If Noel Coward's The Vortex merits a visit-and it does- it's to witness a playwright, who in later life kept his Private Lives guarded , laying himself bare.
This revival of Jean Anouilh's Ring Round the Moon falls mostly flat. It reminds one yet again, that airiness and sophistication can be the hardest qualities to achieve on stage.
Michael Pennington's Sweet William is a seamless example of the thespian art. It should be essential viewing for all students of the Bard, not to mention those who need a reminder of the sheer applicability of his canon to the way we lived then and still do now.
The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other may be about nothing more than its admittedly unusual concept. Whatever it is, it's the nearest we've had so far this year to the theater's generally untapped potential as Rorschach test.
David Mamet's Speed-the- Plow is a bruising morality play about, of all things, Hollywood. The play ends on an upbeat note...but that's not necessarily a happy ending.
Yet another revival of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. This one is okay, with a domineering Lady Bracknell, in the person of Penelope Keith. No surprises, but enjoyable.
Lucinda Coxon's Happy Now? is an accomplished and highly likable play. The question in the title is not so easily answered, given just how easy it is to make someone unhappy now.
It's back: The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. This six-and-a-half hour production (down from the original's eight-and-a-half hours) has some grand moments, but it doesn't set the theatre alight.
Truth be told, The Vertical Hour, is minor (David) Hare. Yet, isn't it great to have a playwright who engages directly with the times in which we live.
