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2003: A Review of the Year (Part II)By Philip FisherThe major West End theatres continue to be dominated by big budget musicals, many of which have seemingly been running forever. The alternative that producers are willing to risk is the superstar-led play. One of these broke many box office records, as Matthew Perry from Friends along with film stars Minnie Driver and Hank Azariah arrived in town to join local actress Kelly Reilly in David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago. The hype was always going to be impossible to live up to but the show was highly enjoyable. It is noticeable that this is a revival of a successful play, as was Sweet Panic with Jane Horrocks and Victoria Hamilton. In producers' eyes, new writing and the large theatres seemingly never mix. The two best West End plays this year were also revivals. The Price by Arthur Miller, which transferred from the Tricycle with a wonderful cast led by Warren Mitchell, and Pirandello's Absolutely (Perhaps) in a sumptuous production directed by Franco Zeffirelli with another stage veteran, Joan Plowright were well worth shelling out £40 odd for. The star formula doesn't always work and is seen far too often. A mediocre play is almost always a mediocre play even with stars from Hollywood, Coronation Street or Eastenders. This was proved several times over this year and in an already overly long article, it seems unnecessary to highlight bad shows. The good included lots of work by Scandinavians. Ibsen led the way with The Master Builder starring Patrick Stewart, that classical actor from Star Trek, and the very dark Brand with Ralph Fiennes. Strindberg's Dance of Death brought us Sir Ian McKellen. Amongst the best Shakespeare of the year was Edward Hall's Midsummer Night's Dream that showed that sympathetically handled, an all-male cast can both amuse and find new nuances in such a play. The West End (well, the Old Vic) also enjoyed Sir Derek Jacobi in The Taming of the Shrew. The smaller Arts did well with the unexpected success of Justin Butcher's satire on current politics, The Madness of George Dubya. They also had Happy Days starring Felicity Kendall under the direction of Sir Peter Hall. Sir Peter had already transferred his excellent revival of Betrayal with Janie Dee into London and continues to create vast quantities of great theatre with only the occasional lapse. The Donmar survived the transfer from Sam Mendes to Michael Grandage pretty well. It had two real successes in Patrick Marber's belated stage debut for the wonderful After Miss Julie (Kelly Reilly stealing the show again) and David Greig's new translation of Camus' Caligula starring Michael Sheen.
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