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Acclaim for Ayckbourn trilogy as Norman conquers Broadway
Tom Teodorczuk24.04.09
Sir Alan Ayckbourn's comic trilogy The Norman Conquests has extended London theatre's invasion of Broadway, opening to phenomenal acclaim in New York.
The Matthew Warchus-directed production, a top draw at the Old Vic last autumn, crossed the Atlantic replete with its full British cast and opened at Manhattan's Circle in the Square Theatre last night.
The New York Times declared the trilogy leaves you "crippling you with laughter that shakes the body and, more subversively, fractures the soul".
Variety, the entertainment trade newspaper, raved that the trilogy "delivers more laughs than ought to be legal".
The British cast, Stephen Mangan, Jessica Hynes, Amelia Bullmore, Ben Miles, Paul Ritter and Amanda Root, are all making their Broadway debuts.
The Associated Press said: "These six actors give meaning to the term 'ensemble', a half-dozen seamless performances that perfectly match each other and the flawless production."
The 1973 works chronicle the exploits of a shameless lothario, the eponymous Norman, over a single weekend.
As at the Old Vic, the plays - Table Manners, Living Together and Round and Round the Garden - are being performed in the round.
Ayckbourn has written 72 plays and is perhaps Britain's most prolific playwright but he has never managed to replicate his British success on Broadway - until now.
Ayckbourn, 70, who suffered a stroke in 2006, did not come to New York for his opening night.
He was represented by his wife Heather and Old Vic artistic director Kevin Spacey. Spacey told The Standard: "I fell in love with the three plays when I saw them as a 13-year-old in Los Angeles and they went on my list when I first started at the Vic.
"It took many years to get Alan Ayckbourn to give up the rights.
"Tonight critics have said we are re-assessing Alan Ayckbourn. We are bringing him into that fold of great playwrights like Chekhov, Mamet, Pinter and others. That for me is the greatest news ever.
"This is a man who I feel has never gotten the due and never been put in that category the way he should have because he's a popular comedy writer."
The success of The Norman Conquests is the latest in a string of West End imports that have taken New York theatre by storm in the past six months.
Billy Elliot, Mary Stuart and God of Carnage, also directed by Warchus, are all generating a buzz on Broadway.
