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Review of the Year 2007 - The London Stage (3)2. West End PlaysDateline: 23rd December, 2007The West End has been short of top quality new dramas this year which must be considered a worry by those who fear that producers will not risk their cash on straight plays, preferring musicals, which are increasingly looking like safer bets. It is noticeable that where a couple of years ago the largest theatres always had musicals and most others featured straight plays, the musicals are encroaching down Shaftesbury Avenue and St Martin's Lane taking over mid-size theatres with long-running shows such as Avenue Q, Cabaret and its producers desperately hoped, Desperately Seeking Susan. This change is reflected in the length of this column, which is shorter than ever before but one fears may be even lighter next year. More than ever, the emphasis in the West End is on star names and, occasion, it seems as if some producers have completely ignored the quality of the play and the production in favour of a celebrity name that they believe will sell tickets. Few people could imagine that Billie Piper in Christopher Hampton's Treats would set the world alight, and the young lady proved that cuteness does not always equate to acting ability, at least on stage. Similarly, converting Swimming with Sharks from screen to stage could not be saved by Christian Slater, despite the fact that he did a fine impression of Kevin Spacey in the film. It possibly did not help that the latter Mr S. now resides only just down the road and would have done it even better. There were some great West End moments in 2007 though. Pleasingly, two of them were in memorable Shakespearean productions directed by Rupert Goold and featuring Patrick Stewart. The first of these was The Tempest and more recently Stewart appeared opposite the director's wife, the superb Kate Fleetwood, in an updated Macbeth. These adventurous productions allowed Stewart his second and third hits with Shakespeare in the West End, following on from Antony and Cleopatra for the RSC. The biggest story of the year surrounded Theo Sharrock's new production of Peter Schaffer's Equus. The tabloids had a field day as Harry Potter, the 17-year-old actor Daniel Radcliffe, to use the vernacular "got his kit off". It was a shame that there was quite so much fuss about the young actor's physique when the papers should have been raving about a superb production that really made the play come to life. Geographically, The Old Vic is not in the West End but Kevin Spacey has now got the theatre to a position where it competes with Shaftesbury Avenue theatres for audiences and carries real weight as it does so. It may have had a terrible first year but this lovely old theatre by Waterloo Station, is now back with a vengeance and seems to have a bright future ahead. The Old Vic has witnessed an exceptionally varied output during 2007, starting with a Shakespeare double bill from Edward Hall's Propeller Company. Their all-male Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night were both humorous and each managed to shed new light on Shakespearean classics. Perhaps the highlight of the year was Robert Lindsay starring in the Laurence Olivier role of Archie Rice in The Entertainer. Sean Holmes' 50th anniversary revival of a legendary play showed both that it is a classic and that he is one of our best directors. Another revival from roughly the same period was Patrick Hamilton's eerie thriller Gaslight, starring Rosamond Pike and a particularly effective Kenneth Cranham. Bringing things closer to the present day, the theatre bravely put on a stage revival of Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother starring Dame Diana Rigg, which did not get the approval than it deserved from many of the critics. Finally, the theatre staged what may well be the year's best, and most expensive, pantomime recruiting Stephen Fry to write and unbelievably saucy and gay in every sense, new version of Cinderella. One of the most exciting West End productions this year was David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, featuring a great ensemble cast led by Jonathan Pryce, which deserves a really long run as it is witty, pacy and thrilling. A big new development is the creation of the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company. Time will tell as to whether this is a financial disaster waiting to happen or the start of something special. To date, the company under Jonathan Kent has only offered a one play, a revival of Wycherley's The Country Wife that failed to sparkle despite a starry cast of whom David Haig was the pick. The West End had its fair share of other film stars this year, with Dame Maggie Smith in Edward Albee's quirky but enjoyable The Lady from Dubuque, Jessica Lange giving a touching performance in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and Charles Dance outstanding playing the Anthony Hopkins role in the stage version of Shadowlands by William Nicholson. The year started with the long-awaited West End transfer of the National Theatre's greatest recent success, The History Boys, which they surprisingly pulled off after relatively short run. However, these shrewd commercial managers are giving it another go early in 2008 when it will undoubtedly do good business once again. Last but not least, following in the 39 footsteps of John Buchan's swashbuckling classic which is headed for Broadway, Arthur Conan Doyle got the treatment from Peepolykus. The Hound of the Baskervilles was surely never like this, with a Spanish Sherlock Holmes and hundreds of laughs packed into a relatively short evening with a cast of only four. Philip Fisher
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