“Brits Triumph on Broadway” is one of those newspaper headlines – like “Snow Causes Road and Rail Chaos” – that should be kept in permanent type. And, sure enough, the latest edition of the Tony awards has produced a slew of British winners including 10 top prizes shared between The Lehman Trilogy and Company. This confirms my thesis that Broadway, the most rampantly commercial theatre on earth, depends heavily on the British taxpayer – and before anyone points out that Company originated in the West End I would observe that its director, Marianne Elliott, and its designer, Bunny Christie, are both products of the subsidised sector.
What is striking this year is that both the big British winners offer an original take on quintessentially American themes. The Lehman Trilogy was originally a five-hour, large-cast Italian play by Stefano Massini. But it was Sam Mendes as director and Ben Power as adapter who had the bright idea of trimming the text and deploying just three actors for their triumphant 2018 National Theatre production. Mendes has said that “the play was developed over three years without the constraint of a schedule or even a plan … it was allowed time to find its form.” That reminds me of the gradual evolution of another National Theatre hit, War Horse, and is the kind of luxury only a subsidised theatre can provide.
Mendes and Power’s emphasis was, quite rightly, on the changing nature of the American dream. When the original Lehman brothers arrive in what they term “that magical music box called America” in the 1840s, they subscribe to the belief that enterprise and hard work will be rewarded by success. By 2008, when their successors file for bankruptcy, the dream has declined into delusions of infinite riches based on financial services. But what I really loved about the National’s production was its celebration of the art of acting and, pleased as I am for Simon Russell Beale that he received the award for best actor, it seems a bit tough on his colleagues, Adam Godley and Adrian Lester, since the show is a classic example of thespian interdependence.
Like The Lehman Trilogy, Marianne Elliott’s version of Company offers a fresh perspective on an American theme. When I first heard that the protagonist of this landmark musical, with a score and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth, was to be re-gendered, I was sceptical. In the end the transformation of Robert into bachelor girl Bobbie works perfectly and gains an extra dimension from the heroine’s awareness of the ever-ticking biological clock. As well as awards for best musical revival and for two featured performers, Patti LuPone and Matt Doyle, the show also won gongs for direction and design. Bunny Christie’s sliding rooms and shifts in scale constantly evoked Alice in Wonderland and this year’s Tonys had a touch of Lewis Carroll since, out of 34 eligible productions, 29 received nominations. That is clearly a world in which, as the Dodo said, “Everybody has won and all must have prizes”.
