By Lawson Taitte
NEW YORK - Every Broadway season, cries of alarm go up because so many wonderful shows are being imported from London that there will be no room, supposedly, for American plays. Such voices are muted this year.
In the fall, only the unspeakable Saturday Night Fever - surely the cheesiest show to hit Broadway in decades - and the OK Amadeus invaded our shores. They had won prizes in England, but they obviously posed no threat.
The spring onslaught of British-born shows is less numerous than usual - only three. But all are choice.
The Real Thing, Copenhagen and Rose also won acclaim and awards. This time, however, each is something really special. It's as if the Brits had sneaked in a single commando unit and won the war.
Where was Paul Revere when we really needed him?
The revival of The Real Thing, like so many other top-of-the-line London shows these days, originated at the tiny Donmar Warehouse. Its stars aren't nearly as imposing a pair of names as Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close, who played the leads when Tom Stoppard's comedy-drama debuted on Broadway in 1984. But Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle make The Real Thing the smartest, sexiest play in New York.
Mr. Dillane is known in this country, if anything, for the movie Welcome to Sarajevo. He also happens to be the premiere Hamlet of our time, as he proved in Sir Peter Hall's 1994 London production. The same qualities that made him a surpassing Prince of Denmark render him ideal for Mr. Stoppard's playwright-hero - mercurial intelligence, blistering intensity and stiletto wit.
Ms. Ehle, the daughter of theatrical diva Rosemary Harris, is a star among the Jane Austen set, for whom tapes of her Elizabeth in the BBC's Pride and Prejudice are first-line collectibles. For The Real Thing, she has bobbed her hair and wears it auburn, making her look like a softer, sexier Gillian Anderson.
The Real Thing was Mr. Stoppard's bid to be taken seriously as a writer about emotion, specifically romantic love. It's full of clever tricks - there are no fewer than three plays within the play and sometimes you can't tell whether you're in one of those or in the main plot - but something deeper as well.
Mr. Dillane and Ms. Ehle make the bubblies in the Stoppard champagne fizzier, give the heat in his passion more sizzle. Under David Leveaux's direction, they make The Real Thing a show you could watch every night for a week and still hope you could nab another pair of tickets.
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