As part of the run up to the 2011 Tony Awards, The American Theatre Wing Theodore S. Chapin, Chairman, Board of Trustees Howard Sherman, Executive Director used the opportunity of the yearly Tony Nominees Press Reception - held just 24 hours after Tony nominations are announced - to solicit some key thoughts from newly minted nominees on their lives and careers so that emerging artists everywhere might benefit.

I’ve been a journalist too long to believe that truth is ever a simple thing – Martin Crowther in The Water Theatre

When I was a few chapters into this long novel – long by my standards, I’ve never read a novel 433 pages long before – I said to my wife, “There’s nothing new here: outsider gets caught up in various goings-on of dysfunctional family and doesn’t have the sense to escape in time.” Okay, those might not have been my exact words – I was probably more flippant – but that’s what I was trying to say. I don’t know if I mentioned Brideshead Revisited but I was certainly thinking about it by the end of the second chapter. Taking on the role of outsider Charles Ryder is Martin Crowther who befriends Adam Brigshaw and is invited to the family home, High Sugden Grange, built in 1596 by one Jonas Cragg who – according to the family – still wanders the halls. There he is introduced to Adam’s at-that-time-only-slightly-dysfunctional family: father, the charismatic, “vigorously built” Hal, author of Inglorious Empire and The Practice of Freedom; mother, Grace and sister, the outspoken and moody Marina, a year older than Martin, who you just know he’s going to develop a crush on. Which he does. In fact by the end of chapter four they wind up in bed together. Nothing happens, just a lot of talking and bonding but from that point I realised that whatever else this book turned out to be it was, at its core, a love story. But it’s more than that.

The story begins with eighteen-year-old Martin cycling down the cold midwinter lane out of Sugden Foot, the fictional Yorkshire town where he lives in the gloomy basement of Cripplegate Chambers with his mum, a cleaner, and his dad, a boiler-firer (a stoker) at Bamforth Brothers’ mill. This is to be his first visit to the grange:

[Martin and Adam] were of an age, both sixth-formers, though at different schools, working as temporary postmen during the Christmas rush, and both soon to go up to university. Conversation had revealed their shared enthusiasm for modern poetry, cinema, and jazz.

The boys are in one sense worlds apart it seems and yet, as befits all Yorkshire folk irrespective of their circumstances, the Brigshaws take to Martin and make him feel welcome which is just as well because due to the inclement weather he ends up having to stay the night. He’s not the only guest. Hal’s friend, Emmanuel Adjouna, with whom Hal is working out a strategy to seize power in Emmanuel’s home country of British Equatorial West Africa, is also a houseguest. As Adam explains to Martin:

The Tories know they’ll have to get out of course, and there’s a puppet of their own they’d prefer to leave in charge, but Emmanuel’s the only man who can keep the tribal factions together. He should be Prime Minister within the year, and then it’ll be a clear run to independence.

That Emmanuel might turn out to be exactly the kind of man his country needs is evidenced in part by his diplomacy at dinner. When Martin says what his father’s profession is it is Emmanuel who responds first:

Then he is the powerhouse of the place. … Everything there depends on him.

Over the next few years we see how these six people’s lives begin to become bound to each other, how they change and how they change each other. Jump forward over thirty years and 400 pages and this is what Adam has to say looking back:

There's been a tragic waste at the heart of all of this. … A waste of life. A waste of friendship. A waste of love. It looks as though one way or another we’ve made a mess of everything between us.

What went wrong? Not one thing, I’ll tell you that, but there is one critical thing that makes all the difference, that splits up the family, husband from wife, children from parents and from their friend and the worst of it is Martin knows exactly what it is and can’t (or won’t) say what. He allows everything to crumble on a point of principle.

In the intervening years everyone gets on with their lives. Emmanuel returns home, is first imprisoned, then after being freed, acquires power whereupon Hal, assuming the role of Political Advisor to the President (a controversial appointment to say the least), flies out to Africa to assist Emmanuel in rebuilding the country. Grace dutifully accompanies her husband, as does Adam who subsequently falls in love with a local girl, Efwa Nkansa, a primary school teacher. This does not go down well with his parents; it’s not the girl they object to so much but rather the fact Adam announces that he intends quitting university and setting up home permanently in what has now become known as Equatoria. Martin, who is visiting, is roped in to try to dissuade his friend, a role that he finds himself playing with increasing frequency in the lives of the now-fully-blown dysfunctional and perpetually bickering Brigshaws.

Two years earlier, just prior to leaving for university Martin had called at High Sugden unannounced only to find Grace there on her own apart from the family’s dogs, Hengist and Horsa; this is the first opportunity he gets to talk to her alone and she is in the mood to open up. She even goes as far as to warn the young man:

Dear Martin! You really should be more careful of us. Particularly Hal, who will charm your ego and flatter your youthful idealism, then run you ragged at his beck and call. … But once again I fear I speak too late. And like Cassandra I shall certainly go unheard.

It is a most eventful conversation all in all. Grace is not the demure wife she seems. She’s also well aware of what is going on behind the scenes in her own life. She speaks her mind too. Ironically though, ignoring her own warning, it is Grace who is the first to take advantage of Martin although she is proven right regarding Hal when, and this is where the book actually opens up, some thirty years later a dying Hal summons Martin to ask one final favour:

Hal tried to speak … Marina’s name emerged, buckled almost beyond recognition by the struggle of his tongue, and then Adam’s followed. I should have caught on sooner to what he wanted, but Hal had spoken about neither of them for years. Only when I deciphered the words “Italy” did I grasp that he was asking me to go there and try to bring back his son and daughter.

I said: “It wouldn’t work, Hal. They wouldn’t come.”

“For you,” I heard him mumble. “They’ll come for you.”

“I’m the last person…” I began, but his damaged voice spoke over me.

“Been thinking… You’ve done it before… Got them to come home for me.”

“More than thirty years ago,” I protested, “And that was before…”

Before what? What has happened here and why does Martin still feel a need to be loyal to Hal when Hal’s children have seen fit to desert him? And where is Grace in all this?

By this time in his life Martin is now a veteran war correspondent. His last job in fact involved a trip to Equatoria where the country is embroiled in a bitter civil war; things did not go as Hal and Emmanuel planned. Images of the atrocities he's witnessed still haunt him:

The memories that came back with me were fixed in my head like the cutlass blade I’d seen in the skull of a bewildered tribesman who was walking away from his town along a dirt road. The death stench of that town was with me still – so many deaths, the rotting harvest of a labour of killing so immense it must finally have proven tedious.

He’s supposed to be taking a holiday with his partner, Gail. Their relationship already strained, she asks him not to do this last favour for Hal:

“I’ve made promises,” I said.

“You made promises to me.”

“I will keep them.”

“They’re broken already.”

“But mendable. I’ll make them good.”

“It’s the way you talk about them,” she said after a time. “The people there, I mean. As if you were still in thrall to them somehow.”

She’s not far from the truth there as much as Martin tries to deny it, to her and to himself.

When I first started reading about the Brigshaws I thought it was going to be the old trope, the family with a secret – I half-expected there to be the obligatory madwoman in the attic – but when Martin arrives in Umbria where Adam and his sister are now living together and encounters their evasive and protective friends you just know there’s something going on here. Martin never expected the siblings to run at him arms outstretched but he did think that making contact might prove a little easier than it does. The main obstacle is Gabriella, La Contessa, who, on encountering Martin at Marina’s empty house, assumes the role of go-between, shielding Marina at first and then later Adam, from contact with Martin; she is also an expert at fielding the reporter’s questions. Suffice to say there is something going on in Fontanalba, something mystical.

Okay, I groaned when this theme started. I thought: Please don’t let this be some religious cult. In preparation for his meeting with Adam, who, Martin learns, has been on some soul-searching trek through the local hills, Gabriella hands Martin a file:

“He wishes you to read what he has written in these papers.”

“What are they? Do they explain what he’s doing here?”

“Some things, but not all. He hopes that they will interest you. … Maybe this will help you to understand us all a little better.”

I opened the file on which seemed to be some kind of mission statement:

HEARTSEASE

1. Our lives are as we imagine them to be.
2. Imagination is the agency of change.
3. Change in the collective begins with change in the individual.
4. Compassion is an act of the imagination.
5. Let us re-imagine our world.

Turning to the next of many pages, I came upon a single word:

CLITUMMUS

What is becoming clearer by this point is that Martin’s journey is going to be less of a physical one and more of a spiritual one. The real question is what does Lindsay Clarke mean when he talks about ‘the mystical mind’? In an interview he had this to say:

I think there's generally a misunderstanding about what mysticism is about in our culture. ... They think of mysticism as something rather strange and spooky and eerie in a way. In fact the origin of the word means healing; they’re rites that heal wounds in people, deep wounds to the soul, spiritual wounds. And that's what I'm interested in doing now is writing the kind of novel which by unfolding its narrative in a hopefully entertaining way will take the central character on a journey by which the ego-based life which he's been living gets called profoundly into question.

Martin is taken on a journey completely out of his comfort zone, one he certainly never would have imagined it was possible for him to take despite all he’s been through in his career. He knows what he’s come to do but he doesn’t know why he’s come:

[W]as there ever, I wondered, a less negotiable question than the question why? … Who? When? Where? How? Those were the questions I could deal with, answerable questions. Those were how you got the facts as straight as you could.

There are twenty-five reviews of this book on Amazon, at least there are as I write this, twenty-four of which give the book 5-stars. It’s that twenty-fifth review that interested me. I’m going to reproduce it in full:

I suppose this review being the first one not to give this book 5 stars (not to mention glowing references in the press) tells you all about the subjective nature of literature.

I found this book annoying and eventually hard work as I didn't believe in the stereotyped characters which had all the impact of cardboard cutouts. The hardnosed TV reporter (the "hero" maybe?), who is actually an idealist at heart, his long suffering American girl friend who at last gives him the elbow, the very attractive but troubled girl whom the "hero" falls in love with as a young lad and remains in love with.....you get the picture. Then there's the girl's father, a selfish left wing activist who helps overthrow the despotic regime of Equatoria (in Africa, amazingly). And of course the new regime has to enact liberty-curbing measures....! Oh dear.

By now I'm reeling under the barrage of cliché, and that's before all the guff about the spiritual sect in Italy, into whose net the hero is so predictably drawn. Some of this reminded me of The Magus, but without the pizzazz. – Mr J R Lowell

I know nothing about Mr Lowell other than this. This is the only review he has posted and so at least he doesn’t look like the kind of guy who spends all his time lambasting great works of fiction to try to redress some imaginary balance.

Mr Lowell is right when he says the book’s characters veer towards the stereotypical. One of the 5-star reviewers likened Martin and Adam’s relationship to that of Herman Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund; another recalled Orpheus’s descent into the underworld; a third references Graham Greene's The Quiet American and a fourth says that Clarke’s writing “follows a tradition of novel writing that reaches back to D H Lawrence and Hardy and travels through to Lawrence Durrell and John Fowles.” Ian Irvine, in his review in the Financial Times, also notes a debt to Evelyn Waugh, as did I, to which he adds:

This template worked for Alan Hollinghurst in 1980s’ Notting Hill in The Line of Beauty, and does so in Lindsay Clarke’s impressive novel set in 1950s’ Yorkshire and 1990s’ Umbria.

So, yes, the simple fact is that Clarke’s book is not the most original when it comes to its structure (fairly classic Voyage and Return) and it employs well-established (a nice way of saying clichéd) characters and situations but the simple fact is that Clarke is a certain type of writer but look at the authors he’s being compared to; he’s in good company.

There have been a goodly number of literary adaptations on the tele over the past wee while. Some have managed to cram a book into a single drama but to do this book justice it would need to be a mini-series; a two-parter at the very least. It took me a week to read and I make no bones about it it will be a while before I’ll feel inclined to read anything of this length again – my next book is under 200 pages – but it was an enjoyable read nevertheless; the twists although expected were not quite what I expected. Clarke jumped back and forward between the past and the present revealing just enough in each chapter to keep our interest without saying too much too soon. There is a lot for Martin to resolve and it’s not all to do with the Brigshaws either. The inspiration for the book actually surprised me. From the same interview as above:

The Water Theatre … began with a dream that I had many years ago. In this dream I was back up north where I grew up. It’s a Sunday morning – I knew because I could smell the Yorkshire puddings and the roasts baking on the oven – and I knew my mother was back at home waiting to lift the roast and my dad and I were doing what the men did in those days, going round from pub to pub drinking on the Sunday morning until I suddenly realised that he was dead and I was dragging his dead body around with me from pub to pub while my mum was still at home getting our meal ready. And it struck me as a tremendously powerful image of an individual, i.e. me, and possibly also of a culture, that of certainly northern England manhood at that time still very much in the grip of a worn-out patriarchal tradition of relating and thinking and generally being in the world. And it set me puzzling over how I dealt with this and one of my ways of dealing with important dreams is to try and write about them. So out of that dream came the idea for a story of two young men both of whom are in difficulties with their fathers and both of whom, in their different ways, are looking for different, newer, perhaps larger ways of being men than their fathers were.

Yes, at its core The Water Theatre is still a fairly traditional boy-finds-girl-loses-girl-and-finds-her-again love story – I don’t take that back – but that is not the only story; it’s not a token romance either because although the story would work without the romantic angle it is improved by it. Or maybe I’m just a big softy at heart. There are certain rare moments in our lives where several strands all come together – we could call it a nexus – and that’s what happens in Umbria. In the space of a few short hours all the answers find their way home dragging their meanings and consequences behind them. Nothing will be the same after.

You can read the first three chapters to The Water Theatre here.

***

Lindsay Clarke is the author of seven novels, including The Chymical Wedding, which won the Whitbread Award for Fiction in 1989. He has been Writer in Residence at the University of Wales, Cardiff, where he became a long-term Associate of the MA Creative Writing programme, is Creative Consultant to the Pushkin Trust in Northern Ireland, and has directed conferences at Dartington, been Scholar-in-Residence at Schumacher College, and has lectured widely in England abroad and tutored many courses for the Arvon Foundation. He lives in Somerset with his wife who is a ceramic artist.

 

Congrats to all the 2011 Tony nominees! On Tuesday, May 3, the American Theatre Wing announced the full slate of 2011 Tony Award nominees. Leading the charge was the musical The Book of Mormon, with 14 nominations. The critically acclaimed The Scottsboro Boys—which closed on Broadway in December, but is currently conducting a “pledge drive” to get the money to re-open—followed with 12 nominations. Also revealed at the ceremony was this year’s recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award, Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago. More Tony coverage, reaction from the nominees and number crunching after the jump.

In addition to The Book of Mormon and The Scottsboro Boys, the nominees for Best Musical include Catch Me If You Can and Sister Act. Best Revival of a Musical is slim pickings this year with only two entries (Anything Goes and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), which earned nine and eight nominations, respectively. But even more surprising is that the Wing’s nominating committee passed over Daniel Radcliffe—star of the musical, and of the Harry Potter film franchise—for a nomination in the Best Performance of a Leading Actor in a Musical category.

Best play nominees were split between the Brits and the Americans. Import productions of Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth (originally at the Royal Court Theatre) and War Horse by Nick Stafford (originally the National Theatre of Great Britain) will go up against Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire and The Motherf**ker with the Hat, by Stephen Adly Guirgis.

On the technical side of things, the Wing has honored a host of different productions, with The Book of Mormon again leading the pack with four nominations (one in each technical category, Best Scenic, Costume, Lighting and Sound Design for a Musical), but it was also paced by Anything Goes. A big surprise in the Scenic Design award was The Scottsboro Boys, whose very simple set (a few chairs) by Beowulf Boritt was nonetheless nominated for Best Scenic Design. Here at Stage Directions we’re also very pleased that Cricket Myers (along with Acme Sound Partners) was nominated for Best Sound Design for a Play for her work on Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. You can here her talking about her design here. (http://www.stage-directions.com/current-issue/61-sound-design/3270-video-of-the-the-cricket-myers-interview.html#bengal)

Shortly after the nominees were announced Playbill and BroadwayWorld.com immediately started calling the nominees for their reactions. You can read Playbill’s coverage here (http://www.playbill.com/news/article/150450-Broadway-Reacts-We-Talk-to-2011-Tony-Award-Nominees), and BroadwayWorld’s here (http://broadwayworld.com/article/2011-Tony-Award-Nominee-Reactions-Updating-LIVE-20110503)

The New York Times has complete coverage of the nominations here (http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/live-blogging-the-tony-award-nominations-3/). And while they tackle who got snubbed here (http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/the-tony-nominations-who-got-snubbed-2/) Ben Brantley writes that they got it right this year (http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/this-time-the-tonys-grow-up-and-get-it-right/).

And over at the Chicago Tribune Chris Jones has the reaction from the Lookingglass Theatre crowd on their win (http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2011/05/lookingglass-theatre-wins-2011-regional-tony-award-chicago.html)

Here’s the full list of nominees:

Nominations for the 2011 American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards®
Presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing

Best Play
Good People
Author: David Lindsay-Abaire
Producers: Manhattan Theatre Club, Lynne Meadow, Barry Grove
Jerusalem
Author: Jez Butterworth
Producers: Sonia Friedman Productions, Stuart Thompson, Scott Rudin, Roger Berlind, Royal Court Theatre Productions, Beverly Bartner/Alice Tulchin, Dede Harris/Rupert Gavin, Broadway Across America, Jon B. Platt, 1001 Nights/Stephanie P. McClelland, Carole L. Haber/Richard Willis, Jacki Barlia Florin/Adam Blanshay
The Motherf**ker with the Hat
Author: Stephen Adly Guirgis
Producers: Scott Rudin, Stuart Thompson, Public Theater Productions, Oskar Eustis, Joey Parnes, Labyrinth Theater Company, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Mimi O'Donnell, Yul Vázquez, Danny Feldman, Fabula Media Partners LLC, Jean Doumanian, Ruth Hendel, Carl Moellenberg, Jon B. Platt, Tulchin Bartner/Jamie deRoy
War Horse
Author: Nick Stafford
Producers: Lincoln Center Theater, André Bishop, Bernard Gersten, National Theatre of Great Britain, Nicholas Hytner, Nick Starr, Bob Boyett, War Horse LP

Best Musical
The Book of Mormon
Producers: Anne Garefino, Scott Rudin, Roger Berlind, Scott M. Delman, Jean Doumanian, Roy Furman, Important Musicals LLC, Stephanie P. McClelland, Kevin Morris, Jon B. Platt, Sonia Friedman Productions, Stuart Thompson
Catch Me If You Can
Producers: Margo Lion, Hal Luftig, Stacey Mindich, Yasuhiro Kawana, Scott & Brian Zeilinger, The Rialto Group, The Araca Group, Michael Watt, Barbara & Buddy Freitag, Jay & Cindy Gutterman/Pittsburgh CLO, Elizabeth Williams, Johnny Roscoe Productions/Van Dean, Fakston Productions/Solshay Productions, Patty Baker/Richard Winkler, Nederlander Presentations, Inc., Warren Trepp, Remmel T. Dickinson, Paula Herold/Kate Lear, Stephanie P. McClelland, Jamie deRoy, Barry Feirstein, Rainerio J. Reyes, Rodney Rigby, Loraine Boyle, Amuse Inc., Joseph & Matthew Deitch/Cathy Chernoff, Joan Stein/Jon Murray, The 5th Avenue Theatre
The Scottsboro Boys
Producers: Barry and Fran Weissler, Jacki Barlia Florin, Janet Pailet/Sharon A. Carr/Patricia R. Klausner, Nederlander Presentations, Inc./The Shubert Organization, Beechwood Entertainment, Broadway Across America, Mark Zimmerman, Adam Blanshay/R2D2 Productions, Rick Danzansky/Barry Tatelman, Bruce Robert Harris/Jack W. Batman, Allen Spivak/Jerry Frankel, Bard Theatricals/Probo Productions/Randy Donaldson, Catherine Schreiber/Michael Palitz/Patti Laskawy, Vineyard Theatre
Sister Act
Producers: Whoopi Goldberg & Stage Entertainment, The Shubert Organization and Disney Theatrical Productions

Best Book of a Musical
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
Alex Timbers
The Book of Mormon
Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone
The Scottsboro Boys
David Thompson
Sister Act
Cheri Steinkellner, Bill Steinkellner and Douglas Carter Beane

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
The Book of Mormon
Music & Lyrics: Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone
The Scottsboro Boys
Music & Lyrics: John Kander and Fred Ebb
Sister Act
Music: Alan Menken
Lyrics: Glenn Slater
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Music & Lyrics: David Yazbek

Best Revival of a Play
Arcadia
Producers: Sonia Friedman Productions, Roger Berlind, Stephanie P. McClelland, Scott M. Delman, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Disney Theatrical Group, Robert G. Bartner, Olympus Theatricals, Douglas Smith, Janine Safer Whitney
The Importance of Being Earnest
Producers: Roundabout Theatre Company, Todd Haimes, Harold Wolpert, Julia C. Levy
The Merchant of Venice
Producers: The Public Theater, Oskar Eustis, Andrew D. Hamingson, Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Debbie Bisno & Eva Price, Amy Nederlander, Jonathan First, Stewart F. Lane & Bonnie Comley, Universal Pictures Stage Productions, Merritt Forrest Baer, The Araca Group, Broadway Across America, Joseph & Matthew Deitch, JK Productions, Terry Allen Kramer, Cathy Chernoff/Jay & Cindy Gutterman, Mallory Factor/Cheryl Lachowicz, Joey Parnes, The Shubert Organization
The Normal Heart
Producers: Daryl Roth, Paul Boskind, Martian Entertainment, Gregory Rae, Jayne Baron Sherman/Alexander Fraser

Best Revival of a Musical
Anything Goes
Producers: Roundabout Theatre Company, Todd Haimes, Harold Wolpert, Julia C. Levy
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Producers: Broadway Across America, Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, Joseph Smith, Michael McCabe, Candy Spelling, Takonkiet Viravan/Scenario Thailand, Hilary A. Williams, Jen Namoff/Fakston Productions, Two Left Feet Productions/Power Arts, Hop Theatricals, LLC/Paul Chau/Daniel Frishwasser/Michael Jackowitz, Michael Speyer-Bernie Abrams/Jacki Barlia Florin-Adam Blanshay/Arlene Scanlan/TBS Service

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Brian Bedford, The Importance of Being Earnest
Bobby Cannavale, The Motherf**ker with the Hat
Joe Mantello, The Normal Heart
Al Pacino, The Merchant of Venice
Mark Rylance, Jerusalem

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Nina Arianda, Born Yesterday
Frances McDormand, Good People
Lily Rabe, The Merchant of Venice
Vanessa Redgrave, Driving Miss Daisy
Hannah Yelland, Brief Encounter

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Norbert Leo Butz, Catch Me If You Can
Josh Gad, The Book of Mormon
Joshua Henry, The Scottsboro Boys
Andrew Rannells, The Book of Mormon
Tony Sheldon, Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Sutton Foster, Anything Goes
Beth Leavel, Baby It's You!
Patina Miller, Sister Act
Donna Murphy, The People in the Picture

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Mackenzie Crook, Jerusalem
Billy Crudup, Arcadia
John Benjamin Hickey, The Normal Heart
Arian Moayed, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Yul Vázquez, The Motherf**ker with the Hat

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Ellen Barkin, The Normal Heart
Edie Falco, The House of Blue Leaves
Judith Light, Lombardi
Joanna Lumley, La Bête
Elizabeth Rodriguez, The Motherf**ker with the Hat

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
Colman Domingo, The Scottsboro Boys
Adam Godley, Anything Goes
John Larroquette, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Forrest McClendon, The Scottsboro Boys
Rory O'Malley, The Book of Mormon

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Laura Benanti, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Tammy Blanchard, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Victoria Clark, Sister Act
Nikki M. James, The Book of Mormon
Patti LuPone, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Best Scenic Design of a Play
Todd Rosenthal, The Motherf**ker with the Hat
Rae Smith, War Horse
Ultz, Jerusalem
Mark Wendland, The Merchant of Venice

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Beowulf Boritt, The Scottsboro Boys
Derek McLane, Anything Goes
Scott Pask, The Book of Mormon
Donyale Werle, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Best Costume Design of a Play
Jess Goldstein, The Merchant of Venice
Desmond Heeley, The Importance of Being Earnest
Mark Thompson, La Bête
Catherine Zuber, Born Yesterday

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Tim Chappel & Lizzy Gardiner, Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Martin Pakledinaz, Anything Goes
Ann Roth, The Book of Mormon
Catherine Zuber, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Paule Constable, War Horse
David Lander, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Kenneth Posner, The Merchant of Venice
Mimi Jordan Sherin, Jerusalem

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Ken Billington, The Scottsboro Boys
Howell Binkley, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Peter Kaczorowski, Anything Goes
Brian MacDevitt, The Book of Mormon

Best Sound Design of a Play
Acme Sound Partners & Cricket S. Myers, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Simon Baker, Brief Encounter
Ian Dickinson for Autograph, Jerusalem
Christopher Shutt, War Horse

Best Sound Design of a Musical
Peter Hylenski, The Scottsboro Boys
Steve Canyon Kennedy, Catch Me If You Can
Brian Ronan, Anything Goes
Brian Ronan, The Book of Mormon

Best Direction of a Play
Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, War Horse
Joel Grey & George C. Wolfe, The Normal Heart
Anna D. Shapiro, The Motherf**ker with the Hat
Daniel Sullivan, The Merchant of Venice

Best Direction of a Musical
Rob Ashford, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Kathleen Marshall, Anything Goes
Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker, The Book of Mormon
Susan Stroman, The Scottsboro Boys

Best Choreography
Rob Ashford, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Kathleen Marshall, Anything Goes
Casey Nicholaw, The Book of Mormon
Susan Stroman, The Scottsboro Boys

Best Orchestrations
Doug Besterman, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Larry Hochman, The Scottsboro Boys
Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus, The Book of Mormon
Marc Shaiman & Larry Blank, Catch Me If You Can

*     *     *

Recipients of Awards and Honors in Non-competitive Categories
Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre
Athol Fugard
Philip J. Smith

Regional Theatre Tony Award
Lookingglass Theatre Company (Chicago, Ill.)

Isabelle Stevenson Award
Eve Ensler

Special Tony Award
Handspring Puppet Company

Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre
William Berloni
The Drama Book Shop
Sharon Jensen and Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts

Tony Nominations by Production
The Book of Mormon - 14
The Scottsboro Boys - 12
Anything Goes - 9
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying - 8
The Merchant of Venice - 7
Jerusalem - 6
The Motherf**ker with the Hat - 6
The Normal Heart - 5
Sister Act - 5
War Horse - 5
Catch Me If You Can - 4
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo - 3
The Importance of Being Earnest - 3
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - 3
Arcadia - 2
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson - 2
Born Yesterday - 2
Brief Encounter - 2
Good People - 2
La Bête - 2
Priscilla Queen of the Desert - 2
Baby It's You! - 1
Driving Miss Daisy - 1
The House of Blue Leaves - 1
Lombardi - 1
The People in the Picture - 1

For more info on the Tonys, please visit www.TonyAwards.com

 

The 65th annual Tony Awards nominations for best actor in a play have been announced in New York by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

The 65th annual Tony Awards nominations for best actor in a musical have been announced in New York by the The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

The 65th annual Tony Awards nominations for best play have been announced in New York by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

The 65th annual Tony Awards nominations for best actress in a play have been announced in New York by the The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

The 65th annual Tony Awards nominations for best musical have been announced in New York by the The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

The 65th annual Tony Awards nominations for best actress in a musical have been announced in New York by the The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

*Anika Noni Rose, Matthew Broderick and will announce the nominees for the 65th annual Tony Awards on May 3 at New York City’s Lincoln Center, the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League announced today. Rose won a Tony in 2004 for the musical Caroline, or Change and Broderick is a two-time winner of Broadway’s [...]

Matthew Broderick and Anika Noni Rose will announce the nominees for the 65th annual Tony Awards on May 3 at New York City’s Lincoln Center, the American Theatre Wing announced today. Rose won a Tony in 2004 for the musical Caroline, or Change and Broderick is a two-time winner of Broadway’s highest honor, for Neil

The logo has been revealed for the American Theatre Wing's 2011 Tony Awards, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. This year's Tony nominations will be announced on May 3. The 65th annual Tony Awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, June 12, 2011, broadcast on CBS.

David H. Koch in 1996. He and his brother Charles are lifelong libertarians and have quietly given more than a hundred million dollars to right-wing causes.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer#ixzz1JBL91rIW

In May 17th, a black-tie audience at the Metropolitan Opera House applauded as a tall, jovial-looking billionaire took the stage. It was the seventieth annual spring gala of American Ballet Theatre, and David H. Koch was being celebrated for his generosity as a member of the board of trustees; he had recently donated $2.5 million toward the company’s upcoming season, and had given many millions before that. Koch received an award while flanked by two of the gala’s co-chairs, Blaine Trump, in a peach-colored gown, and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, in emerald green. Kennedy’s mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, had been a patron of the ballet and, coincidentally, the previous owner of a Fifth Avenue apartment that Koch had bought, in 1995, and then sold, eleven years later, for thirty-two million dollars, having found it too small.

The gala marked the social ascent of Koch, who, at the age of seventy, has become one of the city’s most prominent philanthropists. In 2008, he donated a hundred million dollars to modernize Lincoln Center’s New York State Theatre building, which now bears his name. He has given twenty million to the American Museum of Natural History, whose dinosaur wing is named for him. This spring, after noticing the decrepit state of the fountains outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Koch pledged at least ten million dollars for their renovation. He is a trustee of the museum, perhaps the most coveted social prize in the city, and serves on the board of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where, after he donated more than forty million dollars, an endowed chair and a research center were named for him.

One dignitary was conspicuously absent from the gala: the event’s third honorary co-chair, Michelle Obama. Her office said that a scheduling conflict had prevented her from attending. Yet had the First Lady shared the stage with Koch it might have created an awkward tableau. In Washington, Koch is best known as part of a family that has repeatedly funded stealth attacks on the federal government, and on the Obama Administration in particular.

With his brother Charles, who is seventy-four, David Koch owns virtually all of Koch Industries, a conglomerate, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, whose annual revenues are estimated to be a hundred billion dollars. The company has grown spectacularly since their father, Fred, died, in 1967, and the brothers took charge. The Kochs operate oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, and control some four thousand miles of pipeline. Koch Industries owns Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, among other products. Forbes ranks it as the second-largest private company in the country, after Cargill, and its consistent profitability has made David and Charles Koch—who, years ago, bought out two other brothers—among the richest men in America. Their combined fortune of thirty-five billion dollars is exceeded only by those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.” The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.

In a statement, Koch Industries said that the Greenpeace report “distorts the environmental record of our companies.” And David Koch, in a recent, admiring article about him in New York, protested that the “radical press” had turned his family into “whipping boys,” and had exaggerated its influence on American politics. But Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said, “The Kochs are on a whole different level. There’s no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I’ve been in Washington since Watergate, and I’ve never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times.”

A few weeks after the Lincoln Center gala, the advocacy wing of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation—an organization that David Koch started, in 2004—held a different kind of gathering. Over the July 4th weekend, a summit called Texas Defending the American Dream took place in a chilly hotel ballroom in Austin. Though Koch freely promotes his philanthropic ventures, he did not attend the summit, and his name was not in evidence. And on this occasion the audience was roused not by a dance performance but by a series of speakers denouncing President Barack Obama. Peggy Venable, the organizer of the summit, warned that Administration officials “have a socialist vision for this country.”

Five hundred people attended the summit, which served, in part, as a training session for Tea Party activists in Texas. An advertisement cast the event as a populist uprising against vested corporate power. “Today, the voices of average Americans are being drowned out by lobbyists and special interests,” it said. “But you can do something about it.” The pitch made no mention of its corporate funders. The White House has expressed frustration that such sponsors have largely eluded public notice. David Axelrod, Obama’s senior adviser, said, “What they don’t say is that, in part, this is a grassroots citizens’ movement brought to you by a bunch of oil billionaires.”

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer#ixzz1JBKmRPpO

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"How could this happen? The show was lousy and long. We did everything wrong," Max of The Producers in "Where Did We Go Right?"

Bad theater can beget good theater when playwrights mine their own industry for dramatic and comedic gold. There are three permutations of the play-within-a-play: The good play within the good play, the bad play within the good play, and the bad play within the bad play (Seemingly, a good play within a bad play would require the actors would be performing another playwright's work, like Shakespeare). The latter two categories have been well-represented on Washington stages lately, with three plays and musicals about bad plays and musicals on stage this month.

But when you produce theater about bad theater, as in the case of And the Curtain Rises at Signature Theatre, be prepared for your words about your heaping mess of a show to be used against you. On the other hand, some works about bad theater – those by Tom Stoppard, Mel Brooks, and Michael Frayn, primarily – are unequivocal hits. Here are 10 shows that take the bad with the good:

1. The Real Inspector Hound, by Tom Stoppard. Theater critics Moon and Birdboot are riffing on a real stinker of a murder mystery that parodies Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle – a "who-killed thing? No one will leave the room?" says Moon. But when the fourth wall comes down and the critics are drawn into the action, things take a turn for the worse. Alexandria's MetroStage will open their production of The Real Inspector Hound on April 20.

2. Light Up the Sky, by Moss Hart. A critic pours his heart into a script, only to have the actors tear it to pieces. In Mel Gussow's 1990 New York Times review of the play at the Roundabout Theater Company, he wrote, "Today, the play within the play, an elaborate allegory that includes Mount Rushmore in its stage design, would never get as far as Boston. If it did, it is unlikely that critics, even the most provincial, would be so ecstatic about such hot air. Any revival of Light Up the Sky has to disguise this and other departures from reality, including the sentimentality into which the play eventually slides, as all hands roll up sleeves to repair the unrepairable for Broadway."

3. Noises Off, by Michael Frayn. Considered one of the funniest plays-within-a-play ever written, Frayn takes us through a doomed production three times: before opening night, backstage halfway through the run, and at the exhausted conclusion of "Nothing On," a bad English sex comedy that is badly acted by a cast intent on sabotaging each other. The play was made into a 1992 film starring Michael Caine. The play was most recently performed in D.C. in August at the Keegan Theatre.

4. The Butter and Egg Man, by George S. Kaufman. The title of this play refers to a know-nothing investor who comes to throw money at a production – which is exactly what Kaufman's Midwestern investor Peter Jones does, in this sendup of 1920s Broadway. Of course, the show he picks is deeply flawed, and must be rescued. In a New York Times review of the 2002 Atlantic Theater Company production, Bruce Weber wrote, "Kaufman arranges for nearly the entire ensemble to gather in the hotel room. The ostensible reason is to discuss the disastrous opening, and even the people whose presence in the room is difficult to account for – the prostitute and the switchboard operator, for instance, who nearly get into a fight – get to express their opinions."

5. The Resurrectionist King, by Stephen Spotswood. Now playing at Joe's Movement Emporium, Spotswood told TBD yesterday how he was inspired by a City Paper story about Vigo Jansen, the grave-robber who rented out a D.C. theater for a one-night show to try to bring legitimacy to his craft. But when he showed up drunk, and the actor he hired to play a dead body couldn't stop laughing through the show, needless to say, it did not get good reviews.

6. The Torch-Bearers, by George Kelly. Grace Kelly's uncle wrote this play about another doomed production, this time performed by a troupe of community actors, led by an indomitable director. "Possessed of steel resolve, infinite vanity and no sense of humor, Mrs. Pampinelli … has turned into a creature of baroque pretensions and bullying condescension, able to convince her actors that their bumbling stagecraft is indeed high art," wrote New York Times critic Ben Brantley of the Greenwich House Theater's 2000 revival.

7. And the Curtain Rises, with book by Michael Slade, music by Joseph Thalken, and lyrics by Mark Campbell. The disastrous making of America's first musical began with an even worse play: Return to Black Creek, a melodrama set in a cornfield, written by a tone-deaf playwright whose producer is his sympathetic best friend. When the producer, William Wheatley, realizes the play's a dud, he sets about making something altogether new, involving French can-can dancers in their bloomers, along with song and dance. The production frequently discusses how bad it is, with lines like, "Don't you think your public has suffered enough?" – lines that I frequently quoted in my review of the production for TBD.

8. Critic's Choice, by Ira Levin. New York theater critic Parker Ballantine's wife has written a play, and it is terrible. He must perform the delicate tightrope act of keeping peace in his marriage, and upholding his professional integrity, setting aside the fact that it would be a huge conflict of interest for a critic to review his wife's play. A great cautionary tale for arts journalists to avoid conflicts of interest! The play opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in December 1960, and starred Henry Fonda as Ballantine, with the famed Otto Preminger directing. Critic Howard Taubman wrote in the New York Times that "Otto Preminger's staging discloses a seasoned hand, although his pacing often turns languid and his ideas for comedy run thin, like the playwright's."

9. The Producers, with music and lyrics by Mel Brooks, and book by Brooks and Thomas Meehan. The much-beloved adaptation of the 1968 film about two producers who figure out that they can make more money off of a flop than a hit, so they conspire to make millions off of the worst musical ever. They think they've found it in "Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden" but the show is unexpectedly successful. Opening in 2001 at the St. James Theater on Broadway, The Producers won a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards including best musical, and best actor in a musical, for which Nathan Lane defeated his co-star, Matthew Broderick. It was remade into another movie.

10. What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling, by David Pittu and Randy Redd. Wrote Charles Isherwood in 2008: "I’m pretty sure the jackals who cherish a big Broadway bomb will find nothing to match the rapturously awful songs of the composer-lyricist who serenades us with throbbing intensity in the ingenious new show What’s That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling, which opened Wednesday night at the Atlantic Stage 2 theater." Pittu also stars at the titular Jacob Sterling in this musical about a hapless actor who charms his way onto local cable to sing his songs ans rehash his minor brushes with fame. "Jacob sings with a maudlin intensity that anyone who has spent time in a piano bar will recognize with a mixture of amusement, embarrassment and fascination."

Acknowledgement: This list owes a great debt to Howard Sherman of the American Theatre Wing, and his list of "An Awful Lot of Plays and Musicals about Theatre."

On one side of the Atlantic, US bloggers are fretting whether American theatre is in decline. On the other, Brits can't decide whether to despair over funding cuts – or celebrate

Is American theatre in trouble? Howard Sherman on the American Theatre Wing blog says he's been hearing the question a lot recently. But he reckons not. In a seven-point manifesto for live performance he argues that, despite the funding woes many theatres are facing at the moment, the art form as a whole is far more resilient that most people recognise. In fact, he says, "the very thing that challenges theatre is also what keeps it alive. Oxymoronic as that may be, it's absolutely true. Individual productions will rarely ever reach the number of people who see a single episode of a mediocre TV series, but it is the fact that theatre is live and unable to be electronically duplicated and distributed ad nauseum that makes it entirely unique each and every time there is a performance." So while the theatre's audience might be intrinsically limited, it is precisely the intimacy this limitation creates that gives the work its value.

Sherman has found a number of supporters for his views – including bloggers Matt Freeman and Rob Weinert-Kendt. However, not everyone is impressed. 99 Seats, who blogs over at Parabasis, finds Sherman's arguments to be "sentimental, glossed over claptrap". He is particularly annoyed by his assertion that high ticket prices are not the problem everyone seems to think they are. "Whenever the question of price comes up," he writes, "someone trots out the whole 'people drop lots of money on music or bars, so it's not like they're poor' argument. It completely misses the point. The question to ask is why? Why do people who would never drop $40 bucks on an off-Broadway play feel comfortable dropping $100 to see Prince? Because of the quality of the experience. Theatre is falling down on the quality of the experience."

Of course, the relationship between theatre and money is something that has been a major preoccupation for writers on this side of the Atlantic over the last week. As details of how the government's arts cuts would impact on regularly funded organisations were announced by Arts Council England (neatly summarised here by Fin Kennedy), bloggers voiced a mixture of joy and despair. Some companies found themselves flush with new cash; others got cut completely. Nowhere is this mixed emotion more evident than in this post from Megan Vaughan on her Synonyms for Churlish blog. She beings by saying: "I'm exhausted … I was woken up by a text from my boss to say we were not successful in our bid to be one of the Arts Council's national portfolio organisations. The company had been regularly funded by ACE since 2008, and now has a year to get its finances in order before they whip it all away again." Yet she also adds, almost in the same breath: "I was hugely chuffed to hear that Slung Low, Coney and DreamThinkSpeak have been added to the portfolio for the first time."

The writer behind the Sturdy Blog takes a broader view of the argument against spending cuts: "The NHS, the Arts Council, free higher education for all, housing for all, freedom and safety – they are the state-enshrined expressions of the things that make us homo sapiens. Against all this, the homo economicus: a cold, narrowly self-interested individual [who] never gets ill, never gets depressed, never loses a parent to cancer, never enjoys Bach or the Rolling Stones." He concludes by depicting the struggle against the cuts as "not a right-versus-left fight, nor a rich-versus-poor fight. It is a fight between the man we aspire to be and the man we are."

This idea that the fight over arts funding is not simply a "left v right" issue is something Andrew Haydon agrees with. Blogging from Germany, he writes: "We should also remember that subsidising the arts isn't inimical to right-wing government. I live in a country which has a right-wing coalition that spends €1.15bn a year, 3-4% of their national budget, on the arts. The combined arts budgets of Berlin, Munich and Hamburg would more than cover ACE's entire national budget." Indeed, Haydon points out that even a conservative magazine like The Spectator has been making the case for state subsidy of the arts: "To those who say the market should decide, I ask you where Mozart would have been without Emperor Joseph II, or Beethoven without Archduke Rudolph? And let's not forget that this was the era when emperors and dukes were the state: it was the taxpayers of Austria who subsidised The Marriage of Figaro and sponsored the Missa Solemnis."

Finally, if you want to know how theatres can end up if it all goes wrong, take a look at this: a series of pictures of dead theatres in the US. Beautiful, but depressing.

Playwright Athol Fugard, and Shubert Organization Chairman Philip J. Smith will receive special Tony Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre at this year’s Tony Awards on June 12. Additionally, Playwright Eve Ensler will be the recipient of the Isabelle Stevenson Award, which recognizes an individual from the theatre community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of a humanitarian, social service or charitable organization. The award is named for a longtime leader of the American Theatre Wing, which presents the Tony Awards with The Broadway League. Tony Honors for excellence in theatre will go to Bill Berloni, The Drama Book Shop, and Sharon Jensen and Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts.

Tonys Announce 2011 Special Awards and Honors

By Ben Pesner

The Tony Awards® Admonsitration Committee has announced this year's recipients in three catagories. Among the honorees are a world-renowned playwright originally from South Africa, a longtime Broadway executive, a playwright/activist known for her work in combatting volience against women, a show-business animal trainer, a venerable theatre bookshop, and an organization dedicated to promoting diversity in the theatre, film, and television.

Special Tony Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre: Athol Fugard, Philip J. Smith

Isabelle Stevenson Award: Eve Ensler

Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre: Bill Berloni, The Drama Book Shop, and Sharon Jensen and Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts

These non-competitive awards will be presented at the 2011 Tony Awards ceremony on Sunday, June 12. The 65th Annual Tony Awards will be broadcast in a live three-hour ceremony from the Beacon Theatre on the CBS television network on Sunday, June 12, 2011.

The Tony Award Nominations will be announced on Tuesday, May 3rd. The Tony Nominations can be viewed LIVE (8:30am ET) in their entirety at TonyAwards.com. Follow the Tony Awards on Twitter for real-time updates on the nominees as they are announced (Twitter.com/TheTonyAwards). The entire announcement will be viewable here on TonyAwards.com after the event as well.

A Pair of Over-Achievers

There will be two recipients of Special Tony Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre: Playwright Athol Fugard, and Shubert Organization Chairman Philip J. Smith.

Athol Fugard was born in 1932 in Middelburg, in the Karoo desert region of South Africa, and has battled to bring the stories of all South Africans to the world, even under apartheid. Mr. Fugard has been working in the theatre as a playwright, director and actor since the mid-fifties in South Africa, England and the United States. His plays include The Train Driver, No-Good Friday, Non-Gogo, Blood Knot, Hello and Goodbye, People Are Living There, Boesman and Lena, Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, Dimetos, The Island, A Lesson From Aloes, "MASTER HAROLD"...and the boys, The Road to Mecca, A Place With the Pigs, My Children! My Africa!, Playland, Valley Song, The Captain's Tiger, Sorrows & Rejoicings, Exits and Entrances, Victory and Coming Home. He has been on stage in South Africa, London, Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional theatres in the U.S. Film credits include The Road to Mecca, Gandhi, The Killing Fields, Meeting with Remarkable Men, Marigolds in August, Boesman and Lena and The Guest. He has written one novel, Tsotsi, a film version of which was made in South Africa and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, as well as the Michael Powell Award and the Standard Life Audience Award at the 2005 Edinburgh Film Festival, the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival, and the Audience Award at the Los Angeles AFI Film Festival. Mr. Fugard is a playwright whose art has always spoken out against racism, and continues to be an active voice for freedom and equality.

Philip J. Smith began his Shubert career more than 50 years ago as a box office treasurer; steadily moving up the ranks to serve as President from 1996 - 2008 and is now the Chairman of the Shubert Organization. The Shubert Organization has been in the forefront of the American Theatre since the beginning of the 20th century and directs the management and operation of 17 Broadway theatres in New York City, as well as theatres in Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Mr. Smith's innovations during his career have included the computerization of all Shubert box offices and the development of Telecharge, the industry's most successful system for purchasing tickets. He sits on the Executive Committee of The Broadway League's Board of Governors and is a member of the Labor Committee, as well as a member of the Tony Awards Administration Committee on behalf of the League. He is an active Board member for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Actor's Fund, for which he is the first Vice President. He is also a member of the Knights of Malta and the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

A Crusader for Women

The Isabelle Stevenson Award recognizes an individual from the theatre community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of a humanitarian, social service or charitable organization. The award is named for a longtime leader of the American Theatre Wing, which presents the Tony Awards with The Broadway League.

The recipient of the 2011 Isabelle Stevenson Award will be V-Day founder and artistic director, Eve Ensler. Ms. Ensler is a playwright, performer and activist and the award-winning author of The Vagina Monologues, which has been published in 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries. Her newest work, I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World, was released February 2010 in book form by Random House, and made The New York Times Best Seller list. A theatrical commercial tour will begin this summer in South Africa, moving to Paris and San Francisco, before moving to an Off-Broadway production. In the summer of 2010, Eve's newest play Here was filmed live by Sky Television in London, UK. Eve's other plays include Necessary Targets, The Treatment and The Good Body, which she performed on Broadway, followed by a national tour.

Ms. Ensler's experience performing The Vagina Monologues inspired her to create V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. She has devoted her life to stopping violence, envisioning a planet in which women and girls will be free to thrive, rather than merely survive. Today, V-Day is a global activist movement that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Ms. Ensler's award winning play The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works. In 2011, over 5,400 V-Day benefits took place, and to date, the V-Day movement has raised over $80 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, opened the revolutionary City of Joy community in the Democratic Republic of Congo, launched the Karama program in the Middle East, reopened shelters, and funded over 12,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq. V-Day is a remarkable example of transforming theatrical success into an effort to truly change people's lives worldwide.

Honoring Excellence, On Stage and Off

The Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre were established in 1990 and are awarded annually to institutions, individuals and/or organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary achievement in theatre, but are not eligible in any of the established Tony Award categories. This year's Tony Honors will be presented to:

* Bill Berloni: Mr. Berloni's career as an animal trainer began over 32 years ago, finding and training "Sandy" for the original Broadway production of Annie His animals have been part of more than a dozen Broadway productions including The Wizard of Oz, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Legally Blond, Camelot, Le Bête and Woman in White. He has also trained animals for two dozen Off-Broadway shows and more than 100 regional productions.

* The Drama Book Shop: For nearly a century The Drama Book Shop, on West 40th Street in Manhattan, has been an unwavering supporter of the theatre. Generations of theatre lovers have browsed the store's seemingly endless shelves, finding hard-to-locate manuscripts, new works from theatres in other countries, and just-published copies of hit plays. The book shop includes a small black box theatre which is continuously used to present new works and seminars for the theatre community at no cost.

* Sharon Jensen and Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts: Since 1986, the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts has worked to achieve a theatre, film and television industry that reflects American society; where each artist is considered on his/her individual merits; where the stories being told are drawn from diverse experiences; and where our individual humanity can be celebrated. Towards this goal, the Alliance promotes diversity in programming and leadership, and balanced portrayals of persons of color and persons with disabilities.

For more info about the Tony Awards, please visit www.tonyawards.com.

The American Theatre Wing honored 2011 Jonathan Larson Grant Recipients at a private event held on March 29, which featured presentations of the recipients work.

The Tony Awards Administration Committee assembled March 31 for the third time of the 2010-11 season to discuss the eligibility of three Broadway productions for the 2011 Tony Awards, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

The Tony Awards Administration Committee met today for the third time this season to decide the eligibility of three Broadway productions for the 2011 American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. The awards will be broadcast in a...

The Tony Awards Administration Committee met on March 31 for the third time this season to decide the eligibility of Broadway productions for the American Theatre Wing's 2011 Tony Awards, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. This year's Tony nominations will be announced on May 3. The 65th annual Tony Awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, June 12, 2011, broadcast on CBS.

The Tony Awards Administration Committee assembled March 31 for the third time of the 2010-11 season to discuss the eligibility of three Broadway productions for the 2011 Tony Awards, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

Have you started planning your Tonys party yet? The Actors Fund has. Their 15^th Annual Tony Awards party will take place June 12 (same day as the Tonys, naturally…). The party will feature a silent auction to support the Actors Fund, and will also honor Hal Holbrook with the Julie Harris Award for Lifetime Achievement.

THE ACTORS FUND Presents the 15th Annual Tony Awards® Party An Actors Fund Special Event honoring HAL HOLBROOK

WHAT:            THE ACTORS FUND honors Hal Holbrook at their 15th Annual Tony Awards® Party with the Julie Harris Award for Lifetime Achievement. The gala features the only approved live feed of the Tony Awards as they happen in New York. Previous recipients have included Julie Harris, Gwen Verdon, Charles Durning, Rita Moreno, James Earl Jones, Tyne Daly, Lauren Bacall, Stockard Channing, Carol Channing, Liza Minnelli, Jerry Herman, Tommy Tune, Chita Rivera and Brian Stokes Mitchell.

WHEN:            Sunday, June 12th, 2011 3:30pm -- Cocktails and Silent Auction begins

5:00pm to 8:00p.m. -- Dinner and live telecast and 8:00pm -- Presentation to Hal Holbrook

WHERE:            Skirball Center (2701 North Sepulveda Blvd, LA, 90049)

TICKETS:            Individuals $250 and Tables of ten start at $2,750 by calling

The Actors Fund at 323.933.9266 ext. 58 or at www.actorsfund.org

EDITORS: TONY Award winner and Academy Award-nominated actor Hal Holbrook’s first solo performance as Mark Twain was in 1954 and Mark Twain Tonight! has since become perhaps the longest running show in theatre history. A role he would perform for President Eisenhower and eventually win him a Tony Award and a Drama Critics’ Circle Award followed by a 90 minute CBS television special that was nominated for an Emmy Award and seen by 22 million. In New York he has appeared in Marco Millions, After the Fall, Incident at Vichy and Tartuffe, as well as starring roles on Broadway in The Glass Menagerie, The Apple Tree, I Never Sang For My Father, Man of La Mancha and Does A Tiger Wear A Necktie? (with a young Al Pacino). Mr. Holbrook has done some 50 television movies and mini-series, been nominated for 12 Emmys and won five for The Senator, Pueblo, Best Actor Of The Year (1974), Sandburg’s Lincoln and as host and narrator of Portrait Of America: Alaska. He has had memorable roles on two sitcoms: Designing Women (along side wife, Dixie Carter) and Evening Shade, with guest appearances on The West Wing, Becker, Hope & Faith, Sons of Anarchy, The Event, ER, The Sopranos and NCIS. His over 40 films include the just completed Savannah, Water for Elephants, Magnum Force, Midway, All The President’s Men, Julia, Capricorn One, The Fog, Star Chamber, Creepshow, Wall Street, The Firm, The Bachelor, Waking The Dead, Men of Honor, The Majestic, Shade, Killshot and That Evening Sun. In 2008, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Into the Wild written and directed by Sean Penn. He has consistently returned to the stage in productions including Buried Inside Extra, The Country Girl, King Lear, An American Daughter and a National Tour of Death Of A Salesman. Holbrook has received numerous Honorary Doctors, Degrees, the Edwin Booth Award and the William Shakespeare Award.  In 2000 he was inducted into the New York Theatre Hall of Fame and in 2003 received the Nat’l Humanities Medal from President Bush.

The Actors Fund is a national human services organization that helps everyone- performers and those behind the scenes-who works in performing arts and entertainment, helping more than 12,000 people directly each year and hundreds of thousands online. Serving professionals in film, theatre, television, music, opera, radio and dance, The Fund’s programs include social services and emergency assistance, health care and insurance, housing and employment and training services. With offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, The Actors Fund has-for nearly 130 years has been a safety net for those in need, crisis or transition. Visit www.actorsfund.org

On Tuesday, March 29, the American Theatre Wing presented the 2011 Jonathan Larson Grants recognizing emerging creators of musical theater at a ceremony and performance at B.B. King Blues Club. The recipients were three writing teams: Danny Larsen and Michelle Elliott for Cloaked; Jack...

Actor who rose to fame in Hitchcock's Rope and Strangers On a Train, but refused to conform to Hollywood pressures

Early on in his career, the actor Farley Granger, who has died aged 85, worked with several of the world's greatest directors, including Alfred Hitchcock on Rope (1948) and Strangers On a Train (1951), Nicholas Ray on They Live By Night (1949) and Luchino Visconti on Senso (1953). Yet Granger failed to sustain the momentum of those years, meandering into television, some stage work and often indifferent European and American movies.

The reasons were complicated, owing much to his sexuality and an unwillingness to conform to Hollywood pressures, notably from his contract studio, MGM, and the mogul Samuel Goldwyn. Granger refused to play the publicity or marrying game common among other gay stars and turned down roles he considered unsuitable, earning a reputation – in his own words – for being "a naughty boy". He was also the victim of bad luck, notably when Howard Hughes, the egomaniacal owner of RKO studios, took against They Live By Night, shelving it for a year before releasing it without fanfare. While his contemporary Charlton Heston had maintained that it was impossible not to launch his own acting career from two Cecil B DeMille movies, Granger had the far more difficult task of springboarding from his Hitchcock films, where the director had been the star.

Granger was born in San Jose, California, and first appeared on a school stage aged five. A dozen years later he was working in theatres around Los Angeles, when his dazzling good looks were noticed by a local talent scout. Aged 18 he made his screen debut as a curly-haired Russian soldier in Lewis Milestone's The North Star (1943).

Milestone also cast him in the role of a sergeant in The Purple Heart (1944), but by then the real war had caught up with the actor who, following his military service, took a long while to re-establish himself. Ray cast him in the leading role of They Live By Night, as the emotionally unstable small-time crook Bowie, and by the time the film was released, he had appeared in the feeble Enchantment (1948) and the bucolic Roseanna McCoy (1949).

Luckily, he had also been loaned out for the claustrophobic Rope, filmed in 10-minute takes, resulting in an elegantly artificial movie, with the actors even more puppet-like than was usual with Hitchcock. Granger and John Dall were ideally cast as gay students who murder a friend to display a Nietzschean concept of supremacy. Granger played the highly-strung Phillip, who cracks under the probing of their tutor (James Stewart). The public were less than enthusiastic. The director Jean Renoir scathingly dismissed the film, adding that it was "a film about homosexuals in which they don't even show the boys kissing".

Moving on, in 1950 Granger starred in Anthony Mann's fast-paced thriller Side Street, Edge of Doom and Our Very Own, before being rescued from the routine by his friend Hitchcock, who cast him in another movie with a gay subtext, Strangers On a Train. He took the more conventional role of a handsome tennis champion, Guy Haines, mentally seduced by the unhinged Bruno (Robert Walker). Bruno obligingly murders the sportsman's wife, who is holding back Guy's career and social ambitions. When the killer wants repayment in kind – via the death of his own bullying father – matters go horribly wrong. Granger was bland rather than urbane, perplexed rather than intimidated, and despite charm, good looks and an attractive voice, he found his career not taking off.

Instead, routine fare such as Behave Yourself! (1951) and Small Town Girl (1953) followed. Even the sympathetic Vincente Minnelli made little of the star opposite Leslie Caron in The Story of Three Loves (1953).

Granger needed to get out of his contract and was happy when he was loaned out by Goldwyn to star in Visconti's Senso. He was intriguingly cast as the embittered romantic Franz Mahler, an Austrian soldier who betrays the married woman besotted with him. She in turn betrays not only her country, Italy, but also those struggling politically against the invading forces. With dialogue by Tennessee Williams and Paul Bowles, the film took heady flight into a sumptuous period melodrama. It took many months to shoot and Granger relished new freedom in Europe, buying a house in Rome. Despite this he never worked again in anything comparable to Visconti's masterpiece.

Returning sporadically to the US, he played in The Naked Street (1955) as a hoodlum taken under the overly protective wing of Anthony Quinn, then had a better role as the murderous roué in Richard Fleischer's The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955).

He returned to the stage, acting in The Carefree Tree on Broadway in 1955, and touring with The Seagull, Hedda Gabler and She Stoops to Conquer. Television offered the occasional bit of intelligent casting, including the grasping would-be lover in The Heiress (1961). The role had been a triumph for Montgomery Clift in the cinema in 1949 and one could see the rationale behind the new casting. After a decade mainly in the theatre and TV and little-seen movies such as Rogues' Gallery (1968), Granger returned to a more congenial Europe.

In 1970 he made a western, My Name Is Trinity and then a complicated spy thriller, The Serpent, where he co-starred with Henry Fonda, Yul Brynner and Dirk Bogarde, all gentlemen of a certain age in search of elusive work. He again worked in American television, in such popular series as Matt Helm, Ellery Queen, The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote, and also contributed to the documentary The Celluloid Closet (1995), an examination of homosexuality in Hollywood movies.

In 2001 he appeared in his last film, The Next Big Thing, and came to London for his West End stage debut, in a revival of Noël Coward's once-controversial play Semi-Monde. He later withdrew because of difficulties in remembering his lines. He said that he had become bored with the process of film-making and retired, devoting himself to travel and his greatest love, the theatre, now as a spectator. In 2007, he published a memoir, Include Me Out, co-written with his long-term partner, the producer Robert Calhoun, who died in 2008.

• Farley Earle Granger, actor, born 1 July 1925; died 27 March 2011

Anna Chapman, the “sultry Russian secret agent” who hit the headlines last year after being exposed as a deep-cover operative in the United States, says she bears no ill will towards the man who betrayed her. And why should she? Since being freed as part of a dramatic spy swap deal in Vienna in July 2010, the flame-haired daughter of a Russian career diplomat has rarely been out of the limelight, taking up a number of lucrative job offers and positioning herself for a move into big-time politics. “It was the start of something great and beautiful,” Chapman gushed on a recent Russian TV show. Or, as she puts it on her newly launched website: “The day I returned to Moscow was my second birthday.”

It wasn’t hard to predict that only good things awaited Chapman once she was safely back in Russia. The country’s all-powerful premier, Vladimir Putin, had said that Chapman and her former comrades would “work in worthy places” and have “bright, interesting lives”.

“Every single one of these people has gone through a difficult time… in the interests of their homeland,” said Putin, the ex-KGB officer. And while a number of her former colleagues have reportedly been rewarded with cushy posts at state-run companies, it is Chapman’s star that has risen by far the highest.

A month after their deportation, Putin joined up with the failed spies for a karaoke-type evening, where they crooned together the Soviet-era song – and unofficial Russian intelligence service anthem – “From Where the Motherland Begins”. After that cosy night out, things moved fast for Chapman. She was awarded a top state honour by President Dmitry Medvedev, posed for erotic – and lucrative – photos for men’s magazines, and was handed her own primetime TV show. She did, however, turn down a role in a porn film, despite being offered a “substantial” fee by the Vivid Entertainment adult-film company.

Chapman has also been made the face of the ruling United Russia party’s youth movement and has been tipped to win a seat in parliament in upcoming elections. On top of all this, she has registered her surname as a trademark; has brought out a poker app and a slew of Chapman-own products, including perfume, watches and vodka, is expected to hit the shops soon. The 29-year-old provincial Russian also has a Max Clifford-type agent to handle “commercial projects”, which include highly paid interviews and photo shoots.

 

The irony is, of course, that Anna Chapman is being rewarded for doing her job badly. Not only was she duped by the FBI into blowing her cover, but she apparently failed to turn up any useful information for Moscow. Espionage charges were not brought against a single member of the spy ring, as there was no indication that any classified information had been accessed. Prosecutors instead had to settle for charges of “failure to declare foreign agent status” and money laundering. Chapman and the other nine agents were exchanged for just four American spies. As US vice president Joe Biden put it: “We got back four really good ones. And the 10, they’ve been here a long time, but they hadn’t done much.”

Unlike Britain, with its traditional fondness for incompetence, Russia has never been known for its willingness to celebrate defeat. Is Chapman’s unlikely fame an indication of a startling new Russian mindset? Not quite. In an Orwellian feat of reinterpretation, dominant state-run media outlets have portrayed the Chapman saga as a feelgood story, her life held up as something to be envied, aspired to. Over New Year, the Channel One TV station ran a This is Your Life-style tribute to Chapman, described by the host as “without any exaggeration, the woman of the year”. The programme kicked off with shaky home-video footage of the spy-to-be as a Soviet schoolgirl reciting poetry and giggling into the camera before Chapman herself, dressed in a figure-hugging green outfit, strode into the studio to warm applause from the audience. “I have to say, you look even better than in your photos,” the host enthused. During the hour-long programme, Chapman’s childhood friends, grandmother and “first love” were all rolled out to pay tribute, and Chapman had the good grace to blush a red as deep as her hair. “She is worthy of applause because she worked abroad for our nation,” a celebrity guest – Soviet-era TV star Anna Shatilova – exclaimed.

Chapman didn’t give much away during the show, sticking to cliché and aphorism for the most part. When asked about her deportation from the US, she replied: “I believe that everything that happens is for the best.” She did, however, drop a hint about a possible new television role. “Watch your screens next year,” she advised viewers. “I’ll reveal all the secrets.”

This turned out to be her catchphrase as presenter of Mysteries of the World with Anna Chapman, a weekly “investigative” show that launched in January. “The most mysterious woman in Russia presents the most mysterious show,” the programme’s producer Mikhail Tukmachev promised in promo ads.

In the first episode Chapman looked into claims that verses from the Koran had been appearing on the skin of a young boy from Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Not that Chapman actually visited the volatile region, home to more than 50% of terrorist attacks in Russia in 2010. For that a – presumably expendable – male reporter was dispatched, leaving Chapman to pop up on the screen every now and then in an eye-catching red and black outfit. Subsequent shows have seen similar studio-based investigations by Chapman into topics including demonic possession and the fate of St Petersburg’s famous lost Amber Room, which disappeared after being looted by Nazi troops in the Second World War. In case you were wondering, she didn’t find it.

Ren TV, one of the few non state-run television companies left in Russia, screens the show. But producer Tukmachev denies that the appearance of a figure with obvious Kremlin connections is a sign that the channel is slowly losing whatever modicum of independence it may enjoy. “Nothing has changed at the channel since the arrival of Chapman,” he tells me. “As you can see, there is nothing political about the programme at all.

“The idea for the show came about quite spontaneously,” Tukmachev adds. “I was having a meeting with Chapman, and we came up with the theme of mysteries – one that both of us find interesting. She had no previous experience, of course, but she learns quicker than most.”

But why did the show’s glamorous presenter not get out and about and try to uncover the truth herself? Why was she largely confined to a sterile Moscow studio?

“Well, she can’t do everything,” Tukmachev says.

And yet, not CONTENT with conquering the world of show business, Chapman is also carving out a career for herself as a politician. In late 2010 she joined the leadership of Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guard), the youth wing of Putin’s United Russia. The movement – along with a similar group called Nashi (Ours) – is widely viewed as a potential Kremlin weapon against what officials here nervously call the “orange scenario”, a reference to the street protest-inspired revolution that swept pro-western politician Viktor Yushchenko to power in neighbouring Ukraine in 2004. In 2005 the then-Nashi leader Vasily Yakemenko announced that if such a thing were ever to occur in Russia he would make one call to his “colleagues in the Spartak Moscow FC fan movement”, and they would “assemble 5,000 of their supporters to chase away those who came out on the streets in support of western-backed politicians”.

Moscow remains nervous about the possibility of an Egypt-style uprising. Young Guard was recently instructed by Kremlin ideologist Vladislav Surkov to get ready for the 2011 parliamentary and 2012 presidential polls. “Prepare yourselves for the elections, and train your brains and your muscles,” he told group members at a meeting in Moscow in December. “The polls must be won by Medvedev, Putin and United Russia.” Surkov’s pep talk came shortly after Young Guard had posted images of a number of “traitor” journalists on its website with the words “Will Be Punished” stamped on them.

One of the journalists, Oleg Kashin, who had written extensively about pro-Kremlin and United Russia youth groups, was later beaten almost to death outside his home by unidentified assailants. Young Guard denied any involvement and took Kashin’s photo off its site.

Naturally this unpleasantness was missing from Chapman’s debut speech at a Young Guard congress late last year. A wisp of hair hanging over one eye, a smiling Chapman urged some 2,000 delegates to “transform the future, starting with ourselves”. “If all of us were joyful, we could do something useful and new,” she continued over the low-level buzz of chatter. “There would,” she revealed, “be less negativity in society if every single one of us woke up with a smile on our face.” Chapman declined to reveal how Russians were to put aside the country’s most crippling problems – corruption, alcoholism and rampant police brutality, to name just three – and start the day with a ready-made grin. She made a speedy exit, avoiding waiting journalists with the “deftness of a former secret agent”, as one blogger put it. The speech was much played on Russian TV.

Like her political message, Chapman’s role in the Young Guard movement has so far been unclearly defined. One week she is helping to “educate the youth of Russia” and “increase patriotism”, while the next she is advising on “business issues” or “modernisation”. Young Guard leader Timur Prokopenko dubbed his newest recruit “a hero of her generation”. I call him to clarify. “Well, her biography and everything that has been written about her has made her very popular – a hero – among students and young girls,” he tells me. But did he share their attitude? “As the leader of a youth organisation,” he replies tactfully, “I am obliged to support their opinion.”

Chapman may not be confined to youth politics for long. United Russia has pencilled her in as a candidate for December’s parliamentary polls, and she is expected to stand – and win – in her hometown of Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad. “The party needs young beautiful girls,” senior United Russia official Frants Klintsevich commented. “She can bring more supporters with her. She’s a smart, sharp person.” Or as former newsreader and political analyst Samir Shakhbaz told me: “She’s kind of a role model, and she has lots of fans. She lived the dream of many young people here to be a 007-type figure, or at least the Russian version of it.”

United Russia’s ranks are already swelling with celebrities, from footballers Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko to a host of domestic pop and rock stars. One famous face Chapman will not be meeting at rallies, however, is former Bolshoi Theatre prima ballerina Anastasia Volochkova, who angrily quit the party last month. “They weren’t interested in any projects I suggested,” she explained. “They just used me to advertise the party. And I have no desire to prostitute myself.” In Chapman – dubbed “Agent 90-60-90″ by Russian tabloids because of her centimetre figure measurements – United Russia has a ready-made replacement for the glamorous Volochkova. And one that – for now at least – has no objections to being used solely for her looks and fame.

But despite her ubiquity, it’s arguable whether Chapman is popular among ordinary Russians. As ever in this country, it’s the internet where people’s true feelings find a voice. And Russia’s assorted bloggers and message-board users seem to be unequivocal in their disdain.

“Citizen of the world Anna Chapman is undoubtedly the major hero of our vast country,” writes one user on Live Journal – Russia’s most popular blogging platform. “We all also dream of dropping our knickers abroad and stealing enemy secrets.” “A true symbol of our time!” offers another. “How we need such people! Those ready to join whatever they are told to! To sleep with whomever they are told to!” Other comments are more explicit, involving combinations of the words “Putin” and “whore”.

Ex-spies are supposed to disappear quietly, and Chapman’s lust for publicity has upset many former members of the Russian intelligence community. “No real professional would act like this. It’s a disgrace to see how she is cashing in on her past,” an ex-operative said on the day of her television debut. “After all,” he added, after insisting on anonymity, “it’s not like she did anything she should be proud of.”

It can seem that Chapman has been thrust upon the Russians. But it’s not so easy to fathom why. Is she simply a sharp operator who has skilfully turned disaster into triumph? Or is she being manipulated, willingly or otherwise, by the powers that be? For now Chapman is giving almost nothing away. Not for free, anyhow.

 

Marc Bennetts is the author of Football Dynamo (Virgin Books) and is now writing a book about Russia’s fascination with the occult

Windows to Russia!

• Russian News… (01/13/2011) (windowstorussia.com)
• Sacked ambassador stokes Russian tension over Libya (windowstorussia.com)
• Putin is Correct and Medvedev is Incorrect… (windowstorussia.com)
• Moscow Russia and her Casinos Here and Casinos There… (windowstorussia.com)
• Raising toast to Earth’s beauty (news.windowstorussia.com)

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/27/anna-chapman-agent-provocateur

When she was arrested in an FBI sting in a Manhattan coffee shop last June on charges of espionage, it looked like Anna Chapman would disappear into obscurity in Russia. Less than a year later she's the darling of the country's media, has her own TV show and is tipped as a rising star of the political right

Anna Chapman, the "sultry Russian secret agent" who hit the headlines last year after being exposed as a deep-cover operative in the United States, says she bears no ill will towards the man who betrayed her. And why should she? Since being freed as part of a dramatic spy swap deal in Vienna in July 2010, the flame-haired daughter of a Russian career diplomat has rarely been out of the limelight, taking up a number of lucrative job offers and positioning herself for a move into big-time politics. "It was the start of something great and beautiful," Chapman gushed on a recent Russian TV show. Or, as she puts it on her newly launched website: "The day I returned to Moscow was my second birthday."

It wasn't hard to predict that only good things awaited Chapman once she was safely back in Russia. The country's all-powerful premier, Vladimir Putin, had said that Chapman and her former comrades would "work in worthy places" and have "bright, interesting lives".

"Every single one of these people has gone through a difficult time… in the interests of their homeland," said Putin, the ex-KGB officer. And while a number of her former colleagues have reportedly been rewarded with cushy posts at state-run companies, it is Chapman's star that has risen by far the highest.

A month after their deportation, Putin joined up with the failed spies for a karaoke-type evening, where they crooned together the Soviet-era song – and unofficial Russian intelligence service anthem – "From Where the Motherland Begins". After that cosy night out, things moved fast for Chapman. She was awarded a top state honour by President Dmitry Medvedev, posed for erotic – and lucrative – photos for men's magazines, and was handed her own primetime TV show. She did, however, turn down a role in a porn film, despite being offered a "substantial" fee by the Vivid Entertainment adult-film company.

Chapman has also been made the face of the ruling United Russia party's youth movement and has been tipped to win a seat in parliament in upcoming elections. On top of all this, she has registered her surname as a trademark; has brought out a poker app and a slew of Chapman-own products, including perfume, watches and vodka, is expected to hit the shops soon. The 29-year-old provincial Russian also has a Max Clifford-type agent to handle "commercial projects", which include highly paid interviews and photo shoots.

The irony is, of course, that Anna Chapman is being rewarded for doing her job badly. Not only was she duped by the FBI into blowing her cover, but she apparently failed to turn up any useful information for Moscow. Espionage charges were not brought against a single member of the spy ring, as there was no indication that any classified information had been accessed. Prosecutors instead had to settle for charges of "failure to declare foreign agent status" and money laundering. Chapman and the other nine agents were exchanged for just four American spies. As US vice president Joe Biden put it: "We got back four really good ones. And the 10, they've been here a long time, but they hadn't done much."

Unlike Britain, with its traditional fondness for incompetence, Russia has never been known for its willingness to celebrate defeat. Is Chapman's unlikely fame an indication of a startling new Russian mindset? Not quite. In an Orwellian feat of reinterpretation, dominant state-run media outlets have portrayed the Chapman saga as a feelgood story, her life held up as something to be envied, aspired to. Over New Year, the Channel One TV station ran a This is Your Life-style tribute to Chapman, described by the host as "without any exaggeration, the woman of the year". The programme kicked off with shaky home-video footage of the spy-to-be as a Soviet schoolgirl reciting poetry and giggling into the camera before Chapman herself, dressed in a figure-hugging green outfit, strode into the studio to warm applause from the audience. "I have to say, you look even better than in your photos," the host enthused. During the hour-long programme, Chapman's childhood friends, grandmother and "first love" were all rolled out to pay tribute, and Chapman had the good grace to blush a red as deep as her hair. "She is worthy of applause because she worked abroad for our nation," a celebrity guest – Soviet-era TV star Anna Shatilova – exclaimed.

Chapman didn't give much away during the show, sticking to cliché and aphorism for the most part. When asked about her deportation from the US, she replied: "I believe that everything that happens is for the best." She did, however, drop a hint about a possible new television role. "Watch your screens next year," she advised viewers. "I'll reveal all the secrets."

This turned out to be her catchphrase as presenter of Mysteries of the World with Anna Chapman, a weekly "investigative" show that launched in January. "The most mysterious woman in Russia presents the most mysterious show," the programme's producer Mikhail Tukmachev promised in promo ads.

In the first episode Chapman looked into claims that verses from the Koran had been appearing on the skin of a young boy from Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Not that Chapman actually visited the volatile region, home to more than 50% of terrorist attacks in Russia in 2010. For that a – presumably expendable – male reporter was dispatched, leaving Chapman to pop up on the screen every now and then in an eye-catching red and black outfit. Subsequent shows have seen similar studio-based investigations by Chapman into topics including demonic possession and the fate of St Petersburg's famous lost Amber Room, which disappeared after being looted by Nazi troops in the Second World War. In case you were wondering, she didn't find it.

Ren TV, one of the few non state-run television companies left in Russia, screens the show. But producer Tukmachev denies that the appearance of a figure with obvious Kremlin connections is a sign that the channel is slowly losing whatever modicum of independence it may enjoy. "Nothing has changed at the channel since the arrival of Chapman," he tells me. "As you can see, there is nothing political about the programme at all.

"The idea for the show came about quite spontaneously," Tukmachev adds. "I was having a meeting with Chapman, and we came up with the theme of mysteries – one that both of us find interesting. She had no previous experience, of course, but she learns quicker than most."

But why did the show's glamorous presenter not get out and about and try to uncover the truth herself? Why was she largely confined to a sterile Moscow studio?

"Well, she can't do everything," Tukmachev says.

And yet, not CONTENT with conquering the world of show business, Chapman is also carving out a career for herself as a politician. In late 2010 she joined the leadership of Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guard), the youth wing of Putin's United Russia. The movement – along with a similar group called Nashi (Ours) – is widely viewed as a potential Kremlin weapon against what officials here nervously call the "orange scenario", a reference to the street protest-inspired revolution that swept pro-western politician Viktor Yushchenko to power in neighbouring Ukraine in 2004. In 2005 the then-Nashi leader Vasily Yakemenko announced that if such a thing were ever to occur in Russia he would make one call to his "colleagues in the Spartak Moscow FC fan movement", and they would "assemble 5,000 of their supporters to chase away those who came out on the streets in support of western-backed politicians".

Moscow remains nervous about the possibility of an Egypt-style uprising. Young Guard was recently instructed by Kremlin ideologist Vladislav Surkov to get ready for the 2011 parliamentary and 2012 presidential polls. "Prepare yourselves for the elections, and train your brains and your muscles," he told group members at a meeting in Moscow in December. "The polls must be won by Medvedev, Putin and United Russia." Surkov's pep talk came shortly after Young Guard had posted images of a number of "traitor" journalists on its website with the words "Will Be Punished" stamped on them.

One of the journalists, Oleg Kashin, who had written extensively about pro-Kremlin and United Russia youth groups, was later beaten almost to death outside his home by unidentified assailants. Young Guard denied any involvement and took Kashin's photo off its site.

Naturally this unpleasantness was missing from Chapman's debut speech at a Young Guard congress late last year. A wisp of hair hanging over one eye, a smiling Chapman urged some 2,000 delegates to "transform the future, starting with ourselves". "If all of us were joyful, we could do something useful and new," she continued over the low-level buzz of chatter. "There would," she revealed, "be less negativity in society if every single one of us woke up with a smile on our face." Chapman declined to reveal how Russians were to put aside the country's most crippling problems – corruption, alcoholism and rampant police brutality, to name just three – and start the day with a ready-made grin. She made a speedy exit, avoiding waiting journalists with the "deftness of a former secret agent", as one blogger put it. The speech was much played on Russian TV.

Like her political message, Chapman's role in the Young Guard movement has so far been unclearly defined. One week she is helping to "educate the youth of Russia" and "increase patriotism", while the next she is advising on "business issues" or "modernisation". Young Guard leader Timur Prokopenko dubbed his newest recruit "a hero of her generation". I call him to clarify. "Well, her biography and everything that has been written about her has made her very popular – a hero – among students and young girls," he tells me. But did he share their attitude? "As the leader of a youth organisation," he replies tactfully, "I am obliged to support their opinion."

Chapman may not be confined to youth politics for long. United Russia has pencilled her in as a candidate for December's parliamentary polls, and she is expected to stand – and win – in her hometown of Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad. "The party needs young beautiful girls," senior United Russia official Frants Klintsevich commented. "She can bring more supporters with her. She's a smart, sharp person." Or as former newsreader and political analyst Samir Shakhbaz told me: "She's kind of a role model, and she has lots of fans. She lived the dream of many young people here to be a 007-type figure, or at least the Russian version of it."

United Russia's ranks are already swelling with celebrities, from footballers Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko to a host of domestic pop and rock stars. One famous face Chapman will not be meeting at rallies, however, is former Bolshoi Theatre prima ballerina Anastasia Volochkova, who angrily quit the party last month. "They weren't interested in any projects I suggested," she explained. "They just used me to advertise the party. And I have no desire to prostitute myself." In Chapman – dubbed "Agent 90-60-90" by Russian tabloids because of her centimetre figure measurements – United Russia has a ready-made replacement for the glamorous Volochkova. And one that – for now at least – has no objections to being used solely for her looks and fame.

But despite her ubiquity, it's arguable whether Chapman is popular among ordinary Russians. As ever in this country, it's the internet where people's true feelings find a voice. And Russia's assorted bloggers and message-board users seem to be unequivocal in their disdain.

"Citizen of the world Anna Chapman is undoubtedly the major hero of our vast country," writes one user on Live Journal – Russia's most popular blogging platform. "We all also dream of dropping our knickers abroad and stealing enemy secrets." "A true symbol of our time!" offers another. "How we need such people! Those ready to join whatever they are told to! To sleep with whomever they are told to!" Other comments are more explicit, involving combinations of the words "Putin" and "whore".

Ex-spies are supposed to disappear quietly, and Chapman's lust for publicity has upset many former members of the Russian intelligence community. "No real professional would act like this. It's a disgrace to see how she is cashing in on her past," an ex-operative said on the day of her television debut. "After all," he added, after insisting on anonymity, "it's not like she did anything she should be proud of."

It can seem that Chapman has been thrust upon the Russians. But it's not so easy to fathom why. Is she simply a sharp operator who has skilfully turned disaster into triumph? Or is she being manipulated, willingly or otherwise, by the powers that be? For now Chapman is giving almost nothing away. Not for free, anyhow.

Marc Bennetts is the author of Football Dynamo (Virgin Books) and is now writing a book about Russia's fascination with the occult

As I discovered by producing Neil LaBute's In a Forest Dark and Deep, new plays are risky – but the West End needs fresh voices for fresh audiences

When I opened my seventh West End production last week – the world premiere of Neil LaBute's In a Forest Dark and Deep at the Vaudeville – I was unprepared for the firestorm of controversy it would ignite. Sure, I'd worked with Neil before and know him to be among the most contentious of American playwrights. And the stories I've chosen to produce have always been divisive. But the range of critical response this time has been extraordinary: from reviewers praising "a theatrical roller coaster ride" that's "overwhelmingly tense", with "scorching performances", to one so appalled by the show as to ask "why anyone thought it was worth staging in the first place". Well, the short answer is: to generate reactions like these.

From the moment I began as a theatre producer, I knew I wanted to bring fresh voices to the West End, for fresh audiences. I loved going to the theatre as a youngster, but it always felt a bit like visiting a posh relative for tea. You'd get dressed up and sit in grown-up silence on a shabby red velvet seat and, as a treat, savour a tiny tub of luxury ice-cream at the interval. The genteel, traditional dramas unfolding on stage had no great relevancy or immediacy for me. It wasn't like the movies, which seemed to speak directly to my adolescent psyche. So having left university with several professional productions under my belt, I set out to find a play that would excite me the way films did – that would speak directly to a young generation for whom theatre still seems something rarified, or worse, medicinal.

I found it in Kenneth Lonergan's This is Our Youth. Here were three characters I could relate to: privileged but confused New York adolescents trapped in knots of their own making. Their problems were unique and specific, but also universal. It was edgy, fresh, sexy, funny and very rock'n'roll. I was determined to do it. An experienced theatre investor had recently taken me under his wing, offering to read anything I was interested in. So I sent him Youth. His response, when it finally came, was stunningly vitriolic. How dare I send him such tosh? He practically accused me of trying to corrupt the sanctity of the West End. Eventually though, I managed to cast the play, raise the finance and find a home for it in one of Nica Burns's theatres, where it ran for over a year to packed houses – attracting exactly the young audiences I'd had in mind.

Matt Damon came off stage after his first preview in the second cast and yelled, "Holy shit – that was like skydiving!" And it was: standing at the back of the auditorium night after night, listening to the laughter, the roars of approval and recognition from people who didn't necessarily even like theatre – or hadn't known they might like it until now – I felt a rush. I felt it again, at the Vaudeville last week.

It's always a risk putting on a new play. For the most part, that risk falls on one of our many brilliant subsidised theatres. But for an independent producer like me, the best place to take that risk is in the democratic arena of the commercial West End – because new plays are the lifeblood of the theatre and fresh audiences are the lifeblood of playhouses. It's been fascinating to follow the online response to this production, where Matthew Fox has twice been the top trending topic on Twitter, and the production's website and trailer continue to attract fans in the tens of thousands.

I decided to stage In a Forest because I loved the writing and love the writer – because I immediately responded to the central sibling relationship, and felt that actors would too. And because Neil writes the kind of theatre I like: theatre for people who don't think they like theatre. The audience I have in mind won't necessarily be enticed to another revival – no matter how seductively cast or brilliantly staged – but might, I felt, be drawn to new writing like this. Amid the polemical response last week, I found myself agreeing with one review wholeheartedly: "It's good to have LaBute back in the West End, mixing it all up a bit."

Howard Sherman, executive director of the American Theatre Wing, has announced that he will not renew his employment agreement with the organization beyond its current term, which ends on June 30. Upon his departure from The Wing, Sherman will have held the position for eight...

Howard Sherman, Executive Director of the American Theatre Wing since 2003, today informed the organization that he will not renew his employment agreement beyond its current term, ending on June 30, 2011. The announcement came at a regularly scheduled meeting of the American Theatre Wing's Board of Trustees earlier today.

Howard Sherman, executive director of the American Theatre Wing, will step down from that position at the end of his current term, which ends June 30, 2011.

Prudence Hone sifts through the year's best photography books

After the first 10 years of the new millennium, collections of photojournalism from the big beasts of the genre, such as Decade (Phaidon, £25) and Eyewitness Decade (Guardian Books, £24.95), have summed up world events, and been commented on in Review. Iraq, of course, featured in both. Tim Hetherington's Infidel (Chris Boot, £25), a companion piece to Sebastian Junger's War (published earlier this year) and to the documentary Restrepo, which they co-directed, covers the time spent by Battle Company, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, in the Korengal valley, Afghanistan. The book's size and chamfered corners give it the intimate feel of a bible or missal; the images, from blooms of white phosphorus exploding on a village, to men – some looking little older than schoolboys – asleep on their bunks, heavily tattooed arms flung over their eyes, are heartbreaking.

Guantanamo: If the Light Goes Out by Edmund Clark (Dewi Lewis, £35) shows a very different American outpost. Here are shackles, empty cages, a "mobile force-feeding chair", all coldly lit and without a single human. Your imagination provides the bodies. Dan Dubowitz's Wastelands, from the same publisher (£35), opens with similar empty spaces, but these are factories, power stations, a 1980s seminary outside Glasgow which is now an A-listed "modernist ruin", and Ellis Island, with patients' records still piled up in boxes in the hospital wing. In Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand (Yale/Metropolitan Museum of Art, £25), a beautifully produced catalogue of the "big three" of early 20th-century American photography, Alfred Stieglitz remarks of "The Steerage", showing the huddled masses on a boat in harbour, taken perhaps 100 years before Dubowitz's photographs, that "you may well call it a record of immigrants. To me it is a study in mathematical lines."

In 1907, the same year that he took his "mathematical lines", the Lusitania took her maiden voyage. She is photographed arriving in New York in Face to Face: Ocean Portraits with commentaries by Huw Lewis-Jones (Conway/Polarworld, £30). This is a gallery of sailors, captains and environmentalists who have dedicated their lives to the sea. From Samuel Plimsoll to Ellen MacArthur, famous names are represented, but there are also the hitherto unsung heroes, such as Harry Watts, a rigger and volunteer with the Sunderland lifeboat, who saved at least 36 people single-handedly in the late 19th century. While most of the early photographs are black and white studio portraits, the modern surfers, marine archaeologists and oceanographers are shot as they work, by Nigel Millard and Rick Tomlinson, faces looking straight at the camera.

In Maske by Phyllis Galembo (Chris Boot, £30) and Karnaval: Voudou, Politics and Revolution on the Streets of Haiti by Leah Gordon (Soul Jazz, £19.99), people's faces are obscured, with just the eyes glinting through fabric, paint, wood or cardboard. Galembo's book begins with the masked figures of initiation ceremonies in Zambia, moves through harvest festivals in Burkina Faso and fancy dress masquerades in Ghana to the more frightening, starker costumes of Haiti, with figures toting guns, chains or cow horns. The Haitian karnaval, which ends with the beginning of Lent, combines elements of European carnival, voodoo and modern culture. Gordon's black and white photographs are more journalistic than Galembo's coloured studio portraits. Andrew Montgomery's images of the Rochester sweeps festival in Country by Jasper Conran (Conran Octopus, £45) also reflect elements of pagan ritual, and ancient fertility rites. With coal-blackened faces, top hats, feathered and decorated frock coats, the "sweeps" add a welcome touch of grit to the blossom-heavy gardens of English villages and elegant interiors of country houses. This is a sumptuous, beautiful book.

Landscape Photographer of the Year (AA Publishing, £25) is the fourth collection in the series; there is an accompanying exhibition at the National Theatre in London, until 16 January 2011. There are various categories: "classic view", "urban view" and so on, with an adult and a youth class in each section. If you can bear to look at snowy scenes, there is the crisp "Winter Walk" from Keith Avery, or Bob McCallion's "Braving the Elements" (above). It's a shame the younger entrants do not get more of a showing. "Travelling" by Taliesin Coombes (the overall winner of the youth category) is a wonderfully composed black and white shot, taken on the last day of the summer steam service on the Cambrian railway.

Train buffs will also love Requiem for Steam: The Railroad Photographs of David Plowden (WW Norton, £48), which documents the engines, stations and rails of the American midwest during the age of steam. There are extended captions for those who need to know about the classes and gauges of these lovely machines. Matthew Rhys chooses a more conventional method of transport in Patagonia: Crossing the Plain (Gomer Press, £19.99), which commemorates an expedition of Welsh settlers in search of a better life in the arid foothills of the Andes. He rides a horse. Rhys is an acccomplished photographer and this is a charming diary of time out from his day job as a Hollywood actor. Performers of a very different kind feature in Antony Gormley's One and Other (Jonathan Cape, £35). Yes, here they are in all their glory, the people who stood, slept, knitted, warbled and danced on the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in London over the summer. Sadly, the six shortlisted artworks for the plinth do not include the witty, classy "ship in a bottle" by Yinka Shonibare. And finally A Year in Photography: Magnum Archive (Prestel, £22.50): this hefty compendium, with each day of the year offering its own photographic gem, collects together some of the greatest photographers of the past century, such as Elliott Erwitt, Eve Arnold, Robert Capa and Raghu Rai. Some are familiar, some startling, but they are all worth looking at with an open mind.

To order any of these titles call Guardian book service on 0330 333 6846

The Tony Awards Administration Committee met today for the first time this season to decide the eligibility of 12 Broadway productions for the 2011 American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. The awards will be broadcast in a live...

The Tony Awards Administration Committee met today for the first time this season to decide the eligibility of 12 Broadway productions for the 2011 American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. The Tony Awards Administration Committee will meet a total of four times throughout the 2010-2011 season to decide the eligibility for the 2011 Tony Awards.

The Tony Awards Administration Committee assembled Dec. 9 for the first time of the 2010-11 season to discuss the eligibility of 12 Broadway productions for the 2011 Tony Awards, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

South Africa's largest city draws people from all over the continent and beyond – but many are just passing through

There was turkey, there was ham, there was creamed spinach, there was stuffing and there was macaroni and cheese.

On a balmy evening, we sat around a long table overlooking a garden and a swimming pool. Thanksgiving dinner, that most American of rituals, had come to Johannesburg in South Africa.

I was the sole Brit among a dozen US expats – my accent had never sounded so Monty Python – and joined in the talk of iPods and iPads, Barack Obama's prospects in 2012 and the struggle to find meat, fish and yoghurt in Johannesburg that can match that in the US, the consumer capital of the world.

There is a cliche that Americans are insular beings who seldom own passports, but it seems to me that here they are more numerous – and conspicuous – than any other non-African expats.

In recent weeks, I've met people from New York, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. A film-maker from California said: "I've travelled a lot, but South Africa was the first time I felt I'd come home.

"There were a lot of similarities, like the weather and landscape and food. It felt very comfortable. But the energy was completely different – open, untamed, a sense of possibility."

Just as South Africans in London congregate in Wimbledon, there is an American enclave north of Johannesburg, near the American International School in Bryanston. But they come out in force for certain events, such as last week's exhibition and auction of pictures by Joao Silva, the New York Times photographer recently injured in Afghanistan.

While other foreign ambassadors keep a low profile in Pretoria, America's Donald Gips can be found writing newspaper columns and giving interviews. His officials are seen at public events, posting messages on Twitter and discussing WikiLeaks on radio and television.

Brooks Spector, a former US diplomat, is now the acting chief executive of South Africa's most famous playhouse, the Market Theatre.

Guests at first nights of major productions often include representatives of US grant-making body the Ford Foundation, another active presence here.

Professor Lee Berger, from Georgia, is the Wits University palaeontologist who made the recent discovery of 1.9m-year-old skeletons that he claims belong to a previously unknown human ancestor. He described the fossils as a "Rosetta Stone" in understanding human evolution.

But what of other nationalities? Johannesburg is a magnet for people from all over the continent, including most of an estimated 2 million Zimbabwean refugees, but does not yet rank as a truly world city.

From memory, I've met three Australians, one Brazilian, two Canadians, one Dutch, two French, two Germans, one Indian, one Italian, two Swedes, one Taiwanese and one Thai and a dozen or so Brits, but many are journalists or others just passing through. I don't recall bumping into a single Chinese, Russian or Spaniard.

One day, I was invited to lunch with the Norwegian ambassador to South Africa. He asked a question along the lines of: what do you know about Norway's activities in Africa? I wrestled with a blank expression, like Josh Lyman in the West Wing, and then asked him to tell me more.

Go back further in time and South Africa has a rich history of immigration – black Africans from the north, Dutch traders in the 17th century, imported slaves from Indonesia, India-Ceylon, Madagascar and Mozambique, then the British, including the 1820 settlers.

Last month marked the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first indentured workers from India – their descendents now make up 2.5% of the population but, the government noted, punch well above their weight.

A compelling TV series, Have You Heard from Johannesburg, reflected on the antagonism between Afrikaners and their Dutch forbears during apartheid. The Dutch held street protests, invited Oliver Tambo, of the African National Congress, to speak and mounted exhibitions at the Anne Frank Museum condemning the new Nazism in South Africa.

They regarded the Afrikaners as a rotten apple that fell far from the tree. The Afrikaners felt isolated, alone and betrayed by their parents.

Afrikaners remain prominent in South Africa today, but white people of British descent seem less so – perhaps in a characteristic strain of understatement. Except, that is, in certain neighbourhoods of Cape Town or, I have discovered, in cinemas broadcasting a play from the National Theatre in London.

Of course, Britishness comes with certain symbolic expectations. The UK high commission – which has tweeters of its own — invited me to a screening of the Last Night of the Proms. The South African media were keen to know what I thought about Prince William's engagement to Kate Middleton. There was a minor rumpus when South Africa's national public broadcaster failed to cover the royal announcement on its evening news.

But does being far from home help define my nationality, sharpening my awareness of what Britishness means? Not really. Victorian explorers might have felt sweet pangs of yearning, like lovelorn teenagers, for the mother country – but, in the digital age, you never far from home.

Jeremy Clarkson, Doctor Who and Wolverhampton Wanderers are still on my TV, the Guardian and the Telegraph are still on my screen, the sounds of Start the Week and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue still float down the internet. Steve Jobs has killed the Englishman abroad.

And, in any case, in a world of tribalism and arbitrary borders, I'm a non-believer. Nothing in my experience here has persuaded me that nationality is anything more than a convenient label, like supporting a football team, that is ultimately less defining than class, gender, race, religion and other variables.

I generally find I have more in common with an American journalist, or a South African journalist, than I do with a British carpenter or chemist.

Likewise, the political commentator Eusebius McKaiser argues that there is no such thing as a "South African". He wrote recently: "Practically, what does a common South African national identity refer to?

"Do I have to like rugby? Soccer? Cricket? Must I have a braai at least once a month? Koeksisters on Sunday? Obsess about race, perhaps? Cry while watching reruns of the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the following day threaten to leave for Sydney in a fit of seemingly typical South African mania?

"The problem is obvious. If you throw too many goodies into your list of things that make us South African, then you will exclude many people."

As has happened so many times in the last couple of years I said something off the cuff that someone else has paid entirely too much attention to. On November 19th I said: And yesterday Mr. Howard Sherman, president of the American Theatre Wing responded very thoughtfully. His considered response makes me regret we don’t [...]

A groundbreaking theatrical, acrobatic and musical adventure is coming to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay this winter for a limited engagement.

Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy will open December 3 in Busch Gardens’ Moroccan Palace Theater. Created and directed by renowned theatrical and circus impresario Neil Goldberg, Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy is an exotic encounter inspired by nature’s unpredictable creations, brought to life by an international cast of soaring aerialists, spine-bending contortionists, acrobats, jugglers and musicians.

The astounding feats performed in this action-packed Cirque Dream are enhanced by spectacular costumes, which were nominated for an American Theatre Wing Best Costume Design Award. The journey comes to life in a fantastical jungle setting filled with flora and fauna that inspire a variety of endless imagination. From the Butterfly Ballet and Flipping Monkeys to the Hopping Frog Jugglers and Stretching Lizards, this world-class explosion of athleticism and Broadway theatrics will exhilarate and entertain audiences of all ages.

“Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy will bring to audiences what fans have come to love and expect from Busch Gardens -- incredible stage shows, the likes of which cannot be found at any other theme park in the nation,” said Busch Gardens’ president Jim Dean.

“Busch Gardens Tampa Bay has set the bar high with quality entertainment productions in the past, which compliments my passion and the global expansion of our Cirque Dreams Brand,” said creator Neil Goldberg. Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy has accomplished one groundbreaking feat after another and will do so again when presenting this caliber show in partnership with Busch Gardens.”

The Broadway storyline will remain intact in the Busch Gardens’ rendition of the show. The lead character, Mother Nature, leads her Jungle Boys through an adventure of sound, light and movement. The vibrant jungle first comes to life with award-winning costumes, then transcends imagination. Some highlights include artists trained at the State School of Contortion in Mongolia reenacting flexible lizards; rhythmic jugglers from Cuba and Russia portraying frog musicians, and manipulation and aerialists from Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan soaring as butterflies displaying feats beyond belief. All this and more added to Cirque Dreams signature production style, original score and whimsical audience participation will make Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy a feast for the senses and a wild entertainment experience at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.

Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy debuted at the Broadway Theatre in June 2008 and is the first and only show of its kind to ever perform on Broadway. The show again gained critical acclaim when Debbie Gibson, 1980’s pop icon, recently performed the leading role of Mother Nature at the MGM Grand Theatre, Foxwoods, Connecticut. Neil Goldberg's creations according to the Chicago Tribune are “Brilliantly conceived entertainment for multiple generations, fused with fresh, clever, Goldberg Touches.” Goldberg’s brand of Cirque Dreams entertainment also includes international touring sensations Cirque Dreams Illumination, Cirque Dreams Pandemonia, Cirque Dreams Coobrila, Cirque Ingenieux, and the first show of its kind at sea…Cirque Dreams & Dinner on board the Norwegian EPIC. Cirque Dreams Holidaze will tour the US this holiday season with a prestigious week-long engagement at the Kennedy Center. More than 20 million fans have attended a Cirque Dreams show throughout the U.S. and abroad in the past five years.For information on Cirque Dreams, visit: www.cirqueproductions.com.

America - He's your President for Goodness Sake!

By William Thomas

There was a time not so long ago when Americans, regardless of their political stripes, rallied round their president. Once elected, the man who won the White House was no longer viewed as a Republican or Democrat, but the President of the United States . The ?oath of office was taken, the wagons were circled around the countrys borders and it was America versus the rest of the world with the president of all the people at the helm.

?Suddenly President Barack Obama, with the potential to become an exceptional president has become the glaring exception to that unwritten, patriotic rule.
Four days before President Obamas inauguration, before he officially took charge of the American government, Rush Limbaugh boasted publicly that he hoped the president would fail. Of course, when the president fails the country flounders. Wishing harm upon your country in order to further your own narrow political views is selfish, sinister and a tad treasonous as well.

Subsequently, during his State of the Union address, which is pretty much a pep rally for America , an unknown congressional representative from South Carolina , later identified as Joe Wilson, stopped the show when he called the President of the United States a liar. The president showed great restraint in ignoring this unprecedented insult and carried on with his speech. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was so stunned by the slur, she forgot to jump to her feet while clapping wildly, 30 or 40 times after that.

Last spring, President Obama took his wife Michelle to see a play in New York City and republicans attacked him over the cost of security for the excursion. The president cant take his wife out to dinner and a show without being scrutinized by the political opposition? As history has proven, a president in a theatre without adequate security is a tragically bad idea.

Remember: Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

At some point, the treatment of President Obama went from offensive to ugly and then to downright dangerous.

The health-care debate, which looked more like extreme fighting in a mud pit than a national dialogue, revealed a very vulgar side of America . President Obamas face appeared on protest signs white-faced and blood-mouthed in a satanic clown image. In other tasteless portrayals, people who disagreed with his position distorted his face to look like Hitler complete with mustache and swastika.

Odd, that burning the flag makes Americans crazy, but depicting the president as a clown and a maniacal fascist is accepted as part of the new rude America .

Maligning the image of the leader of the free world is one thing, putting the presidents life in peril is quite another. More than once, men with guns were videotaped at the health-care rallies where the president spoke. Again, history shows that letting men with guns get within range of a president has not served America well in the past.
And still the birthers are out there claiming Barack Obama was not born in the United States , although public documentation proves otherwise. Hawaii is definitely part of the United States , but the Panama Canal Zone where his electoral opponent Senator John McCain was born? Nobodys sure. ?

Last month, a 44-year-old woman in Buffalo was quite taken by President Obama when she met him in a chicken wing restaurant called Duffs. Did she say something about a pleasure and an honour to meet the man or utter encouraging words for the difficult job he is doing? No. Quote: Youre a hottie with a smokin little body.

Lady, that was the President of the United States you were addressing, not one of the Jonas Brothers! Hes your president for goodness sakes, not the guy driving the Zamboni at Monster Trucks On Ice. Maybe next itll be, Take Your President To A Topless Bar Day.

In President Barack Obama, Americans have a charismatic leader with a good and honest heart. Unlike his predecessor, hes a very intelligent leader. And unlike that presidents predecessor, hes a highly moral man.

In President Obama, Americans have the real deal, the whole package and a leader that citizens of almost every country around the world look to with great envy. Given the opportunity, Canadians would trade our leader, hell, most of our leaders for Obama in a heartbeat.

What America has in Obama is a head of state with vitality and insight and youth. Think about it, Barack Obama is a young Nelson Mandela. Mandela was the face of change and charity for all of Africa but he was too old to make it happen. The great things Obama might do for America and the world could go on for decades after hes out of office.

America, you know not what you have.

The man is being challenged unfairly, characterized with vulgarity and treated with the kind of deep disrespect to which no previous president was subjected. Its like the day after electing the first black man to be president, thereby electrifying the world with hope and joy, Americans sobered up and decided the bad old days were better.

President Obama may fail but it will not be a Richard Nixon default fraught with larceny and lies. President Obama, given a fair chance, will surely succeed but his triumph will never come with a Bill Clinton caveat if only hed got control of that zipper.

Please. Give the man a fair, fighting chance. This incivility toward the leader who won over Americans and gave hope to billions of people around the world that their lives could be enhanced by his example, just naturally has to stop.

Believe me, when Americans drive by the White House and see a sign on the lawn that reads: No shirt. No shoes. No service, theyll realize this new national rudeness has gone way, way too far.

"On Fire" Edition
*

Armstrong Williams at Townhall.com:

"A popularized Palin continues to connect with many Americans and has become their symbol of a possible new renaissance across the Heartland. She is nothing short of a ball of fire that has creatively rallied groups, such as her Grizzly Moms, to stand up for conservative principles and be heard. More recently, she was able to turn election races around for many conservative candidates in South Carolina and. The possibilities of what she can and has accomplished in American political theatre are endless and downright heart-warming to her devout supporters. Does anyone now doubt Sarah Palin's increasing star power on the political stage?"

Don Surber at the Charleston Daily Mail:

"Sarah Palin, president of West Virginia..."

Ross Douthat on his NY Times blog:

"As evidence against my skepticism of Sarah Palin’s supposed front-runner status for 2012, I give you the latest round of Public Policy Center polls... All of her leads are relatively slim, but the fact that she’s ahead of Huckabee in Texas and West Virginia is notable, and her leads in Maine (by 23 percent to Romney’s 18 percent and Huckabee’s 16 percent) and Wisconsin (with 18 percent to Huckabee’s 15 percent and Gingrich’s 14 percent) suggest that a Palin candidacy might have a wider geographic appeal than earlier polls had implied."

WTXF-TV in Philadelphia:

"A new national study shows that people were more likely to vote for Sarah Palin for President after watching a TV ad featuring her..."

Jack at The Western Word:

"It was not really much of a secret that former GOP Congressman Rick Hill would announce that he was running for Montana Governor in 2012... So now there are three: Ken Miller, Cory Stapleton, and Rick Hill... But probably the biggest thing that will help decide the Republican primary for Governor is the answer to this question: WWSE – Who Will Sarah Endorse…of course that Sarah is Sarah Palin. Palin does make endorsements in primaries. She has a following in Big Sky Country. Miller has had some contact with Palin at an event in Missoula earlier this year. It could be a big prize if SarahPac sends resources to one of the candidates to help out in the primary or if Palin, herself, comes to the aid of one of the candidates because the other two are not worthy enough conservatives in her eyes."

Inside Edition:

"George W. Bush says he's a fan of Sarah Palin... on The O'Reilly Factor, Bush said, 'I think [her VP nomination] energized the party. There was a moment where people were kind of in the doldrums, and Sarah Palin arrived and boom!'"

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

"In an open letter to the [congressional] freshman class, Palin offers the policy syllabus so familiar to those in and around the Tea Party movement: stop ObamaCare, cut spending, shrink government, enforce the borders, and strengthen national security. Palin lays all of these goals out well, but her advice at the end about the distractions that will push the newly-elected from their path is perhaps the most important part of her letter, and should be required reading for every Republican on Capitol Hill..."

Patterico:

"Sarah Palin’s Open Letter to Incoming Members of Congress... Well written and right on target... It really is quite good."

bc3b at Be John Galt:

"In 1994 the newly elected GOP majority started out with a bang. As time went on the seemingly determined politicos became the establishment and morphed into the high-spending, big government Republicans that passed record budgets and earmarks for the folks back home and special interests … and created what – at the time – were record deficits. Sarah Palin wants to make sure the Class of 2010 avoids the pitfalls that destroyed the classes of 1994 and 1996. It’s already become obvious that people like Mitch McConnell and Trend Lott want the freshmen to trade their Tea Party values for establishment Republican values. Yesterday she provided some words of wisdom via Facebook... Seldom has one lone individual had such an impact … and looked so good doing it."

Bluegrass Pundit:

"CNN's Kathleen Parker is one of their 'conservative' commentators. Parker thought Obama was a moderate and "led" the attack against Sarah Palin. With conservatives like that, who needs liberals?"

Mark Finkelstein at NewsBusters:

"In the promo fluff for its future flop, CNN calls Kathleen Parker a "conservative" commentator. So what's a 'conservative' in CNN's book? Someone who, when accused of taking part in the media 'assassination' of Sarah Palin, brags that she didn't merely take part—she 'led it.' ... Parker made her bizarre boast on... Parker Spitzer. It came in the course of her interview of John Ziegler, creator of the documentary 'Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted.' While denying she had been 'duped' by Obama, Parker admitted that during the campaign she 'bought into the Obama moderation myth.' Then came her 'assassination' boast."

Michael Franc, of the Heritage Foundation:

"[Sarah Palin] has a very powerful role to play. She has something almost no one else in this country has right now: she can drive a national debate with merely a tweet."

Alex Spillius in The Telegraph:

"For the former vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin's Alaska marks a typically unconventional, but also typically lucrative, contribution to the political scene... Even reviewers in the mainstream press which Mrs Palin disdains have admitted it could prove beneficial to her image. The Washington Post said the series 'makes Palin about a thousand times more relatable and likeable than any previous effort' and marked a step forward in 'her brand advancement.'"

Joanna Weiss at the left wing Boston Globe:

"Palin... understands how to use reality TV the way the Kennedys understood how to use photography."

Paige Albiniac at the NY Post:

"Asked what’s behind the Palin appeal, producers of both 'Sarah Palin’s Alaska' and 'Dancing with the Stars' say Americans can relate to these women. 'The first time I met her, I went up to her house in Wasilla to sit down with her and Todd and talk about the show,' says Nancy Daniels, TLC’s senior vice president of production and development. 'Sarah was a gracious host... She’s well-spoken, charming and she tells it like it is.' As for Bristol, “Dancing with the Stars”’ executive producer Conrad Green says... Bristol... has been progressing steadily, and 'Dancing' fans respond to that... 'Bristol is quite a pretty dancer. People have had better scores than Bristol but the audience chose to keep her. Progress gets rewarded from day one, and she’s on a very interesting path at the moment.'"

- JP

So it looks like the Tony Awards have had second thoughts about relocating to Harlem?

Although it's nowhere mentioned in this NY Times story, the first announcement after the awards show got bumped from Radio City Music Hall (for Cirque du Soleil, no less) was the old United Palace Theatre at Broadway and 175th St. But now:

On Wednesday, the American Theater Wing, which presents the Tony Awards with the Broadway League, announced that the ceremony will be housed at the Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side. Though it’s far from the theater district, it is actually on Broadway. (Radio City is on Sixth Avenue.) However, the art deco Beacon has roughly 2,900 seats, less than half as many as the bigger hall.That is bound to create some keen competition for seats to the June 12, 2011 ceremony among the increasing number of investors and producers it takes to finance a Broadway show. 

Note that the United Palace has a 3,293 seat capacity. But did I mention, it's in Harlem?

*America - He's your President for Goodness Sake!* By William Thomas Posted: Friday, October 1st, 2010 There was a time not so long ago when Americans, regardless of their political stripes, rallied round their president. Once elected, the man who won the White House was no longer viewed as a Republican or Democrat, but the President of the United States. The oath of office was taken, the wagons were circled around the country’s borders and it was America versus the rest of the world with the president of all the people at the helm. Suddenly President Barack Obama, with the potential to become an exceptional president has become the glaring exception to that unwritten, patriotic rule. Four days before President Obama’s inauguration, before he officially took charge of the American government, Rush Limbaugh boasted publicly that he hoped the president would fail. Of course, when the president fails the country flounders. Wishing harm upon your country in order to further your own narrow political views is selfish, sinister and a tad treasonous as well. Subsequently, during his State of the Union address, which is pretty much a pep rally for America, an unknown congressional representative from South Carolina, later identified as Joe Wilson, stopped the show when he called the President of the United States a liar. The president showed great restraint in ignoring this unprecedented insult and carried on with his speech. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was so stunned by the slur, she forgot to jump to her feet while clapping wildly, 30 or 40 times after that. Last spring, President Obama took his wife Michelle to see a play in New York City and republicans attacked him over the cost of security for the excursion. The president can’t take his wife out to dinner and a show without being scrutinized by the political opposition? As history has proven, a president in a theatre without adequate security is a tragically bad idea. Remember: “Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?” At some point, the treatment of President Obama went from offensive to ugly and then to downright dangerous. The health-care debate, which looked more like extreme fighting in a mud pit than a national dialogue, revealed a very vulgar side of America. President Obama’s face appeared on protest signs white-faced and blood-mouthed in a satanic clown image. In other tasteless portrayals, people who disagreed with his position distorted his face to look like Hitler complete with mustache and swastika. Odd, that burning the flag makes Americans crazy, but depicting the president as a clown and a maniacal fascist is accepted as part of the new rude America. Maligning the image of the leader of the free world is one thing, putting the president’s life in peril is quite another. More than once, men with guns were videotaped at the health-care rallies where the president spoke. Again, history shows that letting men with guns get within range of a president has not served America well in the past. And still the “birthers” are out there claiming Barack Obama was not born in the United States, although public documentation proves otherwise. Hawaii is definitely part of the United States, but the Panama Canal Zone where his electoral opponent Senator John McCain was born? Nobody’s sure. Last month, a 44-year-old woman in Buffalo was quite taken by President Obama when she met him in a chicken wing restaurant called Duff’s. Did she say something about a pleasure and an honour to meet the man or utter encouraging words for the difficult job he is doing? No. Quote: “You’re a hottie with a smokin’ little body.” Lady, that was the President of the United States you were addressing, not one of the Jonas Brothers! He’s your president for goodness sakes, not the guy driving the Zamboni at “Monster Trucks On Ice.” Maybe next it’ll be, “Take Your President To A Topless Bar Day.” In President Barack Obama, Americans have a charismatic leader with a good and honest heart. Unlike his predecessor, he’s a very intelligent leader. And unlike that president’s predecessor, he’s a highly moral man. In President Obama, Americans have the real deal, the whole package and a leader that citizens of almost every country around the world look to with great envy. Given the opportunity, Canadians would trade our leader, hell, most of our leaders for Obama in a heartbeat. What America has in Obama is a head of state with vitality and insight and youth. Think about it, Barack Obama is a young Nelson Mandela. Mandela was the face of change and charity for all of Africa but he was too old to make it happen. The great things Obama might do for America and the world could go on for decades after he’s out of office. America, you know not what you have. The man is being challenged unfairly, characterized with vulgarity and treated with the kind of deep disrespect to which no previous president was subjected. It’s like the day after electing the first black man to be president, thereby electrifying the world with hope and joy, Americans sobered up and decided the bad old days were better. President Obama may fail but it will not be a Richard Nixon default fraught with larceny and lies. President Obama, given a fair chance, will surely succeed but his triumph will never come with a Bill Clinton caveat – “if only he’d got control of that zipper.” Please. Give the man a fair, fighting chance. This incivility toward the leader who won over Americans and gave hope to billions of people around the world that their lives could be enhanced by his example, just naturally has to stop. Believe me, when Americans drive by the White House and see a sign on the lawn that reads: “No shirt. No shoes. No service,” they’ll realize this new national rudeness has gone way, way too far.

Militant arrested last year described dozens of meetings between ISI officers and senior Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives

Pakistan's powerful intelligence services were heavily involved in preparations for the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008, according to classified Indian government documents obtained by the Guardian.

A 109-page report into the interrogation of key suspect David Headley, a Pakistani-American militant arrested last year and detained in the US, makes detailed claims of ISI support for the bombings.

Under questioning, Headley described dozens of meetings between officers of the main Pakistani military intelligence service, the ISI, and senior militants from the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group responsible for the Mumbai attacks.

He claims a key motivation for the ISI in aiding the attacks was to bolster militant organisations with strong links to the Pakistani state and security establishment who were being marginalised by more extreme radical groups.

Headley, who undertook surveillance of the targets in Mumbai for the operation, claims that at least two of his missions were partly paid for by the ISI and that he regularly reported to the spy agency. However, the documents suggest that supervision of the militants by the ISI was often chaotic and that the most senior officers of the agency may have been unaware at least of the scale and ambition of the operation before it was launched.

More than 160 people were killed by militants from LeT who arrived by sea to attack luxury hotels, a Jewish centre, a café, a hospital and the main railway station in Mumbai, the Indian commercial capital. Casualties included citizens from 25 countries, including four Americans killed and seven Britons injured. The attacks dominated media for days and badly damaged already poor Indian-Pakistan relations.

European and American security services now fear that LeT, which has thousands of militants, runs dozens of training camps and has extensive logistic networks overseas, is moving from what has been a largely regional agenda – focused on the disputed Himalayan former princely state of Kashmir – to a global agenda involving strikes against the west or western interests. The documents suggest the fierce internal argument within the organisation over its strategic direction is being won by hardliners.

Headley, interviewed over 34 hours by Indian investigators in America in June, described how "a debate had begun among the terrorist outfits" and "a clash of ideology" leading to "splits".

"The aggression and commitment to jihad shown by several splinter groups in Afghanistan influenced many committed fighters to leave [LeT]," Headley said. "I understand this compelled the LeT to consider a spectacular terrorist strike in India."

Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani, told the investigators that the ISI hoped the Mumbai attack would slow or stop growing "integration" between groups active in Kashmir, with whom the agency had maintained a long relationship, and "Taliban-based outfits" in Pakistan and Afghanistan which were a threat to the Pakistani state.

"The ISI … had no ambiguity in understanding the necessity to strike India," Headley is reported to have said. The aim of the agency was "controlling further split in the Kashmir-based outfits, providing them a sense of achievement and shifting … the theatre of violence from the domestic soil of Pakistan to India."

Headley describes meeting once with a "Colonel Kamran" from the military intelligence service and having a series of meetings with a "Major Iqbal" and a "Major Sameer Ali". A fellow conspirator was handled by a Colonel Shah, he claims. Headley also alleges that he was given $25,000 by his ISI handler to finance one of eight surveillance missions in India.

However, Headley describes the ISI director general, Lt General Shuja Pasha, visiting a key senior militant from LeT in prison after the attacks in a bid "to understand" the operation, implying that, as many western security agencies suspect, the top ranks of the agency were unaware of at least the scale of the planned strike.

The Pakistani government has repeatedly denied any involvement of any security official in the Mumbai attacks. Last night, an ISI spokesman told the Guardian the accusations of the agency's involvement in the Mumbai attacks were "baseless".

LeT was banned in Pakistan in 2002. Jamat-ud Dawa, the social welfare wing of LeT, has been blacklisted in the wake of the Mumbai attacks although it continues to function.

The revelations could prove embarrassing to the US government as well as to the Pakistanis. Reports in American newspapers over the weekend claimed that Headley's wife had tried to alert American authorities to her husband's activities but had been ignored.

'I genuinely want to deliver the most communicative version of a play, whatever that is.' The producer and director Nicholas Hytner talks to Andrew Dickson

Richard Eyre's diaries of his decade running the National Theatre record a meeting with the man who would one day become his successor. "Lunch with Nick Hytner," Eyre jotted in his entry for 16 April 1987. "He has a face like mime – Barrault from Les Enfants du Paradis – oval face, arching eyebrows, animated, almost over-animated. Flights of ideas and gossip, riffs of enthusiasm, indignation, then repose. Latent violence subverted by a childlike smile."

Twenty-three years on, Hytner is sitting in front of me in the office once occupied by Eyre. The thumbnail sketch still holds. While that mime-performer's face looks a little tougher, the smile a little older, it is still difficult to believe that he is 54. The brilliant boy of British theatre has somehow become middle-aged. He even has a new knighthood to prove it.

"I suppose I have had a life in theatre now," Hytner admits. The eyebrows arch up, and he manages to look simultaneously amused and stricken. "It's gone on long enough for it to have been a life."

The truth is that Hytner has packed more into the last 25 years than most directors accomplish in a lifetime. A young star at Manchester's Royal Exchange, he was directing at both Covent Garden and English National Opera by his late 20s, and in the years since has overseen both box-office-banking musicals and epic flops. His list of credits is eclectic. He has sometimes tickled Middle England (The Wind in the Willows), elsewhere thrown satirical hand grenades (he brought Jerry Springer: The Opera to the NT). For every major dud (Richard Bean's England People Very Nice, which saw the theatre accused of inciting racism in 2009) there has been a major triumph (Major Barbara, which Hytner overcame his aversion to George Bernard Shaw to direct). He has dusted off rarities, but also managed to make overfamiliar texts seem fresh-minted. Sometimes the contrasts have been visible, as in his new production of Hamlet, which transforms the play into a crisp, chilling study of realpolitik but also illuminates its flecks of humour. The Observer's critic singled out Rory Kinnear's "caustic, exact, gimlet-sharp prince", while the Financial Times found an unselfconscious silliness in the hero's antics. The Evening Standard sensed both Spooks and The West Wing in the earpiece-wearing bodyguards who populate Elsinore. "Everything I like involves the reconciliation of apparent opposites," Hytner smiles. Most impressively of all, he has managed to succeed not simply as a director, but at one of the most difficult jobs in the arts: running the National.

In the last seven years, Hytner has led the NT through its most stable and creative period since it was set up in a row of temporary, tin-roofed sheds near the Old Vic, nearly 50 years ago. Audience numbers are up, a cheap tickets scheme has seemingly changed the theatre's demographic for good, there have been forays into live cinema broadcasts, and he has presided over the broadest and boldest repertoire in a generation.

Hytner seems genuinely abashed at the suggestion he's made it look easy. "Some of the things I've done here were intuitions, a wing and a prayer," he says. "Some of them were purely impresarial, if that is an adjective. I've had tremendous luck."

Listening to Hytner describe his career, you'd think everything was accidental – or, at least, happened en route to somewhere else. The eldest child of four, he had a comfortable, apparently unruffled childhood in the prosperous suburbs of south Manchester. His father is a retired barrister; his mother a well-known theatrical fundraiser, serving on the board of the Old Vic. The Hytners were "a typical Jewish, cultured family", their son recalls, remembering traditional Sunday-night trips to the Free Trade Hall – with entire phalanxes of Manchester's Jewish community – to see the Hallé under Barbirolli. But drama wasn't especially on the radar. "When I started going in the mid-60s, theatre wasn't fantastic in Manchester, though it perked up later. And as a teenager, my brothers were hugely into Old Trafford, which" – he places the words delicately – "I wasn't."

Hytner was fortunate, however, to attend Manchester Grammar School, which offered both outings to Stratford-upon-Avon and the opportunity to perform. "The place that seemed most alive was backstage, the rehearsal room, the school play," he says. "That's when I felt happiest."

Even so, as a teenager Hytner felt trapped in Manchester ("I just remember it being rather dour"). Liberation arrived in the form of Cambridge – Griff Rhys Jones and Rory McGrath were in his year – and specifically its drama societies. At first he acted. "I was a show-off," he laughs. "As a student the only acting I did that was acceptable to me was the Footlights kind. But I quickly rumbled that I was not emotionally or psychologically kitted out to be an actor. I could time a joke. What I couldn't do was be one person."

As a director, too, Hytner has continued to flirt with multiple identities. He has developed a reputation as a thoughtful interpreter of canonic texts (a critic dubbed him "one of the most perceptive young directors of classics in the British theatre" as early as 1986), but has also put new writing centre-stage at the National, not least through his long association with Alan Bennett. His first big break was as an opera director – his deliciously fleet production of Handel's Xerxes in 1985 remains a cornerstone at ENO – but, internationally, he is probably best known for piloting Schönberg and Boublil's flamboyant Vietnam musical, Miss Saigon, on to the West End stage in 1989.

Another stroke of luck, he claims now. "It just felt like a huge lark . . . It was gigantic, and I was into gigantic at the time, so I threw everything I knew at it. It was big, honest, moving, brash, kind of crazy. I had no idea that it would take off."

But take off it certainly did. Miss Saigon was an overnight success and transferred to New York, where it now ranks as the 10th-longest-running production in Broadway history. As well as earning him lustrous reviews, it meant that Hytner never need worry about money again. He was just 34. He shrugs. "It was a huge . . ." – he searches for a big enough word – "a massive stroke of fortune. It meant that thereafter I only needed to do what I wanted to do."

But what Hytner wanted to do, ironically enough, was the one thing that stubbornly refused to happen: make a career in the movies. His first film, a 1994 adaptation of Alan Bennett's The Madness of King George, was a hit (Hytner disputes the story that the American studio changed its title from The Madness of George III in order not to confuse audiences wondering about the first two instalments). But the director hit a trough soon afterwards, once telling an interviewer, echoing Hamlet's father, that he was "doomed for a certain term to walk Sunset Boulevard". A cinematic version of Miller's The Crucible struggled at the box office, and he spent a dogged and "unremittingly horrible" 15 months embroiled in a project to get a Hollywood version of the musical Chicago off the ground. (By the time the film eventually appeared, Hytner was long gone.)

"I made a mistake professionally, because I had an apartment in New York, and I spent more time there than here. That was partly because – actually mainly because – I was in a relationship that was important to me, but also because I thought I could make it in American movies." He looks rueful. "Which I absolutely couldn't. Luckily I called time on that before it became terminal."

He also tried to repeat the trick of Miss Saigon, with mixed results. Carousel, which transferred from the National in 1994, did decently (it won plaudits for being the first mixed-race production to appear on Broadway), but Hytner's next big musical, inauspiciously entitled Sweet Smell of Success, met with disaster. The New York Times ended the first paragraph of its review, brutally, with "zzzzzzzz".

"It was one of those wonderful overnight flops," Hytner says now, the pain of the tale apparently eclipsed by his delight in the telling. "You're at the party, everyone's having a wonderful time, telling you how much they've enjoyed it. Then you look around – it happens in a millisecond – and everybody's gone. And you think: 'Oh my God, it's a flop.'" He looks briefly cheered. "I'm almost glad, in a way, because it doesn't happen any more. Everyone looks at the Times review on their Blackberry or their iPhone before they come to the party. Or they don't come."

It wasn't the money that drew him to the US, Hytner insists, but the opportunity to reach the widest possible audience – an article of faith, not just when it comes to his own work, but one he has preached with missionary zeal at the National. "The reconciliation of the popular with the intellectually ambitious, from the Elizabethans onwards, is what British theatre is all about," he argues. "At our best, we've tried to bring together those two sometimes irreconcilable ambitions – theatre as searching and complex as possible, and theatre that brings in as many people as possible. I've had really interesting rows with people who run theatres on the continent, who ask, 'what is subsidy for if you're worrying about the audience?' That's very startling."

There's something of the old-fashioned showman about Hytner: highbrow and lowbrow isn't a distinction he values (he claims to enjoy Diana Krall as much as Haydn, and admits a secret affection for trashy pop). "For me, 1,000 people held by something that is emotionally complex, ambivalent, unavailable to simple explanation – that's exciting."

It has sometimes been suggested that Hytner's flair for theatrical spectacle – and his efficiency at getting a show up and running – has not always been matched by his taste. City Limits said of Miss Saigon that it was "packed with circus tricks", and in a savage review of England People Very Nice the Evening Standard's critic tartly remarked that, although Hytner's staging was impressive, he couldn't "understand how a man of his intelligence and sensitivity ever allowed himself to bring [the play] into the National's repertoire". Hytner accepts that he hasn't always made the best choices. "Possibly I've done too much, and not done it very well. But that's because I've been interested in stuff that's new to me."

Yet while admiring the creative imagination of directors such as Katie Mitchell and Richard Jones, he is impatient with the idea that a director should hone a single way of doing things, still less aspire to mystical auteurship. "I have a constantly changing, perhaps ambivalent relationship with my own work," he insists. "I've never felt myself to be so fascinating as a director that I could spend a life in the theatre only in the pursuit of my own ideas." He goes on: "I'm not the kind of director that submits the play to . . . " – he searches for an appropriately barbed term – "a prefabricated idea of what theatre should be, or even a sense of my own personal style. I genuinely want to deliver the most communicative version of a play, whatever that is."

Though Hytner's feelings about his back catalogue may be ambiguous (he claims he no longer has the nerve to direct opera), it may be his reluctance to be pinned down that has enabled him to triumph at running a theatre, where more single-minded directors fail. And few theatres compare to the National, with 570 permanent staff, a £64m turnover, three auditoriums and assorted other spaces waiting to be filled. Eyre's and Peter Hall's diaries often bleed with frustration at the logistical nightmares, the board meetings, the backstage bickering, the front-of-house politics (on one particularly doleful occasion, Hall daydreams about the theatre burning down with him inside). But, the way Hytner describes it, running the NT sounds like a blessing. Though he admits he shoulders less admin than his predecessors – executive director Nick Starr, who joined in 2002, handles day-to-day management – he has clearly found the collegiate aspects of the job satisfying. "It's the first building I've run, and it was exactly the right time in my life. I've been liberated by the repertoire, talking to other directors, constant conversation with writers."

What I'm wondering is how it has affected him personally. Eyre admitted later to depression; Hall's diaries alternate between rambunctiousness and despair, turning over the idea of suicide and culminating in the breakup of his second marriage. Their successor, Trevor Nunn, left the National reportedly isolated and profoundly unhappy.

Hytner, characteristically, approaches the subject via work. We talk about plays that have meant most to him; he mentions The History Boys and a recent version of Much Ado About Nothing with Simon Russell Beale and Zoë Wanamaker. Easy to see how a play about a northern grammar school has resonance, I say, but why that Shakespeare in particular? "I only ever wanted to do it with a couple my age," he says, then halts as if he's revealed too much. "But it wasn't just the love affair between Beatrice and Benedick. Funnily enough, what I got really involved with was making a warm Sicilian household whose first instinct is to throw a party." He looks away, towards the corner of his office. "That is not the life I've lead, though it's a life I've often wanted to."

Hytner is reluctant to talk about his private life: "I don't talk about it for a simple reason, which is if you can say it in a sentence, say it. Mine takes a paragraph." Despite being openly gay – he figures highly in the Independent's annual pink power list – he has clearly striven to keep the public and private portions of his biography separate.

Is he happy? He pauses again. "I don't think of myself as the finished article, and I'm sad about that – but then I don't know. I know a lot of people in their early 50s who are settled and happy, and I know people who would be very happy about the different roads I could still travel down." He mentions that relationship in New York, which he says is the one that has meant the most. "We spend a lot of time with each other, but neither of us think it's a solution to life. But it has probably been ideal for me." How so? "It leaves an awful lot of time for work."

The work will assuredly continue: Hamlet has just opened; there are plans to do King Lear with Russell Beale, plus a welter of other projects at the National. Hytner's current contract runs until 2013; he says he wants to be around for the NT's 50th birthday that October, but is keen for his fingertips not to be prised away from the desk. He might set up a new company, perhaps experiment with other kinds of producing. "It's something I've started thinking about, but not much," he says. "I have no wild ambitions to go back to the movies or anything like that. That was not happy." His voice drops, then recovers. "But it all adds up to happy."

Ann Harada, Raymond J. Lee, Telly Leung, Jose Llana, Jason Ma, Orville Mendoza, Manu Narayan, Olivia Oguma, Eileen Rivera, Anne Fraser Thomas, and Virginia Wing will star in the National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO)'s benefit concert of the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine...

The American Theatre Wing has announced some of the guests that will be appearing on its Downstage Center interview programs. The broadcasts, which will be available online for streaming or download, are hosted by Howard Sherman. On October 20, the Wing will release its interview with...