Bringing Back the Laughter

Onstage, Henry Goodman is a dynamo. To very different roles — from the worried husband in Arthur Miller's Broken Glass to the ruthless political fixer in Alistair Beaton's Feelgood — he brings a riveting, nervous energy. And he knows how to control it; the most compelling moment of his 1999 Olivier Award-winning Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice at the Royal National Theatre was the character's sudden calm, as that energy was channeled into an overwhelming quest for revenge. Yet most people have never heard of him.

That may be about to change. Goodman has landed the hottest...