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Balancing acts : behind the scenes at London's National Theatre / Nicholas Hytner.

by Hytner, Nicholas.

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Alfred A. Knopf, 2017.

Hytner, Nicholas.

National Theatre (Great Britain)

Theatrical producers and directors -- Great Britain -- Biography.

Theater -- England -- London -- History -- 21st century.

9780451493408 (hc.)

9781101972885 (pbk.)

First American edition.

vi, 312 pages ; 25 cm

Includes index.

"This is a Borzoi Book."

Part one: Set-up -- National identity: 2001 -- Imaginary forces: 2002 -- A really good time: 2003 -- Part two: New things -- Ourselves and each other: new plays -- A way of looking at things: Alan Bennett -- Knowing nothing: movies -- Part three: Old things -- A reason to do it: Shakespeare -- The original production: staging the classics -- The age and body of the time: more Shakespeare -- Part four: Show business -- On the bandwagon: musicals -- What they best like: entertainment -- One night only: packing them in -- Prologue.

A fascinating, candid, eloquent memoir about a career directing theater, producing films and opera, and working closely with some of the world's most celebrated actors. As Artistic Director of London's National Theatre from 2003-2015, Nicholas Hytner directed and produced a great number of their most popular and memorable plays and musicals, many of which have come to Broadway: Carousel, Richard Bean's One Man, Two Guvnors, David Hare's Stuff Happens among them. He directed both the London and Broadway productions of Miss Saigon, each of which ran for ten years. He directed Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III on both stage and screen. One of today's most successful and admired theatrical impresarios gives us a detailed behind-the-scenes look at his creative process. From reviving classic musicals and mastering Shakespeare to commissioning new plays, he shows theater making to be a necessarily collaborative exercise, and he writes insightfully about the actors and playwrights he's worked with: Derek Jacobi, Richard Griffiths, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Harold Pinter, and Tom Stoppard among them. With a cultural range that spans from The Mikado to The Lady in the Van, Balancing Acts is not only a memoir but a gathering of illuminating notes on the art of directing and a thoughtful meditation on the purpose of theater.

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