London Spotlight: February 2007

February proves to be a month of oldies but goodies, mixed in with a smattering of the new. Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe makes his West End debut in Equus (February 16-June 9). He plays Alan Strang, a disturbed 17-year-old who comes under the care of psychiatrist Martin Dysart, played by Tony winner Richard Griffiths (who also portrays Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter flicks).

Also noteworthy is Oscar winner Jessica Lange, who gives it another go as Amanda Wingfield, the faded beauty who once entertained 17 swains in an afternoon, in Tennessee Williams’ classic drama The Glass Menagerie at the Apollo (through May 19).

Meanwhile, Matthew Warchus directs a revival of the 1960s hit Boeing-Boeing at the Comedy (February 2-April 28), a play as airborne as its title suggests. What makes it additionally appealing is the cast, headed by Roger Allam, Frances de la Tour, and Mark Rylance, who’s returning to the West End for the first time since he left his artistic directorship at the Globe.

There’s an astonishing musical event at the Palladium on February 4, a concert version of the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical Follies, featuring Maria Friedman, Kim Criswell, Philip Quast, Imelda Staunton, Liz Robertson and Michael Praed.

Patrons hunting for new plays are often satisfied at the National. The next offering at hand is Nicholas Wright’s The Reporter (February 15-March 24). It’s the playwright’s fantasy on the facts behind the 1971 suicide of star BBC correspondent James Mossman. Ben Chaplin has the title role, Angela Thorne appears as Rosamund Lehmann, and former company artistic director Richard Eyre is at the helm.

Meanwhile, the opportunity to take in George Etheridge’s Restoration comedy, The Man of Mode, doesn’t come around too often. So best to grab artistic director Nicholas Hytner’s treatment at the National (through March 10) with Tom Hardy as the incorrigible lady’s man and Rory Kinnear as the gorgeously named Sir Fopling Flutter.

Whatever goes on in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court is almost always something to check out. The new works this month include Gone Too Far! (February 2-February 17) by Bola Agbaje and The Eleventh Capital (February 23-March 10) by Alexandra Wood. And the Tricycle serves up Tamsin Oglesby’s The War Next Door (February 1-March 3).

Something to make sure to see is John Kani’s Nothing But the Truth at the Hampstead (through February 24), the play that the South African actor and Athol Fugard protégé has been taking here and there. It concerns a librarian and his niece confronting a shared and troubling past. Yet another tested import, also concerning a librarian, is the very amusing Underneath the Lintel by Glen Berger at the Duchess (February 7-April 14), with former West Wing star Richard Schiff as the sole performer.

Two major events are in their last days: Felicity Kendal is giving a performance of great depth in David Hare’s Amy’s View at the Garrick (through February 17). This is the play — introduced almost 10 years ago with Dame Judi Dench in the lead — about a long-standing mother-daughter resentment. In the comparisons-are-odious department, let’s just say Kendal is at least as good as Dench. Then there’s Waves at the National’s Cottesloe (through February 8), which is director Katie Mitchell’s adaptation — with her eight-actor company — of Virginia Woolf’s curiously cinematic novel. It may be the best piece of fresh theater on current offer.

Not closing soon is The Mousetrap, the stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s mystery novel of the same name in its 55th year at St. Martin’s. When you read this, the production will be heading towards performance number 22,600, and counting. See it if only to say you’ve seen the longest-running production in recorded history.