From Mitchell Fink's gossip column in the NY Daily News today: The Broadway opening of Tom Stoppard's play "The Real Thing" is set to welcome George Stephanopoulos and Bebe Neuwirth, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Ivana Trump, Mira Sorvino, Gabriel Byrne, Heidi Klum and Liev Schreiber to the Barrymore Theater. The opening-night party is at Tavern on the Green. I guess this means I'm going to have a busy night. ~~~~~~~~~ Guess they didn't have room for Donna's name or her quivering lips. ;-)

And from the NY Post, a little blasphemy: Party central TOO much is happening tonight. While some culture vultures flock to the opening night of Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" at the Barrymore, Miramax's first-ever stage production, other high-minded types will gather at Lincoln Center for the doling out of the National Arts Awards to the likes of Uma Thurman [yadda yadda yadda....]

According to Playbill.com, the Outer Critics' Circle Award Nominations have been announced and TRT has 4 nominations, SD for Oustanding Actor in a Play, JE, Outstanding Featured Actress in a play, DL. Best Director and TRT for best Revival. Also JE's Mum, has been nominated in the Best Actress category. Is Best Featured Actress the same as Best Supporting Actress?

Yes, Best Featured appears to be the equivalent of "Supporting"; however, there must be something wrong. How can Rosemary Harris be nominated as Best Actress for Waiting in the Wings, when I'm told her part is very small? Perhaps, they got the info backwards and Jennifer is in the Best Actress category and mom is in Featured? That would make far more sense.

On the Rosie Show Lauren Bacall said that the Waiting in the Wings cast was considered ensemble casting.... Thanks Ann for finding this.... The Outer Critics Awards are given by NY area critics for publications beyond Manhattan. They are the first to analyze the 1999-2000 season. They nominate shows that are still in previews. BTW Waiting in the Wings was nominated for Best Play. Winners will be announced May 1st and will be bestowed May 25 at a gala at Sardi's theatrical restaurant off Times Square. Thanks Karen for setting up this new topic.... And I'll be there then;-))

Is there a pic of Stephen Dillane, I'ven't a clue what he looks like!

Laura - here's a web site. http://fp.enter.net/~purrfect/dillane.htm

I should have added, go to the Dateline page for the latest pic of SD and JE that was in Talk magazine. http://fp.enter.net/~purrfect/dillane3.htm

Does anyone know if the TRT reviews will be in tomorrow's papers, in which case they'll be online shortly, or in Wednesday's? I guess what I'm really asking is should I put another pot of coffee on.;-) SD page looks terrific, Hot Lips, er . . . Donna.;-) ;-)

Am going to post one right now, from the AP Wire: Tom Stoppard's potent reminder of this thing called love NEW YORK (AP) _ As Cole Porter once wrote, "What is this thing called love?" It is a question that keeps coming back again and again to haunt the discombobulated characters in "The Real Thing," Tom Stoppard's generous meditation on fidelity and faithlessness that remains as potent today as when the play first opened on Broadway in 1984. In fact, the current revival, which arrived Monday at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, seems even more vibrant, particularly under David Leveaux's careful, cinematic but not fussy direction. Stephen Dillane and the rest of a fine British cast from London's Donmar Warehouse mine Stoppard's brilliant wordplay with such intensity that "The Real Thing" feels freshly minted, spontaneous and not at all dated, as do so many dramas from the not-so-distant past. Dillane portrays a romantically challenged English playwright named Henry, a sardonic intellectual, too smart for his own good and a man who uses his intelligence to keep women at bay. It prevents him from making a commitment, not only, as the play opens, to his actress-wife, Charlotte, but to his lover, Annie. Annie, in turn, is cheating on husband Max, who is appearing with Charlotte in Henry's new comedy about adultery, "House of Cards." Life and art get thoroughly mixed up _ and more than a bit messy _ in Stoppard's world of London artists. When Henry and Annie finally settle down together, strains begin to show. Annie becomes enamored of a young actor, forcing Henry to rethink what his relationship to her really means. Love, he learns, is more than lust and the banalities uttered in the beloved pop songs of his youth. It also makes him reexamine his life as a playwright, particularly when he has to learn how to come to terms with Annie's most persistent charity case _ a loutish leftist, who happens to be a terrible writer. And that, according to Henry, is the worst sin of all. Henry, originally played on Broadway by Jeremy Irons, is a marathon role. Dillane, a wiry guy with an ingratiating stage presence, goes the course without tiring. He's funny and charming, but he gets the pain behind the writer's glibness and cutting retorts, too. By the end of the play, Henry has grown, and so has Dillane's remarkable performance. Jennifer Ehle has less to work with as the socially committed Annie, yet she projects a passion that is not always suggested by the script. Sarah Woodward brings a tart, acerbic quality to the role of Henry's first wife, while Nigel Lindsay, as Max, perfectly captures a wronged mate's overwhelming self-pity. Even the smallest roles make impressions, particularly Oscar Pearce's flirtatious young actor and Charlotte Parry's portrait of Henry's practical and sexually precocious daughter. The production design is spare, almost bare bones, with a few tables, chairs and a record player suggesting Henry's living room. Yet the feeling of this revival is anything but minimal. Leveaux, who worked wonders with his Broadway reexaminations of "Anna Christie" and "Electra," has done it again here. "The Real Thing" rates as real, adult entertainment, wise, witty and full of compassion for the foibles of the human heart.

Glad I stayed up--the New York Times loves the play, SD and JE! (Thanks for the AP review, Karen--another winner.) `Real Thing': He's So Clever, So Glib ... So Vulnerable By BEN BRANTLEY Now here is a man you would surely love to have at your table at one of those insufferably self-important dinner parties. He speaks in sentences that might have been cut by a jeweler; he banishes conversational clich�s by merely cocking an eyebrow, and he has somehow turned undergraduate self-consciousness into a highly evolved form of charm. What's more, when he describes himself as a romantic, you believe him, just as you believe that he suffers for it. That makes him easier to take when he seems a little, well, superior. There is much to be said for the aesthetic value of shadow in a bright presence. Such are the attributes of Henry, the playwright who wrote that West End hit "House of Cards," or at least Henry as he is represented by Stephen Dillane, the immensely appealing center of the immensely appealing revival of Tom Stoppard's "Real Thing," which opened last night at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. Under the accomplished direction of David Leveaux, who brought a very different kind of finesse to last season's "Electra," this is a production that should lure those New Yorkers who say they rarely go to the theater because it's too juvenile or too vulgar or too ponderous, usually opting instead for yet another dinner party. And with the delectable Jennifer Ehle playing self-confident body to Mr. Dilane's self-questioning mind, the show has a sensual sparkle that was less evident in the fine Tony-winning New York incarnation of 1984 with Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close. "The Real Thing" -- an import from the Donmar Warehouse, the current epicenter of theatrical glamour in London ("Cabaret," "The Blue Room") -- is a rare thing even in what has been an exceptionally strong season for straight plays on Broadway: an elegant comedy of infidelity filled with the sort of comebacks that people only wish they were capable of themselves. True, this 1982 play from the author of "Jumpers" and "Arcadia" is also always subverting itself, pointing out how some things, love among them, defy glib articulation. But, ah, how articulately it manages to say so. If its structural game-playing seems a tad too clever this time around and its second act weaker than its first, the fact remains that few comedies have ever managed to have it so successfully both ways. When "The Real Thing" first opened, it was greeted with the kind of exclamations that heralded Garbo's debut in talking pictures. "Stoppard feels!" was the delighted implication of most of the reviews, a sense that the most dizzyingly cerebral of British playwrights had at last led with his heart instead of his head. What gave the play an extra savory twist was the fact that it was about a dizzyingly cerebral playwright who confesses at one point that he just doesn't know how to "write love." The title itself seemed a charming admission of the same defeat, using the sort of nonspecific noun that was anathema to its main character. Which isn't to say that Mr. Stoppard had forsaken his playful intellectualism or sure hand for form. "The Real Thing" begins with a sort of literary trompe l'oeil: a scene in which a husband confronts his wife with her presumed infidelity. This turns out to be a scene in a London play by Henry, performed by Charlotte (Sarah Woodward), an actress who is Henry's wife in real life, and Max (Nigel Lindsay), who is married to another actress, Annie (Ms. Ehle), with whom Henry is having an affair. The scene becomes a reference point for the rest of the evening, as two real-life marriages shatter, echoing and diverging from the play within the play. Other touchstones are provided by dialogue from such classic plays of passion as "Miss Julie" and " 'Tis Pity She's a Whore." And Henry, determined to conquer love on the page, comes down with writer's block. Although Charlotte early on observes that the difference between dialogue onstage and in life is that life demands "thinking time" between epigrams, the characters are still remarkably quick on the uptake: Henry, especially, of course, but so are Charlotte and Henry's teenage daughter, Debbie (Charlotte Parry), and Charlotte herself. It is a testament to the arbitrariness of love that Henry and Charlotte seem to be more naturally matched than Henry and Annie, who while obviously intelligent is less deft with the mot juste. She is also unswervingly headstrong and gets involved politically with an imprisoned Scottish soldier (Joshua Henderson) and sexually with a younger actor (Oscar Pearce). The distress these events cause Henry lead him to lively disquisitions on the virtues and limitations of language, including an unforgettable speech with a cricket bat as a visual aid. Mr. Dillane's Henry delivers this moment pricelessly to Ms. Ehle's Annie. As he tries to explain why a leaden script written by Annie's incarcerated soldier is no good, you can see him getting high on the combined delights of his sporting metaphor, his love of language and his love of the woman to whom he is speaking. Mr. Dillane, whose high and exposed forehead suggests both a temple of thought and an irresistible target, is never less than captivating. Even his brightly colored socks (the perfectly detailed costumes are by Vicki Mortimer, who also designed the sets) inspire affection. There's nary a trace of the snide superiority and remoteness that Jeremy Irons brought to his equally inspired but very different interpretation of the role, and it could be argued that his Henry is a tad too likable. It's hard to understand why he makes people so angry, and the character almost becomes a holy martyr to the causes of pure language and pure love. Fortunately, there is another side to be heard from, and it is ably embodied by Ms. Ehle. This rising star, best known as Elizabeth in the recent television adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice," wears her character's sensuality, and her awareness of its effect on others, without coyness or irony. There is no smugness about her either (and there was, a bit, in Ms. Close's portrayal), but there is a remarkable self-possession, especially evident in the smile with which she covers discomfort. This Annie easily holds her own against the older Henry and his artillery of words. All the actors are good, however, especially the women, to whose characters Mr. Stoppard has tellingly devoted the greatest care. As Henry's wife (soon to be ex-) and daughter, Ms. Woodward and Ms. Parry incisively present figures who have both been shaped by Henry and somehow gotten beyond him, like Eliza Dolittle with Henry Higgins. Mr. Leaveaux's staging adroitly balances the boulevard comedy with an emotional gravity, an awareness that people are being seriously wounded here. The badinage feels natural precisely because directors and actors are so attentive to what bodies say that words don't. Watch, for example, Ms. Ehle's postures when Annie breaks off with Max (something to which Mr. Lindsay responds harrowingly); when she keeps trying to touch Henry during an argument and when she kisses Mr. Pearce's young actor in a way that unquestionably confirms her dominance in that relationship. This balancing of the cerebral and the emotional is almost perfectly realized in the first act. In the longer second act you become conscious of a script annotating itself, and the way the play scores off Mr. Pearce's character, the dubious object of Annie's political engagement, still feels entirely too easy. One other caveat: Ms. Mortimer's sets seem out of scale at the Barrymore, and when the performers climb that long upstage staircase, it's like a challenge out of "Pilgrim's Progress." These are minor objections, however, about a production that so expertly fills a vacuum on Broadway: the urbane comedy. "The Real Thing," of course, is something more than that as well. Throughout the evening, vintage pop songs are played, numbers like "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" and "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" It's a running joke that this is the only kind of music to which Henry responds. But the play takes the emotional pull of such music, and the varied feelings it addresses, seriously. As I was leaving "The Real Thing," I noticed a middle-aged member of the audience singing the Monkees hit "I'm a Believer," a recording of which ends the production. It's an upbeat song, but the man looked puzzled and just a bit melancholy. Mr. Stoppard, one imagines, would have been pleased by the response. THE REAL THING By Tom Stoppard; directed by David Leveaux; sets and costumes by Vicki Mortimer; lighting by Mark Henderson and David Weiner; sound by John A. Leonard, for Aura Sound Design Ltd.; production stage manager, Bonnie L. Becker; associate set designer, Nancy Thun; associate costume designer, Irene Bohan; technical supervisor, Peter Fulbright; general management, 101 Productions; associate producers, Act Productions/Randall L. Wreghitt. The Donmar Warehouse production presented by Anita Waxman, Elizabeth Williams, Ron Kastner and Miramax Films. At the Ethel Barrymore Theater, 243 West 47th Street, Manhattan.

Another good review for the play, SD & JE from VARIETY, here is a snipppet from it "But most welcome of all are Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, two English actors who are making terrific Broadway debuts in DL's intentionally muted, intensely thoughtful production of Stoppard's brilliant dissection of various truths and illusions of love and romance."

4stars for TRT at the New York Post, they loved it too.

David Leaveux's "superb production" of TRT, says the NY Daily News Yippee

Here's the full New York Post review. Doesn't get much better than this!:-) A SPLENDID 'THING' By DONALD LYONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE REAL THING 4 STARS At the Barrymore Theatre, 243 W. 47th St.; (212) 239-6200. 'THE Real Thing" is the real thing - an exciting, hilarious and beautifully performed look at the terrain of art and heart. The Tom Stoppard play of 1984 received a fresh, brisk production at London's Donmar Warehouse this spring, and it is this show, with its cast intact, that has moved to Broadway's Barrymore Theatre. In the course of this teasingly tricky investigation of human relationships, we discover that the stage is and is not life. The look of the play's production is modern and abstract - the set and costumes by Vicki Mortimer suggest both the stage and reality. Director David Leveaux has thrust the action forward and made it more vivid than at the Donmar. As the play opens, architect Max (played by Nigel Lindsay in a solid, smugly comic job) is discovering what seems like adultery by his wife, Charlotte (Sarah Woodward in a debonair, droll vein.) This turns out to be a scene in a play, after which we're at home with Charlotte and her playwright husband, Henry (Stephen Dillane in a miraculous, masterful performance.) Henry slouches about their house in scruffy duds, playing Herman's Hermits and Procol Harum, working out his surprising destiny - which is largely connected to the young actress Annie, who is Max's real-life wife. Moments after they arrive, Annie expresses her passion for Henry - while Max and Charlotte are in the kitchen making crudites. Jennifer Ehle (seen here on TV in "Pride and Prejudice") plays Annie with a surprising sensuality and politically committed spirit. Gorgeous and fiery, Ehle is a thrill to watch. Two years later, Annie and Henry are still together. She's going up to Glasgow to do the Jacobean incest drama " 'Tis Pity She's a Whore." He's being nasty about a script she's interested in, written by a self-styled political prisoner, Brodie, who Henry thinks is a horrible writer. On the train to Scotland, Annie meets the young actor Billy (Oscar Pierce), who plays her brother in "Pity," and she warms to him, finding him ideal for the prisoner script. Henry, who has fixed up the script despite his objections, frets her absence. Eventually, Annie admits her attraction to Billy, but insists that this need not threaten the relationship she has with Henry. After a time, Henry accepts her point of view - after, among other things, talking to his 17-year-old daughter Debbie (a fine performance by Charlotte Parry). Dillane is hilarious and wrenchingly touching as the man who learns to blend his writing skills and his emotional life. Ehle achieves subtlety and sense as a woman who mixes art and life. This is an extraordinary presentation of a funny, smart play vibrating with contemporary concerns - art and life and sex and sacrifice and rock classics. It's the play in which Stoppard found the English - and, through the English, himself - approachable. And it's gorgeously performed by, above all, the witty and achingly vulnerable Dillane.

Here's the NY Daily News review (tabloid--least important of the three dailies in terms of the arts) 'Real Thing' Is Back on B'way By Fintan O'Toole THE REAL THING. By Tom Stoppard. With Stephen Dillane, Jennifer Ehle, Nigel Lindsay, Sarah Woodward and others. Directed by David Leveaux. Designed by Vicki Mortimer. At the Ethel Barrymore. Tickets: (212) 239-6200. One of the intriguing things about theater is the way that plays sometimes say the exact opposite of what their author intended. This is what happens in David Leveaux' superb production of Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing." Of all the English playwrights who came to prominence in the 1960s, only two were so distinctive that their names came to sum up a whole style. If critics wanted to indicate clipped phrases and an air of menace, they called a play Pinteresque. If they wanted to indicate verbal wit and intellectual games, it was Stoppardian. Tom Stoppard's reputation for dashing repartee and dazzling ingenuity was well-earned. But it carried with it a feeling that the cleverness was just a fireworks display � colorful, entertaining, at times awesomely impressive, but without real emotion. "The Real Thing," returning to Broadway for the first time since Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons played the leads in 1984, is meant to refute this notion. Its central character, Henry, is an English playwright rather like Stoppard himself: brilliant, witty, arrogant and intolerant of those he regards as stupid. The play is steeped in all things theatrical. The opening scene is an episode from Henry's latest play. One of the stars, Charlotte, is his wife. The other, Max, is the husband of the woman with whom Henry is having an affair. By the second half of "The Real Thing," Henry is living with Max' ex-wife, Annie. Because she, too, is an actress, the dialogue and the action are saturated with theatrical references and in-jokes. But Henry, despite being an intellectual, turns out to be a passionate romantic. And through him, Stoppard wants us to know that he can write a play about that most basic of all emotions, love. The irony, though, is that "The Real Thing" remains stubbornly Stoppardian. There's less to all the stuff about love than meets the eye. What works is the verbal energy and the clever game-playing. This isn't the fault of the production; on the contrary, Stephen Dillane as Henry and Jennifer Ehle as Annie are a playwright's dream. Dillane strikes a skillful balance between Henry's arrogance, sarcasm and impatience on the one hand and his yearning for love on the other. Without softening the character too much, he makes us understand why Henry is attractive to women. Ehle, meanwhile, glows with life, intelligence and sensuality. Her Annie is both kind and dangerous, so open and compassionate that she seems doomed to break hearts. So if there's something abstract about the play, it's not because the actors fail to put flesh on Stoppard's ideas. Or because the web of loyalties and betrayals is not spun by a writer of extraordinary dexterity and invention. Maybe it's just that, like Henry, Stoppard finds it hard to "write love" without it coming out "embarrassing � either childish or rude." And because he's far too dignified to write embarrassing lines, he prefers to write "about" love than to run the risk of sentimentality. The result may not be completely satisfying or convincing. But it does suggest that there are far worse things a playwright can be called than "Stoppardian."

Newsday Review below: More glowing words, and look at the last paragraph!! Rumor has it there was a pic in the Sunday Daily News. Does anyone have??? Stoppard's Searing Reality Gimmickry's dropped in a moving, literary dissection of love By Linda Winer. STAFF WRITER BROADWAY REVIEW THE REAL THING. By Tom Stoppard, directed by David Leveaux. With Stephen Dillane, Jennifer Ehle, Nigel Lindsay, Sarah Woodward, Charlotte Parry, Joshua Henderson, Oscar Pearce. Sets and costumes by Vicki Mortimer, lights by Mark Henderson and David Weiner. Barrymore Theatre, 47th Street west of Broadway. Seen at Friday's preview. THE SUCCESSFUL playwright in Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" insists that "loving and being loved" are "unliterary" conditions-"happiness expressed in banality and lust." That this theory is being declared at the precise time Stoppard is defying it, of course, is just one daredevil profundity in one of the most gloriously articulate, least banal love stories that modern theater knows enough to cherish. At the end of the first major revival of his 1982 work, which opened at the Barrymore Theatre last night in David Leveaux' burning yet cool London production, we find ourselves fantasizing that Stoppard wrote his most personal and accessible play to counter tiresome accusations of brainy gimmickry: "You want boulevard comedy?" we imagine him snarling. "You want aching heart? Well, watch this one." Without breaking a sweat, he turned around and gave the world a romantic serio-comedy that uses a dizzying Chinese box of literary devices to express devastating compassion for the most basic of elusive human emotions. The result, then and now, plays with reality and illusion with the unlikely grace of Noel Coward partying for keeps with Pirandello. The play-which Mike Nichols memorably directed on Broadway in 1984 with Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Christine Baranski, Peter Gallagher and a teen named Cynthia Nixon-remains a dazzling dissection of adultery, the theater, radical politics and other so-called real things. Where that version had a more lush American realism than the flintier British original with Roger Rees and Felicity Kendal, this new import has a strangely touching trust in our ability to be reached in deep places without stars to guide us to the box office. The trust should pay off. Leveaux, who directed Broadway's flammable Natasha Richardson-Liam Neeson "Anna Chris- tie" and the carnivorous Zoe Caldwell "Electra," has a lean, clean, eerily transparent way with the most unruly feelings of lust, loyalty, love and independence. His expert actors-assembled at the same Donmar Warehouse that has sent us "Cabaret," "The Blue Room," "Electra," "True West" and Sam Mendes -play ambivalence and passion with a self-effacing vibrancy that makes us lean into the action so as not to miss a nuance. Stephen Dillane plays playwright Henry, whose debonair view of adultery is Stoppard's opening scene. Henry cheats on his own actress wife, Charlotte (Sarah Woodward), with Annie (Jennifer Ehle), the wife of his own play's actor. By the time he must face the way he feels when new wife Annie may be cheating on him, Henry's intellectual contempt for the banalities of love and celebration of the power of words have been shredded into an unforgettable primal cry of helpless obsession. Is this raging possessiveness the real thing? Or, more likely, does the real thing include what Annie says about Henry needing "to find the part of yourself where I am not important or you won't be worth loving?" But dear, paradoxical Henry is an intellectual writer who perceives his own reality through the lyrics and rhythms of the sort of pop music that "it's not OK" for trendy people to worship-think Neil Sedaka and Herman's Hermits. Obviously, there is a simple dishrag of a soul somewhere deep inside all the high-flown and equally touching rhapsodies about the importance of words. Henry has contempt for the cliched writings of a political prisoner whom Annie has adopted, and insists-we trust with the voice of Stoppard himself-that "Words are sacred...If you get the words in the right order, you can nudge the world a little." Dillane is a master of emotional underplaying as Henry, whose transformations are more believable than when the showier Irons had them about Close's wrongheadedly earthbound Annie. Ehle, in contrast, crinkles with the complexities of happiness and self-reliance. Sarah Woodward is all shrewd cookie, and its opposite, as Henry's first wife. Nigel Lindsay is both pathetic and honest as Annie's first husband. When he and Annie awkwardly hug one another's heads in the loving brutality of their breakup, we know Leveaux understands how banality can hurt. Vickie Mortimer's sets go back to the sliding panels and industrial chic of the original London production, when we were not quite so used to playwrights using pop songs as metaphors during scene changes. The production is the first Broadway venture of Miramax, producers of Stoppard's "Shakespeare in Love," and there are rumors of Gwyneth Paltrow or Julianne Moore taking over when the London cast ends its 20-week run. Really.

From Robert Osborne's column today (about the Tonys in general but check out the end): NEW YORK -- Previews begin tonight at the Helen Hayes on "Dirty Blonde," the new comedy by Claudia Shea transferring to the Main Stem after an off-Broadway run that began in January at the New York Theatre Workshop. As fitting any play in which the late Mae West is part of the mix, its official opening night will be "Mae Day," May 1, just ahead of the May 3 cutoff for Tony eligibility. Thus, "Blonde" could be, depending on its success with the Tony nominating committee, running for the prize in the best new play category alongside such other hopefuls as "Copenhagen," "The Green Bird," "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan," "Rose," "Taller Than a Dwarf" and, now that the Tony committee has decided they should be judged as new plays since they hadn't been presented on Broadway before, Sam Shepard's "True West," written in 1980, and Noel Coward's "Waiting in the Wings," written in 1960. The one to beat: Michael Frayn's "Copenhagen," the most literate and inventive play of the season, like a juicy Agatha Christie mystery nd, though about the physics formulas that led to the atomic bomb, easily within the grasp of anyone willing to go to the theater and listen for a change. ... The least likely to make that nomination list: "Rose" and "Waiting," both of which depend almost entirely on the voltage of their stars to make them worth watching, namely Olympia Dukakis in the former, and Lauren Bacall, Rosemary Harris, Simon Jones and a stageful of other pros in the latter. ... Most overrated new play of the season: the Arthur Miller drama with Patrick Stewart. One wonders why Miller, at this stage of his brilliant writing career, would have chosen to spend his time writing about characters and a situation as banal, uninvolving and tedious as the acreage his "Mt. Morgan" covers. ... Among the eligible candidates in the Tony category for best revival of a play, Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten" seemed the front-runner -- until Monday's opening of Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" at the Barrymore. It now moves to the forefront, along with "The Lion King," as the ticket that should be on the top of anyone's list upon setting foot in Manhattan. It's unlikely that Stoppard's 1984 play has ever produced the sparks it's generating in its current incarnation, aided by David Leveaux's magnificent direction and the performances of a flawless all-British cast headed by Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle. You're unlikely to find a better reason for going to the theater this season. Its only glitch: an ad campaign that makes "Real" look commonplace and colorless. It is quite the opposite.

...and nothing in any of the gossip columns about the party. Probably couldn't get it in before the cutoff.

Here's the full Variety review. Ho, hum, another rave,;-);-) The Real Thing By CHARLES ISHERWOOD, April 18, 2000 An Anita Waxman, Elizabeth Williams, Ron Kastner and Miramax Films presentation of the Donmar Warehouse production of a play by Tom Stoppard. Directed by David Leveaux. Absent a new Tom Stoppard play on Broadway � �The Invention of Love,� anyone? � a revival of Stoppard�s 1984 hit �The Real Thing� is certainly welcome. Welcome, too, is the legit advent of Miramax Films, which joins the small cadre of Broadway�s filmland angels with this revival imported from London�s ever-hot Donmar Warehouse. But most welcome of all are Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, two English actors who are making terrific Broadway debuts in David Leveaux�s intentionally muted, intensely thoughtful production of Stoppard�s brilliant dissection of various truths and illusions of love and romance. Audiences who recall the starry, Tony-winning original Broadway production, with Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close, may be surprised � and even taken aback � at the cool, ruminative tone of Leveaux�s production. It�s built like a delicately balanced house of cards around the ineffably charismatic but extraordinarily subtle performance of Dillane as Henry, the playwright (and author of a play called �House of Cards,� of course) who departs one marriage to enter a blissful new one, only to have the romantic ideals that have defined all his emotional commitments called into question when his new marriage threatens to unravel. The chilly-chic sets of Vicki Mortimer recall her fine work on last season�s �Closer,� a play about love and infidelity that makes a savage contemporary companion piece to Stoppard�s. Her designs are dominated by moving panels of smoked glass that may be said to typify the production�s aesthetic. The surface sheen of Stoppard�s scintillating language is treated with casual respect here � it�s not buffed to a high polish and served gleamingly over the footlights, as it is in most productions of the play. Here the emphasis is on the feelings that glow dimly beneath the surface of the words, the darting glances that add a question mark to a witticism, the pauses that speak more eloquently than even the eloquent Stoppard, particularly when they�re being sculpted by an actor equipped with the amazing instincts of Dillane. Set changes are effected onstage with a decided lack of emphasis on speed, allowing the last moments of a scene to linger briefly in the audience�s mind. Leveaux�s deliberate pacing takes a while to get used to, and indeed the pulse of the first act is dangerously low, but when the rewards of this slow-fuse staging arrive in the second act, they are ample. Stoppard�s Henry is a serial romantic, the kind of highbrow guy who thinks pop songs can capture the essence of love in a way his own writing can�t, the �happiness expressed in banality and lust.� He leaves his first wife Charlotte (Sarah Woodward) with nary a regret when he falls in love with Annie (Ehle), also an actress. At the end of the first act, when Annie not-so-playfully teases him about his lack of jealousy, Henry responds by admitting it�s because he feels �superior� in his knowledge of loving and being loved. He relishes �the insularity of passion ... the way it blurs the distinction between everyone who isn�t one�s lover ... There�s you and there�s them.� Henry takes love, and its insularity, for granted � a telling detail of Mortimer�s subtle costume designs is Henry�s inveterately casual dress; he�s always in his socks, even when others aren�t. It�s a symbol of his cozy sureness of himself and of his love, the kind of presumption that can be mistaken � and is � for indifference and, yes, superiority. Henry lives in a world where words and emotions have cut-and-dried meanings � the play�s great cricket-bat speech is a beautiful, funny paean to the power of linguistic precision � but he fails to see that he�s alone there. Everyone else inhabits a less rarefied, more dimly lit place, the real world, where things cannot be defined quite as neatly as Henry might like, where love and commitment are loose and mutable things. Henry�s gradual descent into this sadder sphere is the core of the play, and it�s a moving progress to observe, thanks to Dillane�s deeply humane performance. He duly conveys all the linguistic delights of Stoppard�s writing, the moving ruminations on the pains and pleasures of love and of writing, but his performance has a strong, simple core of emotional truth, a softly shining tenderness, that makes his disillusioning a really heart-wrenching thing to watch. Dillane is wonderful with words, but just as wonderful without them: He is often most arresting when reacting, and the most wounding image in the play is simply the vision of Henry sitting in darkness, a hand on the phone on his lap, aching and defeated by the searing suspicion of Annie�s infidelity. Ehle�s performance as Annie is also intelligent, intensely felt and finely shaded. This character can seem to be on the wrong side of the moral battlefield at times, particularly since Henry alone is possessed of Stoppard�s soaring rhetorical gifts. Ehle, who at times bears an intriguing resemblance to Meryl Streep (and also, less surprisingly, recalls her mother Rosemary Harris), turns her into a woman of real integrity, who strays despite her better instincts and is in some ways far more emotionally sophisticated than her husband. When she says, �If I had an affair, it would be out of need,� it rings entirely and painfully true. The supporting roles are also nicely served by this all-English cast, imported whole from the West End run. Nigel Lindsay is tough and funny as a tougher-than-usual Max, Annie�s abandoned first husband, and Woodward is amusingly peevish in the first act and later touchingly, maternally affectionate as Henry�s abandoned Charlotte. Charlotte Parry is appealingly wry as Henry�s and Charlotte�s daughter, the wise-beyond-her-years Debbie. The second-act scene in which Charlotte and Debbie casually and tenderly dissect the flaws in Henry�s romanticism, while he defends it beautifully � to the death, as it happens � is marvelously played. Dillane signifies it subtly and touchingly as the turning point in Henry�s sentimental re-education. The clever correspondences of the play�s structure � the motifs and arrangements that recur with new and different meanings � are not as strongly etched as they have been before. That�s intentional: Leveaux�s production makes a point of downplaying the play�s cleverness and emphasizing its emotional veracity, and the payoff is rewarding. Stoppard�s intellectual sleight-of-hand in �The Real Thing� is certainly dazzling, but his sensitive evocation of the painful, hazy complexities of love is more lastingly impressive, and it shines powerfully in this production.

From Variety by Charles Isherwood (4/18/00) Absent a new Tom Stoppard play on Broadway � �The Invention of Love,� anyone? � a revival of Stoppard�s 1984 hit �The Real Thing� is certainly welcome. Welcome, too, is the legit advent of Miramax Films, which joins the small cadre of Broadway�s filmland angels with this revival imported from London�s ever-hot Donmar Warehouse. But most welcome of all are Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, two English actors who are making terrific Broadway debuts in David Leveaux�s intentionally muted, intensely thoughtful production of Stoppard�s brilliant dissection of various truths and illusions of love and romance. Audiences who recall the starry, Tony-winning original Broadway production, with Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close, may be surprised � and even taken aback � at the cool, ruminative tone of Leveaux�s production. It�s built like a delicately balanced house of cards around the ineffably charismatic but extraordinarily subtle performance of Dillane as Henry, the playwright (and author of a play called �House of Cards,� of course) who departs one marriage to enter a blissful new one, only to have the romantic ideals that have defined all his emotional commitments called into question when his new marriage threatens to unravel. The chilly-chic sets of Vicki Mortimer recall her fine work on last season�s �Closer,� a play about love and infidelity that makes a savage contemporary companion piece to Stoppard�s. Her designs are dominated by moving panels of smoked glass that may be said to typify the production�s aesthetic. The surface sheen of Stoppard�s scintillating language is treated with casual respect here � it�s not buffed to a high polish and served gleamingly over the footlights, as it is in most productions of the play. Here the emphasis is on the feelings that glow dimly beneath the surface of the words, the darting glances that add a question mark to a witticism, the pauses that speak more eloquently than even the eloquent Stoppard, particularly when they�re being sculpted by an actor equipped with the amazing instincts of Dillane. Set changes are effected onstage with a decided lack of emphasis on speed, allowing the last moments of a scene to linger briefly in the audience�s mind. Leveaux�s deliberate pacing takes a while to get used to, and indeed the pulse of the first act is dangerously low, but when the rewards of this slow-fuse staging arrive in the second act, they are ample. Stoppard�s Henry is a serial romantic, the kind of highbrow guy who thinks pop songs can capture the essence of love in a way his own writing can�t, the �happiness expressed in banality and lust.� He leaves his first wife Charlotte (Sarah Woodward) with nary a regret when he falls in love with Annie (Ehle), also an actress. At the end of the first act, when Annie not-so-playfully teases him about his lack of jealousy, Henry responds by admitting it�s because he feels �superior� in his knowledge of loving and being loved. He relishes �the insularity of passion ... the way it blurs the distinction between everyone who isn�t one�s lover ... There�s you and there�s them.� Henry takes love, and its insularity, for granted � a telling detail of Mortimer�s subtle costume designs is Henry�s inveterately casual dress; he�s always in his socks, even when others aren�t. It�s a symbol of his cozy sureness of himself and of his love, the kind of presumption that can be mistaken � and is � for indifference and, yes, superiority. Henry lives in a world where words and emotions have cut-and-dried meanings � the play�s great cricket-bat speech is a beautiful, funny paean to the power of linguistic precision � but he fails to see that he�s alone there. Everyone else inhabits a less rarefied, more dimly lit place, the real world, where things cannot be defined quite as neatly as Henry might like, where love and commitment are loose and mutable things. Henry�s gradual descent into this sadder sphere is the core of the play, and it�s a moving progress to observe, thanks to Dillane�s deeply humane performance. He duly conveys all the linguistic delights of Stoppard�s writing, the moving ruminations on the pains and pleasures of love and of writing, but his performance has a strong, simple core of emotional truth, a softly shining tenderness, that makes his disillusioning a really heart-wrenching thing to watch. Dillane is wonderful with words, but just as wonderful without them: He is often most arresting when reacting, and the most wounding image in the play is simply the vision of Henry sitting in darkness, a hand on the phone on his lap, aching and defeated by the searing suspicion of Annie�s infidelity. Ehle�s performance as Annie is also intelligent, intensely felt and finely shaded. This character can seem to be on the wrong side of the moral battlefield at times, particularly since Henry alone is possessed of Stoppard�s soaring rhetorical gifts. Ehle, who at times bears an intriguing resemblance to Meryl Streep (and also, less surprisingly, recalls her mother Rosemary Harris), turns her into a woman of real integrity, who strays despite her better instincts and is in some ways far more emotionally sophisticated than her husband. When she says, �If I had an affair, it would be out of need,� it rings entirely and painfully true. The supporting roles are also nicely served by this all-English cast, imported whole from the West End run. Nigel Lindsay is tough and funny as a tougher-than-usual Max, Annie�s abandoned first husband, and Woodward is touchingly, maternally affectionate as Henry�s abandoned Charlotte. Charlotte Parry is appealingly wry as Henry�s and Charlotte�s daughter, the wise-beyond-her-years Debbie. The second-act scene in which Charlotte and Debbie casually and tenderly dissect the flaws in Henry�s romanticism, while he defends it beautifully � to the death, as it happens � is marvelously played. Dillane signifies it subtly and touchingly as the turning point in Henry�s sentimental re-education. The clever correspondences of the play�s structure � the motifs and arrangements that recur with new and different meanings � are not as strongly etched as they have been before. That�s intentional: Leveaux�s production makes a point of downplaying the play�s cleverness and emphasizing its emotional veracity, and the payoff is rewarding. Stoppard�s intellectual sleight-of-hand in �The Real Thing� is certainly dazzling, but his sensitive evocation of the painful, hazy complexities of love is more lastingly impressive, and it shines powerfully in this production. ~~~~~~~~Have we got them all? ;-)

BRING ON THE BUBBLY!!! Mimosas , anyone?? Our guys are taking NY by storm..... Thanks K, M, D. and Ann for all the reviews.... And did you notice, when they mention JE's outstanding performances, they bring up P&P. Hoorah!! evelyn(hic)

Evelyn, I like the Meryl Streep mention. "That" is going to get her noticed. From the Press Association: BROADWAY HAILS TWO MORE BRITISH STARS Another British import is the toast of Broadway with US critics hailing actors Jennifer Ehle and Stephen Dillane as new stars. The revival of Sir Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing has been taken to New York by the Donmar Warehouse, the London company that produced Nicole Kidman in The Blue Room. Stoppard's comedy with dramatic overtones first ran on Broadway 16 years ago with Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close in the leading roles.

Regis Philbin was just raving about TRT on Regis & Kathie Lee, holding up the program, praising SD and JE (ok, he forgot her name, but looked it up in the program, then sort of mispronounced it, but hey, it's the thought that counts;-) Good ole Reege. The Wall Street Journal should have a review, but you have to pay for it online (how typical of the WSJ is *that*?) If no one gets it, I'll pick it up at work tomorrow. Evelyn, I'll take a mimosa, please, but hold the orange juice!;-)

Re: WSJ (I'll go see if it's still on my neighbor's doorstep.) ;-p

and to think I had any doubts Evelyn,I am ashamed but very pleased, it couldn't happen to a nicer couple.Can't wait to see it in July. I'll take a mimosa as well, Evelyn, Cheers. I particularly like the bit from the PA, thanks Karen.

Thanks Mari, Karen and Donna for posting the reviews so quickly. Wow! The cast must be flying. Can an appearance on "Rosie" be far behind? ;-) The production is the first Broadway venture of Miramax, producers of Stoppard's "Shakespeare in Love," and there are rumors of Gwyneth Paltrow or Julianne Moore taking over when the London cast ends its 20-week run. ...and, no doubt, starring in the movie version as well. Gaahh:-(

From FOX-TV News: Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing By Roger Fiedman I've been to a lot of Broadway openings, but last night's premiere of The Real Thing was most memorable. Tom Stoppard's brilliant play, which first ran on Broadway in 1982 with Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close and Christine Baranski, is now the most impressive hit of the 1999-2000 season. This is a British production, presented on Broadway by Anita Waxman and Miramax Films. Miramax got involved because of Stoppard, who wrote Shakespeare in Love for them. As you know, everyone got Oscars on that deal. Come June 4, all involved will be receiving Tony Awards. The Real Thing is a comedy with dramatic overtones, set in London approximately 20 years ago. But even sticking with the original script, director David Laveaux has managed to make the story as contemporary and moving as ever. The real heroes though are the cast � all brought from London's Donmar Warehouse Theatre, the same company that gave us Nicole Kidman in The Blue Room last year. Without question the real star of The Real Thing is Stephen Dillane. Mostly unknown to American audiences, Dillane starred a couple of years ago in the little seen film Welcome to Sarajevo. As the conflicted, articulate, sardonic playwright Henry, Dillane turns in a starmaking performance that just crackles right through the house. Where Irons, who originated the role of Henry, was aloof and elegant, Dillane is so actively engaged in the material that the other actors seem pulled to him as if he were a magnet and they were metal. The other principals in the cast, Jennifer Ehle, Sarah Woodward and Nigel Lindsay are all impeccable. Ehle has the hard task of holding her own in scene after scene with Dillane, especially in lengthy, funny speeches. I think further viewings of this production will reveal that she is every bit as good as Dillane, but for right now, Broadway has a new star. The big question will be how to replace these British actors in August. That's when by contract American actors must take their roles. Producer Waxman told me she's already starting to consider some names. Expect the cr�me de la cr�me to be fighting for these parts � every major actor in the 35-to-45 range will want a chance at being part of The Real Thing. And here's a little trivia: Waxman, who's a dish with five adult children, bankrolled her first business with money she won on Hollywood Squares 27 years ago! She took home around $1500 � "and no refrigerators or appliances." The rest is history. This season she has four plays running on the Great White Way.

More from Fox News and Roger Friedman (with an "r") Sorry.;-) A New York Night of Stars The stars turned out Monday night, even though there was a steady rain falling and a real shortage of taxi cabs. At The Real Thing: actors Paul Rudd, Kyle Maclachlan, Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly from the play True West; Frasier and Cheers star Bebe Neuwirth with her beau, former Clinton adviser George Stephanopolous; talk show host Charlie Rose, as well as Talk magazine editor Tina Brown and husband Harold Evans, who just won the first ever lifetime achievement award for British journalists in London. (Harry was the editor of the Sunday Times before he came to the U.S. in 1982 to start Conde Nast Traveler and be the editor-in-chief of Random House.) Also spotted at The Real Thing: Jerry Seinfeld and pregnant wife Jessica Sklar, who sat with Regis and Joy Philbin, Donald Trump and model Melania Knauss, serious Broadway actress Lynn Thigpen, Linda Fiorentino from Where the Money Is and Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei. It was pointed out to me that the Seinfelds looked incredibly unhappy all evening � I'm sure it was a combination of morning sickness and the foul weather.

Thanx Mari, not wanting to tempt providence but I would say SD is a dead cert for Best Actor come June 4th, and fingers crossed for JE, DL & TRT. I can't imagaine any other actors in these parts, they have all made them their own.

Ann, you forget the anti-British bias that occurs with the Tonys. It's going to take all of Harvey's legendary wing-twisting and hyping to overcome.

Oh! Come on Harvey, get into shape! but then Jeremy Irons won the Tony in 1984.

A long time ago, and Jeremy Irons was was the only English actor in the cast. The rivalry and tit-for-tatediness (new word coined) has grown tremendously over the past few years. It may be way too much to hope for. British imports get ignored by the Tonys, and American imports get ignored by all the London awards organizations. There's somewhat of a balance.

Thanks Mari for all the Fox news....Hey, I'm flying too. The big question will be how to replace these British actors in August. That's when by contract American actors must take their roles. Shucks, now everyone will understand Brodie ;-) I do not think JE qualifies as an American actress despite dual citizenship. Nor would she do it IMO with another cast. ... you forget the anti-British bias that occurs with the Tonys On the other hand SD has a good chance esp. since he was skipped over for a BAFTA! That might work in his favor;-) I still have no illusions for Jennifer...the reviews are enough. How proud Mum must be....she said in a recent interview that she glows when someone says:"Oh, you're Jeniifer Ehle's mother"....maternal pride. ~~~~~ (Ann)..and to think I had any doubts Evelyn,I am ashamed but very pleased I'll admit, I wuz scared too...called K. last night in a "fit of nerves"...

I wasn't going to tell them. ;-)

Evelyn, although I tend to agree with Karen and you about S & JE actually winning a Tony, I really think after these wonderful reviews that they will be nominated, hope someone goes to the Tony Awards, they are open to the public.

Well, it's been an exciting day on 132! The cast must be over the moon about these reviews--very, very well-deserved. Pressure is off now; they can relax a bit and just enjoy the run. (Best of all, Ann, Evelyn, and Donna get to relax now, too.;-) I'm going to be optimistic and say that the play, SD, and JE will not only be nommed for Tonys--but will have a real shot at winning. I think the pissing contest (or as Karen euphemistically put it, tit-for-tatediness;-) between the British and American unions has eased somewhat and there seems to be a nice exchange of work going both ways across the pond. Secondly, Harvey will sell the hell out of this one, and you know how successful he is at awards time. He's got to be seething that his archrival, Spielberg/Dreamworks, got ahead of him in establishing a relationship with Sam Mendes and the Donmar, plus they won the Oscar to boot. He will come out swinging and, as far as JE is concerned, he won't hesitate to play the North Carolina card.;-) As far as who takes over after the 20-week run is up--it doesn't matter. The people who originated the roles will rightfully get the accolades and glory; extension of the run with another cast is just about money-making. Besides, Jennifer will be ready to move on--she will get tons of offers. Her parents must be so thrilled. Love that quote from RH, Evelyn; nice that they are together in one spot to enjoy this. Should be some more reviews in the days ahead. Typically, nearby cities also review major NY works, plus Time and EW will likely have something. Does anyone have the URL for the Outer Critics nominations? I want to look at the competition.;-) Thanks.

The URL for the Outer Critics nominations are on the theatre.com website ; http://www.theatre.com/news/public/newsbrief.asp?newsid=7026 Am exhausted...I've had too much excitement for one day!

I never said SD or JE wouldn't get a nomination. Can't imagine that SD wouldn't. These work exchanges (actor for actor) gives you some idea that this is still a major issue. Hmmm, but that Lion King snub...

(Karen) A long time ago, and Jeremy Irons was was the only English actor in the cast. And he apparently approached the role very differently than SD, according to some of the reviews. How refreshing that SD was able to imprint Henry with his own stamp. It will be hard for the next actor to make Henry fresh (imprinting his own stamp), and it will be fun to speculate on who might be good for the role. But I can't even think about that now. :-) (Gwinnie is too young IMO for Annie.) SD is so darn likeable as Henry that maybe the Tony voters will warm up to him, more so than if he assumed the more urbane, less frumpled posture that Jeremy seemed to have adopted. (Forgive if I've read between the lines incorrectly.) (Ann) hope someone goes to the Tony Awards, they are open to the public Don't I get a rest? :-) I noticed that the Drama Desk Awards are announced on April 25th. Does anyone know about these? Is TRT eligible? Thanks everyone for the eagle eyes in spotting the news. It's nice to know we backed a winner, hee hee.

Henry (Stephen Dillane in a miraculous, masterful performance.) These are all reviews to die for! Thank you all for posting! Those two better be cast in the film version or else! I am v. happy to have seen it. They do deserve all the praise. I will be in London in July, any suggestions as to what plays to see?

(Moon) I will be in London in July, any suggestions as to what plays to see? As a matter of fact, yes. Our Steppenwolf Theater company is taking One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (which just opened here on Sunday) with Gary Sinise to London in July for a short run at the Barbican Center. Amy Morton (who played Nan/Lina in 3DOR here) is the nurse. I'm going to go see it in a couple of weeks.

and Moon, I am going to see "A Lady in a Van" with Maggie Smith and written by Alan Bennet, next week, will let you know what I think of it and whether to recommend it to you.

Donna. Don't I get a rest? ,Nope, hee hee

Thanks for the suggestions. More please!

We saw Lady in the Van in January. Very funny, but YDH might take a hike. ;-)

We saw Lady in the Van in January. Very funny, but YDH might take a hike. ;-) Really, why? ;-) I would do the matinee. Evenings are booked up.

From the NY Daily News' gossip column: Putting a Stoppard to Rumor Don't worry about any ugly scenes between literary titans Tom Stoppard and Salman Rushdie. Contrary to London reports, Stoppard tells us he has never dated his friend Rushdie's current flame, model Padma Lakshmi. "I don't even know her," Stoppard said at Monday's opening for the Broadway revival of his critically hailed play, "The Real Thing." Stoppard is used to people poking around in his private life. "The Real Thing" deals with the tortured romance of a divorced playwright, Henry, and his actress lover, Annie. And it's hard not to look for parallels between Henry and his twice-divorced creator. Having romanced actress Felicity Kendal (who starred in the original West End production of the play) before she returned to her former husband, Stoppard has lately been linked with model Marie Helvin. Also at the opening were Jerry Seinfeld and Jessica Sklar (sitting next to Regis Philbin and wife Joy), Marisa Tomei, Paul Rudd, Liev Schreiber, Linda Fiorentino, Tina Brown and Harold Evans, Frederique van der Wal, Heidi Klum, Kyle MacLachlan and Desiree Gruber, John C. Riley, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ron Eldard and Julianna Margulies, Moby, Toni Collette, Geoffrey Rush, Bebe Neuwirth and George Stephanopoulos, and Patrick Stewart.

The JE Page has yesterday's TRT reviews posted. http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Alley/4820/real_art.html Are you posting them too, Donna? Get over and make TRT Official Page webmaster link the SD page. ~~~~~~~~~~ "Lady in the Van" is a #10. We saw it in January (with Prince Charles and Camilla!). I hear it might transfer to B'way next season. ~~~~~~ Julianna Margulies is a v. good friend of Jennifer's from Paradise Road days. Once on GMA JM mentioned JE was staying at her NY flat.JM will star in a Lincoln Center play next season after she leaves ER.

Review for TRT from Village Voice, the reviewer seems to be a bit of a misery, but he liked JE & SD so he can't be all bad, he didn't like the 1984 production of TRT. http://villagevoice.com/issues/0016/feingold.shtml

forgot to say the review is at the bottom of the page, but his comments at the beginning are worth reading, he sounds very cynical though.

There are some snippets of reviews we haven't seen at the Real Thing on Broadway website, put all together they sound absolutely wonderful, every bit as good as the reviews last summer.

TRT on B'way Official Website: http://www.therealthingbroadway.com/index.htm (They wasted no time getting the reviews up!) Is The Bergen Record yours, Eileen?

(Ann) Review for TRT from Village Voice, the reviewer seems to be a bit of a misery, but he liked JE & SD so he can't be all bad The reviewer sounds like a miserable sod. Poor baby, he was forced to see a lot of plays this week.

Donna, there is a wonderful discussion about TRT going on at Virtual Views, I think you would enjoy it, Evelyn and I have already contributed.

Where is Virtual Views?

Where is Virtual Views? Ignore, found it! Thanks.

Where is Virtual Views? Ignore, found it! Thanks. Really ignore it...I opened up a Pandora's Box....! Didn't mean to;-)

LOL - too late! A and D to the rescue :-)

Another good review: The Wall Street Journal Wednesday April 19, 2000 Passion and Deceit Are Brilliantly Probed in 'The Real Thing' By Amy Gamerman In Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing," newly revived at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Henry, a playwright, pulls out an old cricket bat to describe what he does for a living. The bat just looks like a wood club, but as Henry explains, it's actually several particularly chosen pieces of wood, "cunningly put together" to create a launchpad. If the bat is well made, it will smack balls into the air with speed and grace. "What we're trying to do," says Henry (Stephen Dillane), "is to write cricket bats, so that when we throw up an idea and give it a little knock, it might ... travel." Mr. Stoppard writes some of the best cricket bats in the business. Ideas travel first class in "The Real Thing," floating on a play of words so sparkling and so effortless, you don't even see the bat - just the ball. (This is in contrast to Michael Frayn's "Copenhagen," a play that concentrates your eye on the painstaking workmanship of the wooden club.) The ideas that Mr. Stoppard bats around in this 1982 play, staged by David Leveaux in a glossy import from London's Donmar Warehouse, concern true love - the real thing - and the ways people step all over each other to get it. It's also about writing plays, which for Mr. Stoppard is another form of love, and a very real one. Of course, realness is a highly loaded concept in Stoppard territory. He plays brilliantly with our sense of what's true and what's make-believe in the opening scene of "The Real Thing," in which Max (Nigel Lindsay) confronts his wife, Charlotte (wryly played by Sarah Woodward), with the apparent proof of her infidelity. In the next scene, Charlotte staggers out of bed in a man's bathrobe to join Henry in the living room. We assume he's her lover. But it's really they who are married: Charlotte is an actress, and the domestic confrontation we've just witnessed is a scene from a play written by Henry (funny how that bathrobe morphs from sexy to frumpy the instant we realize that Charlotte is a respectable wife and mother). In fact, Henry is the one who's having an affair - with Annie (a radiant Jennifer Ehle), who happens to be the wife of his leading man, Max. They show up for brunch, Annie, who is also an actress, is so giddy with love and the secrecy of it that she seems high. Urging Henry to make a clean break of it, Ms. Ehle all but giggles as she delivers the line, "It's only a couple of marriages and a child." "The Real Thing" traces intricate patterns of passion and deceit as Annie and Henry leave their spouses (and a teenage daughter in his case) to marry, only to find themselves wondering if their love is the real thing after all. The "real" scenes these people act out blur with the scenes that they act in: Mr. Stoppard throws snippets of Strindberg's "Miss Julie" and Ford's "'Tis Pity She's a Whore" into the mix, not to mention a clunky scene by a talentless jailhouse playwright who's a minor character in the play. The British cast negotiates this hall of mirrors with great agility, led by the edgy Mr. Dillane. His Henry is the smartest guy in the room, the one who's always quick with a comeback (both wives come to hate him for it). But this doesn't make him look better than everyone else - quite the opposite. Padding around the stage in his socks, Henry seems permanently scuffed around the edges. Words are his refuge. But with Mr. Stoppard at the typewriter, what a glorious refuge they make. And wouldn't you know it? He's given his playwright all the best lines.

(Ann) Evelyn and I have already contributed. So did I, several times actually. Took great restraint not to write, "just how old are you and is your favorite TV show Touched by An Angel?" Just call me Curiosity...or Ms. Stone ;-)

Review in today's Philadelphia Inquirer: A writer's conception of love collides with 'The Real Thing' By Clifford A. Ridley INQUIRER THEATER CRITIC NEW YORK - What a cracklingly good play is The Real Thing, and what a cracklingly good production David Leveaux has made of it! Tom Stoppard's 1982 exploration of love, of what happens when the abstraction meets the mixed-up genuine article, is dazzlingly witty, quietly moving and penetratingly sage. And Leveaux's staging at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, imported from London with its cast intact, perfectly captures both the play's brittle humor and its profoundly human ardor and attendant confusion. Stephen Dillane is Henry, the facile playwright who leaves his wife for Annie, an actress whose eventual fling with a young costar, Billy, precipitates the play's central argument. Annie (Jennifer Ehle) loves Henry, but his insistence that love be as neat as his plays ("happiness is equilibrium") drives her mad. Henry is in love with love, with the all-consuming nature of it, "the insularity of passion." But to Annie, that's too simple, too suffocating. "You have to find a part of yourself where I'm not important," she says, yet Henry can't do it. And so the lines are drawn, and though the conclusion may be deliberately ambiguous, getting there is an invigorating journey, including an eloquent defense of writerly precision and a meltingly tender scene between Henry and his teenage daughter. Dillane and Ehle are at once vibrantly alive and achingly vulnerable; and there are masterly supporting performances by Sarah Woodward, Nigel Lindsay, Charlotte Parry and Oscar Pearce. Leveaux's direction deftly balances the play's dual appeals to the heart and the mind; and Vicki Mortimer's set design, involving a series of gray, industrial-looking panels that rearrange themselves from scene to scene, creates a clean, efficient environment that contains the play without visual comment. A few scene changes seemed awkward at the preview I saw, a minor blemish on an otherwise flawless evening.

I'm surprised more reviewers haven't commented on that scenery which I liked at the Donmar but hated at the Albery. They even brought over the Donmar staircase. Of course it's critical when at the end Annie ascends to the tune of "I'm a Believer"....but one reviewer remarked [LOL] that it reminded him of Pilgrims Progress..!

Let's be on the lookout for the NY Drama Desk Award Nominations to be announced on Tuesday April 25th and presented on May 14th.

Let's hope I can actually post this. I've been unable to post anything for the past week. (Karen)So did I, several times actually Ah, now I get it...Rosetta! Duh! *slaps head* It is a very interesting discussion. If I hadn't been studying for my exams, I would have contributed as well. Now it seems they want to stop the discussion...oh well.

No, just that one person, who persists in viewing the play as being about something that it is not, has given up. She thinks the play is about infidelity, which depresses her. Can you imagine what she would think about Wit, which is about cancer?

Oh so your "R", slap head twice, how did you know Tineke? Please add to the discussion Tineke, it is far from over. One person does not make a discussion.

Somebody had to steer the lynch mob away from Evelyn. ;-)

Good for you, R, that's what friends are for.

Thank you all...actually I can usually fend for myself...but this was a crowd. Fun though...I like spirited discussions. Am like Bill...accusations and vituperative remarks roll off me.... ~~~~~~~ Tony website which becomes active on May 3rd. http://www.tonys.org/ IMO TRT has a good chance of Best Revival Play.... Best Actor and Actress...I dunno....nationalism sometimes kicks in on these awards... Remember Lion King at BAFTA time;-) Still....reviews have been superb...can't complain.

(Kaen) Just call me Curiosity...or Ms. Stone ;-) Karen this reminds me of the old Cheech & Chong routine, featuring the deceptively demure nun, Sister Rosetta Stone, attempting to call her class to order.;-) BTW, Jerseygirl has weighed in . . .;-) Moon, "Wit", which Karen mentioned, would be a great one to see, if it's still there in July. Last chance to catch Kathleen Chalfant, who originated the role Off-Broadway. She is magnificent. Read that Emma Thompson will be doing the role in an HBO production; nothing against ET, but I guess Kathleen is not a famous enough cancer victim.:-( Also highly recommend Lady In The Van, as others have. Maggie Smith is a delight. The Prince seemed to be enjoying it too before someone nearly mowed him down.;-)

I had a feeling you were Jersygirl, although they don't like aliases at RoP. I'm still slapping that little Holier-than-Thou poster around.

I see they picked up their ball and left the playground. LOL Gee, I thought we were trying to discuss the play, the beauty of the words and performances. Who was it that kept turning it into a morality play? (And slap my head too, RS and JG, hee hee.)

My DH was once banished from VV. His first time out! (heehee)

(Donna) Who was it that kept turning it into a morality play? Exactly my thoughts! ;-D Sometimes I just get so sick and tired of that stuff. Had a bunch of comments in that vein with High Fidelity too. People just didn't get it. Oh well, had it gone on any further, we might have heard from Auntie Pasta. :-) My DH was once banished from VV. His first time out! (heehee) As well he should.

THE EXPRESS: TOLSTOY'S BATHTUB CLASSIC 20-Apr-2000 TELEVISION'S latest costume drama has yet another surprise for generations of schoolboys who once thumbed the classics in the desperate hope of finding a ripped bodice. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, adapted for Channel 4, is to feature scenes which are bound to shock viewers. The four-part version of Tolstoy's story of adultery and heartache among the Russian aristocracy has been spiced up with full-frontal sex scenes which are only suggested in the 1875 novel. In one particularly raunchy episode viewers will see 30-year-old Helen McCrory, who plays Anna, and Kevin McKidd as the dashing Count Vronsky, frolic naked in a bath-tub. The scene leads to a sexual encounter with almost nothing left to the imagination. But the film makers claim that the scenes are necessary because they want the drama to have a "contemporary" feel. The adaptation comes just a fortnight after the BBC broadcast a new version of Flaubert's Madame Bovary, full of no-holds barred sex scenes. Last night McKidd - star of Trainspotting and Topsy-Turvy - defended the latest drama production. "People watching have to believe that these two people are absolutely passionate about one another," he insisted. "That's what we tried to achieve. There is extremity in all the emotions." Anna Karenina, which will be broadcast next month, now joins a catalogue of classics spiced up for TV and cinema to attract bigger audiences. A new film adaptation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, soon to be released in Britain, introduces a lesbian storyline certainly not evident in the original. Moll Flanders, which won large TV audiences, showed actress Alex Kingston having relations with more than a dozen men. She appeared to have her clothes off more often than on, while actor Colin Firth became a pin-up for a generation of women when he appeared in Austen's Pride and Prejudice dressed in wet breeches. But evidence emerged yesterday that the trend towards sex in period drama does not always sell TV classics. Although BBC2's controversial Madame Bovary attracted a respectable 3.5 million viewers for its first episode last week, the audience fell by almost a third once they had actually seen stars Greg Wise and Frances O'Connor without their clothes on. A BBC spokesman said the explicit nature of the Madame Bovary series was acceptable. "The book was written 150 years ago. We are now broadcasting for a mature audience in the year 2000," he said. ~~~~~~~ In you're wondering why this is here, SD is playing Karenin.

Another article about Anna Karenina in The Sunday Times (under Culture, Television, "From Russia with Lovemaking") "The sex scenes will grab the headlines, but Channel 4's Anna Karenina is not just a bodice-ripping bonanza, says Steve Grant" No mention of SD, although a reference to JE and CF (our benchmarks for all costume pieces) ;-)

From today's New York Post--Neil Travis: Two-party system IT'S getting harder to find the real thing when you're invited to the after-party for movie and Broadway premieres. Take the big bash Miramax hosted at Tavern on the Green the other night for its new theatrical smash, "The Real Thing." While the hoi polloi milled about at Warner LeRoy's restaurant, producer Anita Waxman called Elaine Kaufman and asked if she could fit in a few friends. Around 11 p.m. Anita, playwright Tom Stoppard, Rosemary Harris and a group of 50-odd pals arrived at the uptown saloon for their own celebration.

Also from today's NY Post:- Stoppard Drama All Too "Real" by Clive Barnes "As Broadway gears up for its customary who-wants-to-be-a- Milionaire fiesta known as the Tony Awards, the big question is whether a show is better the second time around. There are currently three second-timers on New York stages. Two are from Britain Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and T.R & AL-W "Jesus Christ Superstar. The Yankee entrant is Arthur Miller's "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan"...." 5th paragraph down "Wry and painfully charming, Dillane (give that man his Tony right now) embues the beleagured dramatist Henry with seemingly everything we've read about Stoppard himself"... Clive Barnes certainly seems to like TRT, remember it was him who gave the play 4 out of 4. www.nypostonline.com/entertainment/28790.htm

http://www.nypostonline.com/entertainment/28790.htm

Clive Barnes is an old NY Times reviewer...Thanks Ann. Like that comment about SD "Give that man the Tony right now". And "succulently sensual Ehle"...how can that woman remain so down to earth with comments like that! ~~~ Thanks Mari...Harvey can sure throw a party.I bet it was in the Crystal Room of Tavern on the Green.

An interesting change in the curtain call. All previous performances had the cast doing an ensemble curtain call. Sunday's performance went like this: 1. ensemble 2. 3 supporting actors first, then Nigel and Sarah, then JE, then SD 3. ensemble

I believe Saturday's curtain call went that way, as well.

Meredith, are you going to let us know what you thought of TRT, audience reaction, how full was the theatre. We are pleased to hear all opinions.

Well, we both loved it! Loved the staging and music. I'm not very articulate, though. We could definitely see it again, but alas, not much chance of that. I was surprised by how funny it was. Now I understand what all the fuss about SD is about! He was amazing. He did land on the floor in the "cricket bat" scene. JE was luminous as always and v. sexy. Not Lizzy at all :-) I think it was very well received by the audience. LOTS of buzz at intermission. Theatre was full, or very close. Perhaps a few absentees here and there. Very warm response, but not a SO at end (*we* were standing of course). On a personal note, we got to see JE up close and personal (twice-on her way in and out), but did not have intestinal fortitude to ask for autograph (in manner of stalkers). There was quite a little line of people waiting for her though. Including some "grown ups" who were P&P2 fans, who DID have the guts to ask for her autograph. She was facing away, so we couldn't hear what she said. She was off with her chums on the town. I was struck by how anonymous stage actors can be.

It sounds like Jennifer is making the best of NYC after-hours. SD just keeps impressing.

Thanks Donna and Meredith . Meredith I don't always get autographs either...When I met Jennifer in Oct. 97 I didn't ask for an autograph...didn't seem appropriate.When I've been at the Donmar on my own, I like to just stand back and "drink" him in.It's just being up close and personal that counts.Glad you enjoyed the weekend.

Thankyou Meredith for your report, I am so glad you liked the play and the performances. Hope you don't mind but I have one other question (or two), if I remember you were to see WITW on the Friday, did you enjoy that play and also did you see any similarity between RH & JE in their acting technique.

More nightlife for Jennifer and Stephen according to Mitchell Fink at the Daily News. Harvey Holding Brit Bash Don't be surprised if Harvey Weinstein starts affecting a British accent. The Miramax honcho is hosting a "British Invasion" party tomorrow at Serena for the British stars who appear his company's new and upcoming films. Jimi Mistry will be there from "East Is East," along with Justin Kerrigan from "Human Traffic," Emily Mortimer from "Love's Labour's Lost" and Claire Forlani from "Boys and Girls." Expected also are the British cast members from the Tom Stoppard play, "The Real Thing," which Miramax co-produced.

(Moon)It sounds like Jennifer is making the best of NYC after-hours. "Salsa-ing" her way through NY hotspots!

Another Award Nomination for TRT from The Drama League for Most Distinguished Revival of a play, winners announced on the 5th May.

There are some nice candid photos of the TRT cast at the opening night party at the Playbill site. Nice one of Jen and mum. Donna, where *does* SD find that shade of green?;-) Go to: http://www.playbill.com/cgi-bin/plb/news?cmd=list&selector=U.S.

Hmmm, not sure why that doesn't work. Try: http://www.playbill.com Then click on NEWS, then click on U.S. Theatre News. That should do it.

(Mari) where *does* SD find that shade of green?;-) Too bad he didn't wear the yummy aqua one! :-)

Drama Desk Awards nominations: TRT garnered 2: Stephen for best actor, and the play for best revival

Review from The Hollywood Reporter today: 'The Real Thing' (4/25/00) It isn't always true that a writer's most accessible work is also his best, but it is certainly the case with this 1982 play by Tom Stoppard, being given a sterling Broadway revival at the Ethel Barrymore by London's red-hot Donmar Warehouse, also responsible for such recent Broadway hits as "Cabaret" and "The Blue Room." Staged impeccably and acted beautifully by the original British cast (given permission to perform here for a mere 20 weeks), this production is indeed "The Real Thing." Stoppard's play, best remembered here for Mike Nichols' sterling 1984 production starring Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close, manages to pack in myriad themes and ideas with maximum efficiency and impact. It is a love story; an exploration of the artistic process, particularly writing; a playful exercise in the differences between reality and illusion; a celebration of the ineffable joys of pop culture; an examination of the endless struggle between intellect and emotion; and much, much more. Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, making their Broadway debuts, star in the central roles of Henry, an urbane, witty playwright, and Annie, a beautiful actress starring in his latest play. Henry and Annie, both married, are having an affair, a situation mirrored in a scene presented from Henry's latest work, aptly titled "House of Cards." Soon, they discard their spouses and get together, only to have the past repeat itself a couple of years later when Annie has an affair with a younger co-star. Henry, who has always prided himself on his ability to manipulate life with a well-chosen phrase, suddenly discovers that emotions are not so easily controlled. This work by Stoppard, a playwright often prone to excessive manipulation himself, bears his usual trademarks, including droll, witty dialogue and theatrical tricks played on the audience to make them question their assumptions. But it is also grounded in an emotional reality that makes it very moving. This production, directed by David Leveaux, is far more low-key than Nichols' supremely polished version, but its understated quality makes it that much more affecting. There are moments that don't quite work -- Henry's howl of anguish at the revelation of Annie's infidelity is unconvincing -- but, by and large, the production mines the text's essential qualities. Dillane gives a charmingly rumpled performance, making Henry likable despite his affectations, and Ehle is thoroughly winning as the high-spirited Annie; both will no doubt be major candidates during the upcoming awards season. Nigel Lindsay and Sarah Woodward are excellent as the displaced spouses, and Charlotte Parry, Oscar Pearce and Joshua Henderson make the most of their relatively brief roles. It runs indefinitely. � Frank Scheck in New York

2000 Drama Desk Nominees - TRT's competition and the major nominees OUTSTANDING NEW PLAY: Contact with the Enemy, by Frank Gilroy Copenhagen, by Michael Frayn Dinner with Friends, by Donald Margulies Dirty Blonde, by Claudia Shear Jitney, by August Wilson The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, by Charles Busch OUTSTANDING NEW MUSICAL: Contact James Joyce's The Dead Saturday Night Swing! The Wild Party (Manhattan Theatre Club) OUTSTANDING REVIVAL (PLAY): A Moon for the Misbegotten, by Eugene O'Neill The Price, by Arthur Miller The Real Thing, by Tom Stoppard True West, by Sam Shephard Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov Waste by Harley Granville Barker OUTSTANDING REVIVAL (MUSICAL): Kiss Me, Kate The Music Man OUTSTANDING ACTOR (PLAY): Gabriel Byrne (A Moon for the Misbegotten) Kevin Chamberlin (Dirty Blonde) Stephen Dillane (The Real Thing) Derek Jacobi (Uncle Vanya) Philip Seymour Hoffman (True West) Paul Sparks (Coyote on a Fence) OUTSTANDING ACTRESS (PLAY): Sinead Cusack (Our Lady of Sligo) Eileen Heckart (The Waverly Gallery) Linda Lavin (The Tale of the Allergist's Wife) Claudia Shear (Dirty Blonde) Lynn Thigpen (Jar the Floor) Charlyne Woodard (In the Blood) OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR (PLAY): Matthew Arkin (Dinner with Friends) Roy Dotrice (A Moon for the Misbegotten) Joel Grey (Give Me Your Answer, Do!) Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Author's Voice) Brian Murray (Uncle Vanya) Harris Yulin (The Price) OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS (PLAY): Jillian Armenante (The Cider House Rules, Part One: Here in St. Cloud) Marylouise Burke (Fuddy Meers) Seana Kofoed (An Experiment with an Air Pump) Chiara Mangiameli (The Time of the Cuckoo) Phyllis Newman (The Moment When) Amy Sedaris (The Country Club) OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR (PLAY): Michael Blakemore (Copenhagen) Thomas Hulce and Jane Jones (The Cider House Rules:Part One, Here in St. Cloud) James Lapine (Dirty Blonde) Marion McClinton (Jitney) Michael Mayer (Uncle Vanya) Daniel Sullivan (Dinner with Friends) OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE: Olympia Dukakis (Rose) Spalding Gray (Morning, Noon and Night) Barry Humphries (Dame Edna: The Royal Tour) Mark Linn-Baker (Chesapeake) Mark Setlock (Fully Committed) Marc Wolf (Another American: Asking and Telling) SPECIAL AWARDS: Producer Alexander Cohen for Lifetime Achievement (posthumously) Barnard Hughes and Helen Stenborg for Shared Lifetime Achievement The ensemble of Jitney

Thanks for the list, Donna. I didn't realize the Drama Desk combined Broadway *and* Off-Broadway plays. That makes it a huge field, lots of competition. Nice news for TRT and SD; disappointed that JE didn't get something, but again it's a big field to draw from. Tonys focus on Broadway only I believe. I didn't think Uncle Vanya opened yet--did it?

Thanks, Mari! From Playbill here is a great picture: They all look so happy!