Ask friends about their recent trip to Europe and, chances are, their eyes will light up when London is mentioned; quiz them a little further about what was liked most and, again, chances are they'll bring up London's incomparable theater. Then watch their eyes really light up.
Shaftsbury Avenue in London's West End may not have quite as much tacky glitter as New York's Broadway, but the quality of acting there (and at not too far away cultural centers like the National Theater and Barbican) is, at its finest, quite possibly the world's best - and all for roughly half the price you'd pay in New York.The current theater season in London has been, all in all, a fairly good one - and for the availability of Shakespeare, maybe one of the best.
This summer, the bard of Stratford-on-Avon has been represented by Derek Jacobi's somewhat unusual "Richard II" and "Richard III"; Felicity Kendall and Alan Bates as a middle-age Beatrice and Benedick in a refreshing "Much Ado about Nothing"; and even our own Dustin Hoffman as an interestingly sympathetic Shylock in "Merchant of Venice."
(Hoffman, incidentally, had gone to London to play Hamlet, but was told by director Peter Hall that he was too old and was offered Shylock instead. Hoffman's getting good reviews - but gets no star billing; his name appears on the program, like the rest of the company, in alphabetical order.)
In the wonderful facilities of the Barbican, Shakespeare buffs (and they're growing in number) can see a bang-up version of "Macbeth" and an off-beat production of "The Tempest" (with John Wood as Prospero), and, in an ingenuous combining of several of Shakespeare's history plays, a cycle of three "new" plays presently going under the catch-all title of "The Plantagenets."
The Old Vic Theatre (where some of Britain's greatest actors - Olivier, Richardson, Guinness, O'Toole - got their starts) wowed audiences this spring with a remarkable "King Lear." At one point, the back of the stage was opened up to create - with billowing gray silk, manufactured fog and wind and an abundance of authentically wet spray whipped around by it all - a storm scene to end all storm scenes. "Lear" was followed, later in the season, by an experimental "As You Like It" with Orlando and Rosalind rolling around in real dirt and splashing one another in a real pond.
Still in repertory at the National Theatre is a controversial "Hamlet." Critics are praising versatile Daniel Day Lewis as an actor ("My Beautiful Laundrette," "Room with a View," "Unbearable Likeness of Being") but finding him misdirected as the Prince of Denmark. A major production of "Othello" is being readied to open shortly.
There's still more Shakespeare a couple of hours to the north at Stratford. And none of this year's productions are what you would call traditional - from a very immediate and youthful "Romeo and Juliet" (done at the Swan Theatre in the round), to a stark and haunting post-modern "Hamlet" in which some of the major soliloquies are delivered with Hamlet's back to the audience, to an all-stops-pulled "Midsummer Night's Dream" with the fairies dressed in tattered ballet tutus and hiking boots or long-handled underwear, tuxedo jackets and aviator goggles.
Britain's top contemporary playwrights are on the boards this season, too - Peter Shaffer, Alan Aykbourn and Willy Russell.
Ayckbourn's new play, "Henceforward," though maybe not as good as his 1986 "Woman in Mind," is nevertheless extremely thought-provoking as well as immensely entertaining. The plot revolves around a recently divorced electronic-music composer who puts together a talking robot to serve as his new female companion. Martin Jarvis and Joanna Van Gyseghem have replaced Ian McKellan and Jane Asher, who originated the roles, but audiences continue to be enchanted - and chilled - by the play's unsettling message.
The current play by Peter Shaffer ("Amadeus") is "Lettice and Lovage" - still enjoying its second summer in the West End. Maggie Smith has now been replaced twice in the role she created of a tour guide prone to dramatically embellish the "facts" she's paid to relay to tourists, but the accomplished Carole Shelley, currently playing Lettice, is still bringing down the house at the Shaftsbury Avenue's Globe Theatre.
While perhaps not as well known as the contemporary playwrights already mentioned, Russell ("Educating Rita") has come up with another winner in "Shirley Valentine" - a one-character play about a women who decides there has to be more to her life than pampering her husband.
Already brought back for a second stint after a successful run last year - and already having gone to Broadway and now even made into a soon-to-be-released movie - "Shirley Valentine" is a surprisingly intimate and painfully funny look into the psyche of a contemporary housewife.
The current production of Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler," at the National, may be melodramatic, but it holds your interest every minute; and the haunting production of "Ghetto," also at the National, is a new comedy-drama with music, exploring the Holocaust in highly theatrical and touching ways.
But what should definitely not be missed at the National is the 1890's play, "The Shaughraun," brought back into repertoire from last year, I'm sure, because of popular demand. Certainly this melodrama about an itinerant musician in the hills of Ireland has never received such spectacular treatment before. On the wonderful revolving stage at the National's Olivier Theatre, Ireland's cottages and castles are recreated with precise detail, providing one of the most memorable visual treats seen on any stage. If you're in London when this is on, it's an absolute must.
And there's much more going on in London - such as Anthony Hopkins in "M. Butterfly," an award-winning play about a French diplomat's long-term involvement with a Chinese actress who turns out to be not only a spy but a female impersonator as well.
Then there's Vanessa Redgrave in the strange "Madhouse in Goa" by American playwright Martin Sherman, in which the first act turns out to be a novel written by a character in the second act; and there's Elaine Paige ("Evita," Grisabella in "Cats," the female lead in "Chess") drawing applause in the classy revival of "Anything Goes" (also packing them in on Broadway) - although it's Kathryn Evans in the minor role of Erma who is bringing audiences to their feet during curtain calls. She's someone to watch.
Among the other musicals of note are, of course, the deservedly popular "Les Miserables" - now in its fourth year, and the three by wonder-boy Andrew Lloyd Webber: the long-running "Cats," and the hard-to-get-into "Phantom of the Opera" and now, equally difficult to get tickets for, Webber's latest - "Aspects of Love." And, of course, the lively revival of "Me and My Girl" continues to please audiences as does the stage version of "Singing in the Rain" and even the old favorite, "Brigadoon."
But there's a new musical at the Picadilly Theatre that deserves a bigger audiences: It's "Metropolis," based on the famous 1930 German expressionist film that appears on almost every film buff's Top 10 list. American Judy Kuhn does a great job as Maria, the worker who is turned into a robot, and she and the rest of the vigorous cast belt out the very singable tunes in such a way that you want to buy the soundtrack. But the real star of the show is the futuristic set - and it's a real knockout. This is a musical that young people, especially, like to go to again and again.