Happy talk
Hytner returns to the National for the first time since "The Cripple of Inishmaan" to direct last year's Albert Speer, Alex Jennings, as Leontes in "The Winter's Tale,'' opening May 23. Hytner then segues to the new play from Mark Ravenhill, opening in September in the midsize Lyttelton. Its title, "Mother Clap's Molly House,'' seems of a piece with this dramatist's fondness for memorable monikers. ("Shopping and Fucking,'' anyone?)
June 13 is the Cottesloe press night for Marber's latest play, "Howard Katz,'' which is being launched in the same auditorium -- the Cottesloe -- that spawned the same writer-director's "Closer.'' The new play was once mooted for the Donmar Warehouse but shifted some months ago to the Na-tional Theater sked.
December in the Cottesloe finds the return of writer Barry and director Max Stafford-Clark, who were previously repped in the NT's smallest venue with "Our Lady of Sligo.'' The new play, "Hinterland,'' is a co-production with Dublin's Abbey Theater and Stafford-Clark's own Out of Joint touring company, and will open in London after a tour and a Dublin run.
Also on the new play sked are Charlotte Jones' "Humble Boy,'' starring Simon Russell Beale in his first play post-"Hamlet''; John Caird directs for an August opening in the Cottesloe. "Van Gogh in Brixton,'' Nicholas Wright's first play since "Cressida,'' is on tap for early 2002 in the Cottesloe.
March 2002, sees British TV star Martin Clunes in director Lindsay Posner's Lyttelton auditorium revival of "Tartuffe,'' while 2002 in the Olivier looks likely for the preem of a Tom Stoppard trilogy, directed by National a.d. Trevor Nunn, that could mark the building's most elaborate new play cycle since the David Hare trio played the same venue under Richard Eyre's regime.
The visiting Hollywooders, Close and Kidman, are penciled in for 2002 in "A Streetcar Named Desire'' and "The Lady From the Sea,'' respectively, though, like all things in pencil, these plans exist to be erased. (Of the two, Close's commitment, says a source, "is much further advanced.'')
As for "South Pacific,'' the NT's latest foray into the Rodgers and Hammerstein repertoire could start "Bali Ha'i''-ing as early as late-2001.
What else? Peter Hall and composer Harrison Birtwistle collaborating on Euripides' "Bacchae'' in a new version by Northern Irish dramatist Colin Teevan (the Olivier, 2002) and the reconfiguring in 2002 of the proscenium-arch Lyttelton to create a new (and experimental) 100-seat studio space, bringing to four the total of NT auditoria.
All this, and the expected announcement in due course of a new NT artistic director (Nunn's five-year contract expires in 2002): Not for the first time, all eyes will be looking southward across Waterloo Bridge.
Without Walters
Speaking of the National -- and with 22 Olivier nominees, when aren't we? -- Howard Davies' sensational production of "All My Sons'' is poised for a return visit more than a year after it bowed in the Cottesloe to near-unanimous raves. The Arthur Miller revival will reopen in August, this time in the Lyttelton, playing through October before a West End transfer.
The restaging won't, however, include the show's original (and Olivier-nominated) leading lady, Julie Walters, who last week added an Oscar nod to her growing bouquet of laurels for her perf in "Billy Elliot.''
"I've said I can't do it; I just can't do eight shows a week,'' says Walters, speaking from the Liverpool location of her latest venture, "Comfort Zone,'' a Granada telefilm for ITV.
"It's my family -- I just wouldn't see them; I might as well be on the moon.'' (No word yet as to who will replace her in the pivotal role of Kate Keller.)
One Oscar nominee, inciden-tally, who is planning a turn in the theater is Spaniard Javier Bardem ("Before Night Falls''), who hopes to play the valet, Jean, in a Madrid revival this fall of Strindberg's "Miss Julie.''
"I've read the play so many times,'' Bardem told me by phone Feb. 13 amid his Oscar nomination-induced euphoria. "I can't wait to do it.''
Crix' picks
"The Beautiful Game'' was the surprise winner Feb. 15 of the best musical prize -- new or revival -- from the drama section of the London Critics' Circle, marking a rare pat on the back for composer Andrew Lloyd Webber from a community (that's to say, review-ers) with whom he is often at odds.
Best play, as expected, went to the West End-bound "Blue Orange,'' by Joe Penhall, with the same drama's youngest player, Chiwetel Ejiofor, picking up the prize for most promising newcomer.
Michael Gambon was named best actor for two plays -- "Cressida'' and "The Caretaker'' -- while another critics' darling, Simon Russell Beale, was the first-time winner of a new award for best Shakespearean performance. Beale won for the National Theater Hamlet that he is currently touring to Belgrade, though the revival has just announced four dates on an American itinerary to include Boston (April 11-29), Minneapolis (May 2-13), Tucson (May 17-20) and Phoenix (May 23-27). (It re-turns to the NT mid-June for a final monthlong stand.)
Best actress was Victoria Hamilton in "As You Like It,'' with some last-minute drama provided by presenter Charles Spencer's inability to remember her name. (Spencer recovered beautifully.) Michael Grandage was named best director for that production as well as for "Passion Play'' and "Merrily We Roll Along.'' "Merrily'' leading lady Samantha Spiro accepted the prize on behalf of Grandage, who is in Sheffield rehearsing "Edward II,'' with Joseph Fiennes.
