JOHN NATHAN
017 WAS a strong year for Jewish plays and practitioners, beginning, promisingly, at Southwark Playhouse with the hugely nostalgic Promises, Promises, Neil Simon and Burt Bacharach’s musical version of The Apartment.
No production better combined Jewish character and theatre maker than Young Marx, the inaugural production of the newly formed Bridge Theatre.
Richard Bean and Clive Coleman’s comedy about the founder of Socialism when he was a “penniless Jew” in London heralded the welcome return of Nicholas Hytner to London theatre. It’s great to have him back.
After Marx’s youth came Young Frankenstein (could there have been any booking mishaps?) which saw Mel Brooks deliver the funniest musical in the West End since the last time he delivered the funniest musical in the West End. This show isn’t quite the hit that The Producers was, but Ross Noble’s Igor is every bit as good as Marty Feldman’s original in the film — and then some.
This year saw a 50th anniversary production of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, the play that launched the career of the man who is for many the greatest living playwright,Tom Stoppard. The cast in David Leveaux’s elegant production was pretty impressive, too. Daniel Radcliffe delivered a terrifically underplayed Rosencrantz while Joshua McGuire was a wonderfully cerebral Guildenstern.
Ryan Craig stormed back to form at the Hampstead Theatre with Family Business. Set in a rubber merchant’s London shop, his heroine, Yetta Solomon is an antidote to the at The Old Vic