August 13, 2000
by Robert Simonson and David Lefkowitz
Though ticket sales saw a boost thanks to its winning the 2000 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play, The Real Thing ends its limited Broadway run, as scheduled, Aug. 13, after 24 previews and 135 regular performances. The Donmar Warehouse revival of Tom Stoppard�s play officially opened at the Barrymore Theatre April 17, after previews starting March 29.
Despite almost uniformly excellent reviews, ticket sales for the revival never really took off, though recent weeks have seen weekly grosses pass the $300,00 mark, with attendance in the 75 percent range. Charles Busch's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife will be the next tenant at the Barrymore, starting Oct. 11. Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, both Tony winners for their lead roles, opened in the Donmar revival of Stoppard's 1982 comedy June 2, 1999 (following previews from May 27). They, alongside fellow Donmar-mates Sarah Woodward and Nigel Lindsay, are part of the Broadway company, alongside Joshua Henderson, Charlotte Parry and Oscar Pearce. The production, which ran through Aug. 7, 1999 and then played the West End�s Albery Theatre (Jan. 13-March 18), was sold out.
The Real Thing was to have moved into Broadway�s Belasco on March 29, but the Belasco's tenant at the time, James Joyce�s The Dead, changed from a limited to an open run, and the Stoppard show was shifted over to the similar-sized Barrymore (according to a production source, always the producers� first choice of theatre).
The Real Thing deals with love, marriage and adultery. In shifting perspectives, couples founder and reform, and joy and passion are acutely countered by pain and deception.
Dillane, star of the feature film Welcome to Sarajevo, plays Henry, a role played by Jeremy Irons in Real Thing�s initial Broadway sojourn. Dillane returned to the Donmar following his role last year in Endgame. Ehle, who plays Annie, is best known for her film features such as the recently released This Year's Love and her television roles in serials such as BBC1's Pride and Prejudice, for which she won a BAFTA award for Best Actress in 1996. Ehle vied against her mother, Waiting in the Wings' Rosemary Harris, for the 2000 Best Actress Tony. Liz Smith reported (Aug. 11) that Ehle's next theatre project will be opposite Alan Cumming in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Noel Coward's Design For Living, due February 2001.
The Real Thing is directed by David Leveaux, newly appointed as an associate director of the Donmar Warehouse. Stoppard's comedy was his third production for the theatre, following the musical Nine in 1996 and the 1997 Olivier Award-winning production of Electra, starring Zoe Wanamaker, which also transferred to Broadway. He�s on tap to direct Desire Under the Elms for the Roundabout Theatre Company next season.
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