Theater: Broadway, Straight Up

Two sharp imports from Britain cap a season in which the music faded--and plays flourished

When Esme, the celebrated stage actress at the center of David Hare's play Amy's View, agrees to appear on her son-in-law Dominic's TV talk show, the topic he wants to discuss is whether theater is dead. There's no doubt where Dominic stands. Theater is so old fashioned, he complains, so slow moving: "Why don't we admit it? It's been superseded. It had its moment, but its moment is gone."

Ouch. When even plays start to talk about whether plays are irrelevant, you know this is an art form in trouble. Yet the irony is that these lines are spoken in...

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