Proof that the Brits are taking over Broadway.
Ben Brantley, chief theatre critic at the New York Times, has crowned four London-born plays with the honour of being in this year’s top 10 productions. Brantley is no easy man to impress — he’s the successor of the “Butcher of Broadway”, Frank Rich, and is notorious for his devastating putdowns — but four British plays have won his heart.
James Corden and the rest of the original London cast had New Yorkers in hysterics in the National Theatre’s transfer of One Man, Two Guvnors. A darker National Theatre production, Harper Regan, was successfully reimagined with an American cast, while the London-based playwright Enda Walsh created a charming stage play from the romantic musical film Once.
Mike Bartlett’s sexual comedy Cock, which first premiered at the Royal Court, was a big hit in the Big Apple— although the production did have to be renamed Cockfight Play. Some words are just too risqué even for Broadway.
