LONDON â€" Don’t look now, but the London theater is suddenly looking very American. A swift glance through the current and imminent lineup of openings indicates a neat baker’s dozen of American titles alighting in the British capital for the late-spring/summer season.
These range from British productions of recent Broadway plays (David Mamet’s “Race,†Richard Greenberg’s “American Planâ€) to new takes on the classic repertory (Eugene O’Neill’s “Strange Interlude†at the National, Tennessee Williams’s “Sweet Bird of Youth†at the Old Vic). And much else besides, and that’s without counting the English National Opera’s June premiere of “The Perfect American,†the Philip Glass opera about Walt Disney.
It’s no surprise that interest in Mr. Mamet’s work remains keen in London. I had just moved from New York to London in 1983 when the National’s studio-sized Cottesloe space was mounting the world premiere of his play “Glengarry Glen Ross,†which went on to three Broadway runs and won a Pulitzer Prize. A later Mamet play, “The Cryptogram,†also had its world premiere in London (and a revival). “Race,†which opens May 29 at the Hampstead Theatre stars Clarke Peters (of the television series “The Wireâ€) and the London stage veteran Jasper Britton.
One could argue that Britain is especially favorably disposed to lesser-known works from canonical American writers, a function, perhaps, of the state-funded system in the United Kingdom that encourages risk-taking to a degree that is more difficult to come by stateside.
In 1994, the director Richard Eyre revived “Sweet Bird of Youth†at the National Theatre, in a production that won multiple prizes for its leading lady, Clare Higgins. Kim Cattrall (of “Sex and the Cityâ€) stars in the Old Vic’s fresh staging of the same play, opening June 12. This “Sweet Bird†is directed by Marianne Elliott, who just won an Olivier Award for “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time†and has been exhibiting as close as the London theater currently offers to a Midas touch.
The last major production of O’Neill’s “Strange Interlude†before the National version that opens June 4 was way back in 1985. Spawned in Britain, it starred Glenda Jackson and Edward Petherbridge and traveled from the West End to Broadway. Will the director Simon Godwin’s new staging, starring Anne-Marie Duff and Charles Edwards, achieve a similar transfer? Time will tell, but it’s a testament to British curatorial interest in American theater that this city has twice in 30 years latched on to a difficult 1928 text from which playhouses in the U.S. generally steer well clear.
Some American titles evidently possess a currency abroad that surpasses their status at home. Barely a British theater season goes by that doesn’t find a playhouse somewhere in the country mounting either “Of Mice and Men†or “To Kill A Mockingbird.â€
And here, indeed, comes the latter title in a production from the director Timothy Sheader at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, opening May 22 and starring the Tony winner Robert Sean Leonard (“The Invention of Love,†TV’s “Houseâ€) as the southern lawyer Atticus Finch.
American musicals get a London look-in, as well, and I don’t just mean of the “Wickedâ€/â€Lion Kingâ€/â€Book of Mormon†blockbuster variety. The Harold Pinter Theatre on the West End is currently hosting the first commercial production of Stephen Sondheim’s onetime Broadway flop “Merrily We Roll Along†since its short-lived 1981 Broadway premiere. Directed by Maria Friedman, the show reopened May 1 to rave reviews after a sell-out Off West End run over the winter at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Not to be outdone, the Menier will offer up the British debut of the Broadway musical “The Color Purpleâ€; the director is the Tony winner John Doyle (“Sweeney Toddâ€) and opening night is July 15.
To be fair, there are the occasional British entries that get a New York perch in advance of a London one. Currently running Off Broadway is Mike Bartlett’s “Bull,†an hourlong play seen regionally in England but not in the capital â€" so far, anyway. And St Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn has just completed an acclaimed run of the actor-writer Tristan Sturrock’s “Mayday Mayday,†an English piece that has yet to be seen in London.
What’s astonishing about this London spate of American work is how wide a net it casts. Those who missed two recent entries from Lincoln Center Theater in New York can find these same plays in Off West End productions. “Disgraced†won the author Ayad Akhtar the 2013 Pulitzer and arrives at west London’s Bush Theatre for a monthlong run, opening May 22. That follows by a week the London opening at another west London venue, The Print Room, of Amy Herzog’s “4000 Miles,†in a British production first seen as part of an American season within the studio confines of the Theatre Royal, Bath. That’s the same prodcing entity behind the London run, opening July 8, of Mr. Greenberg’s “American Plan,†with Diana Quick inheriting the role played in 2009 on Broadway by Mercedes Ruehl.
African-American theater is represented not just by “The Color Purple†but by revivals of James Baldwin’s play “The Amen Corner,†directed by Rufus Norris and opening June 11 at the National, and August Wilson’s “Fences.â€
In “Fences,†the British comic Lenny Henry steps into the shoes formidably filled on Broadway first by James Earl Jones and, 23 years later, by Denzel Washington, both of whom got Tonys for their work. Opening night is June 26 at the Duchess Theatre.
More experimental American work is on offer, too. The Olivier winner Imelda Staunton (“Sweeney Toddâ€) joins Toby Jones for the July bow of Annie Baker’s 2009 hit “Circle Mirror Transformation.†On June 7, the National Theatre’s purpose-built Shed auditorium opens a three-week run of “Mission Drift,†a blues musical from a Brooklyn-based ensemble known as The TEAM. In other contexts and amid a different climate, I might worry about this troupe feeling homesick. This summer? Not likely.
A guide to this baker’s dozen of American titles and their London opening nights:
“Merrily We Roll Along,†Harold Pinter Theatre, opened May 1
“4000 Miles,†The Print Room, May 15
“Disgraced,†Bush Theatre, May 22
“To Kill a Mockingbird,†Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park, May 22
“Race,†Hampstead Theatre, May 29
“Strange Interlude,†National Theatre/Lyttelton, June 4
“Mission Drift,†National Theatre/The Shed, June 7
“The Amen Corner,†National Theatre/Olivier, June 11
“Sweet Bird of Youth,†Old Vic Theatre, June 12
“Fences,†Duchess Theatre, June 26
“The American Plan,†St. James Theatre, July 8
“Circle Mirror Transformation,†Rose Lipman Building, Haggerston, July 11
“The Color Purple,†Menier Chocolate Factory, July 15
