
1981 Children Of A Lesser God by Mark Medoff
1980 The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens, adapted by David Edgar
1979 Betrayal by Harold Pinter
1978 Whose Life Is It Anyway? by Brian Clark
1977 The Fire That Consumes by Henry de Montherlant, English version by Vivian Cox with Bernard Miles
1976 Dear Daddy by Denis Cannan

Best Revival

2012 Anna Christie by Eugene O’Neill
2011 After the Dance directed by Terence Rattigan
2010 Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
2009 The Histories
2007 The Crucible by Arthur Miller
2006 Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen in a new version by Richard Eyre
2005 Hamlet by William Shakespeare
2004 Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O’Neill
2003 Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare and Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekov
1995 As You Like It by William Shakespeare
1994 Machinal by Sophie Treadwell
1993 An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley
1992 Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen
1991 Pericles by William Shakespeare

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Comedy Winners

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Comedy Winners

Best New Comedy

2010 The Priory
2009 God of Carnage
2008 Rafta Rafta
2007 John Buchan’s The 39 Steps adapted by Patrick Barlow from an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon
2006 Heroes by Gerald Sibleyras translated by Tom Stoppard

Best Comedy

2003 The Lieutenant Of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh
2002 The Play What I Wrote by Hamish McColl, Sean Foley and Eddie Braben
2001 Stones In His Pockets by Marie Jones
2000 The Memory Of Water by Shelagh Stephenson
1999 Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle And Dick by Terry Johnson
1998 Popcorn by Ben Elton
1997 Art by Yasmina Reza
1996 Mojo by Jez Butterworth
1995 My Night With Reg by Kevin Elyot
1994 Hysteria by Terry Johnson
1993 The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice by Jim Cartwright
1992 La Bête by David Hirson
1991 Out Of Order by Ray Cooney
1989/90 Single Spies by Alan Bennett
1988 Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell
1987 Three Men On A Horse by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott
1986 When We Are Married by J.B. Priestley
1985 A Chorus Of Disapproval by Alan Ayckbourn
1984 Up’N’Under by John Godber
1983 Daisy Pulls It Off by Denise Deegan
1982 Noises Off by Michael Frayn
1981 Steaming by Nell Dunn
1980 Educating Rita by Willy Russell
1979 Middle Age Spread by Roger Hall
1978 Filumena by Eduardo de Filippo, adapted by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall
1977 Privates On Parade by Peter Nichols
1976 Donkey’s Years by Michael Frayn

Best Comedy Performance

1995 Niall Buggy for Dead Funny
1994 Griff Rhys Jones for An Absolute Turkey
1993 Simon Cadell for Travels With My Aunt
1992 Desmond Barrit for The Comedy Of Errors
1991 Alan Cumming for Accidental Death Of An Anarchist
1989/90 Michael Gambon for Man Of The Moment
1988 Alex Jennings for Too Clever By Half
1987 John Woodvine for The Henrys
1986 Bill Fraser for When We Are Married
1985 Michael Gambon for A Chorus Of Disapproval
1984 Maureen Lipman for See How They Run
1983 Griff Rhys Jones for Charley’s Aunt
1982 Geoffrey Hutchings for Poppy
1981 Rowan Atkinson for Rowan Atkinson in Revue
1980 Beryl Reid for Born In The Gardens
1979 Barry Humphries for A Night With Dame Edna
1978 Ian McKellen for The Alchemist
1977 Denis Quilley for Privates On Parade
1976 Penelope Keith for Donkey’s Years

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Entertainment Winners

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Entertainment Winners

Best Entertainment

2012 Derren Brown – Svengali
2011 The Railway Children
2010 Morecambe
2009 La Clique
2006 Something Wicked This Way Comes
2004 Duckie’s C’est Barbican! devised and written by Mark Whitelaw, Ursula Martinez, Christopher Green, Marisa Carnesky, Francesca Baglione and Simon Vincenzi, scored by Ian Hill
2003 Play Without Words devised by Matthew Bourne, music by Terry Davies
2002 Shockheaded Peter created and devised by Julian Bleach, Anthony Cairns, Julian Crouch, Graeme Gilmour, Tamzin Griffin, Jo Pocock, Phelim McDermott, Michael Morris and The Tiger Lillies (Martyn Jacques, Adrian Huge and Adrian Stout)
2000 Defending The Caveman by Rob Becker
1999 The Right Size in Do You Come Here Often? written and devised by Sean Foley, Hamish McColl and Josef Houben
1998 Slava’s Snowshow created by Slava Polunin
1995 Maria Friedman – By Special Arrangement
1994 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, adapted and staged by Patrick Stewart
1993 Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene, adapted and directed by Giles Havergal
1992 Talking Heads by Alan Bennett
1991 Five Guys Named Moe by Clarke Peters

OLIVIER AWARDS – Special and Outstanding Achievement Award Winners

OLIVIER AWARDS – Special and Outstanding Achievement Award Winners

The Society’s Special Award

2012 Monica Mason and Tim Rice
2011 Stephen Sondheim
2010 Maggie Smith
2009 Sir Alan Ayckbourn
2008 Andrew Lloyd Webber
2007 John Tomlinson
2006 Sir Ian McKellen
2005 Alan Bennett
2004 Dame Judi Dench
2003 Sam Mendes
2002 Rupert Rhymes
1999 Sir Peter Hall
1998 Ed and David Mirvish
1997 Margaret Harris
1996 Harold Pinter
1994 Sam Wanamaker
1993 Sir Kenneth MacMillan
1992 Dame Ninette de Valois
1991 Dame Peggy Ashcroft
1988 Sir Alec Guinness
1985 Sir John Gielgud
1984 Lord Goodman
1983 Joan Littlewood
1982 Charles Wintour
1980 Sir Ralph Richardson
1979 Lord Olivier

Outstanding Achievement

2010 Michael Codron
2003 Gregory Doran and the Jacobean Season acting ensemble
2002 Trevor Nunn
2000 Peter O’Toole
1997 Sir Richard Eyre

The Observer Award for Outstanding Achievement (In Memory of Kenneth Tynan)

1993 The Almeida, Islington for The Rules of the Game, Medea, No Man’s Land and The Deep Blue Sea
1992 The Gate Theatre, Notting Hill for A Season of Classics from The Spanish Golden Age
1991 Cameron Mackintosh
1989/90 Declan Donnellan for Fuente Ovejuna
1988 Maly Theatre of Leningrad for Stars in the Morning Sky
1987 Thelma Holt for producing the International Festival at the National Theatre
1986 The Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith for The House of Bernarda Alba
1985 Anthony Hopkins for Pravda

The Times Award

1994 Peter Brook

The Habit of Art – National Theatre – Review

Few first nights this year have been more eagerly awaited or filled with such expectation as Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art. Bennett’s The History Boys, a palpable hit for the National Theatre, was a hard act to follow, and at the age of 75, one wondered how much dramatic gas Bennett had in the tank, and whether he was still capable of delivering the goods.

The answer is a massive affirmative. Bennett’s creative powers are as acute as they’ve always been, his wit just as sharp and his capacity to move an audience never stronger. With the possible exception of Tom Stoppard, he is the only contemporary dramatist whose work improves with age.

In The Habit of Art, which offers a Pirandellian-like play-within-a-play, the poet W.H. Auden (Richard Griffiths) and the composer Benjamin Britten (Alex Jennings), are fictitiously brought together in 1972, a year before Auden’s death.

Though the pair had collaborated on several projects in the 1930′s, the brittle Britten had taken offence at remarks Auden had made about the composer’s relationship with the singer Peter Pears, and acrimoniously ended their friendship – as he had done and would continue to do with many of his other friends and colleagues.

The play-within-the play, called Caliban’s Day, is being rehearsed in one of the National Theatre’s rehearsal rooms. The director is elsewhere engaged that day, and Kay (Frances de la Tour), the stage manager, has ordered a run through. So, initially, what we’re being presented with is a play about putting on a play. We see how fearful actors are with untried material, how they interrupt rehearsals to question lines and characterisations, often randomly cutting the text much to the chagrin of the long-suffering playwright.

The setting of Caliban’s Day is Auden’s rather squalid digs (courtesy of designer Bob Crowly) at Christ Church, Oxford, where, after he had become an American citizen in 1946, he returned as a verbose old bore, still scribbling away and as useful to the faculty as a sixth finger.

When we first meet him he has just confused the broadcaster Humphrey Carpenter who has come to interview him for Radio Oxford, for a rent boy he’s been hoping to fellate. His next visitor is the rent boy himself, followed by Benjamin Britten, who’s clutching the score of a work in progress, his new opera Death in Venice.

Though it has been over 20 years since the two men met, Britten is concerned that the opera’s subject – the obsession of an older man for a beautiful young boy – is too close to his own fondness for boys (though he never ever molested them), and that it might cause tongues to wag. He also has concerns over the quality of the libretto by his friend Myfanwy Piper.

Auden, who at this late stage in his life longs to be involved in a meaningful project, hopes Britten will ask him to take over the composition of the libretto. But all Briiten wants is advice.

Also present throughout the playwithin- the play, is Carpenter, who went on to write definitive biographies of both men, and who here serves as a kind of chorus probing and commenting on the action. If this structure sounds complicated, it isn’t at all, and the play – which is both about the collaborative creative process in the theatre and the more personal process of writing poetry and music – artfully and fascinatingly moves from the one to the other.

The toll taken by old age on the creative process is another vital element, as is the nature of biography, and what purpose, if any, it serves. The point is made that no matter how accomplished a biography might be, it is still secondary to the subject being written about.

Though most of the time Bennett brilliantly juggles all these elements, there is the occasional misfire. It is hard to believe, for example, that the writer (played with an agonised weariness by Elliot Levey) capable of writing the superb scenes between Auden and Britten, would also write risibly parodic dialogue in rhyming couplets for inanimate objects such as Auden’s door, his chair, his clock and even his craggy wrinkles. They belong in a different play and serve as little more than a device to garner a few unnecessary laughs.

Another device that struck me as mere contrivance was having Auden ask Britten (clearly for the benefit of the less well-informed members of the audience) to remind him what happens in Thomas Mann’s novella Death in Venice, when it is perfectly obvious he knows every detail of the plot intimately. Nor was I convinced by the arbitrary moments of forgetfulness and repetition with which Auden is suddenly inflicted in his scenes with Britten, as there was little, if any evidence of this condition before.

Mere quibbles, though, far outweighed by the general excellence of the writing, by Nicholas Hytner’s seamless, unobtrusive direction, and by the fine performances.

Richard Griffiths, though nowhere resembling W.H. Auden, is wonderfully irascible and deeply moving as the spent poet who, even in old age cannot quit the habit of art, Alex Jennings as the prissy, more punctilious, envious and unsure of himself Britten (how tellingly he spits out the name of his rival Tippett) is excellent, as is Adrian Scarborough as Humphrey Carpenter. All three play dual roles, the insecure actors rehearsing Caliban’s Day, and the characters they portray in it.

There’s a lovely performance too, from Frances de la Tour as Kay, the efficient, conciliatory seen-it-all-before stage manager, and from Stephen Wight playing the rent boy Stuart.

Towards the end of the play Bennett gives Stuart a speech which makes the point that, in writing about the lives of the great and the good, bit players like Stuart, who are usually little more than a footnote to their lives, deserve recognition too.

Bennett, however, ends this richly textured, multi-faceted, hugely entertaining play with a speech by Kay on the fear that actors feel in their jobs (during rehearsals of Caliban’s Day the author remarks ‘Plays don’t so much go into production, as into intensive care’), of the importance of plays in general and the National Theatre in particular.

Amen to that.

CLIVE HIRSCHHORN. Courtesy of This Is London.

Book tickets to see The Habit of Art at the National Theatre in London

Enjoy – Review

When it first premiered in London in 1980, Alan Bennett’s short-lived ‘Enjoy‘ had so many critical brickbats hurled at it, it was buried alive. Despite the fact it resonated with echoes of Pinter, Orton and Beckett, it was an unpleasant and unenjoyable concoction for a West End audience who preferred their Bennett served up in a cosier more straightforward manner. It was also far too long and suffered fatally from a clash of styles.

Christopher Luscombe’s revival, despite a 15% cut in the text, is still a tad too long, and stylistically still veers all over the place like a drunken navvy. But its time has finally come and it now emerges as a seriously funny social satire on the disappearing life-style of the lower middle-classes.

Read more

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