The Theatre: Lear in London

When London blacked out last September, the theatre blacked out with it. But not for long: the Government realized that a show is as much of a wartime bracer as a whiskey-&-soda, soon permitted every theatre in London to stay open till 10:45 or 11 p.m. For months, with the war so quiet that—as a wag put it—you could hear a Ribbentrop, London's theatre functioned virtually as in peacetime, except for a boom in musical shows and a drop in prices.

The fighting in Norway has caused no added censorship or new blackout restrictions, though it brought about a sharp 40%...