Almost everybody I know who’s seen the stage adaptation of “Shakespeare in Love” in London thinks the show is terrific.
Charles Spencer, a longtime friend and drama critic of The Daily Telegraph, delivered a five-star review: “It’s funny, often genuinely moving and generates a glow you could warm your hands by.”
He was hardly alone among the London critics, with raves coming from The Independent (“effervescent fun”) and The Guardian (“a heady celebration”).
At the opening night intermission, a top London producer (who has nothing to do with the show) texted me: “I’ve just seen Broadway’s next hit London import. As good as ‘Nicholas Nickleby.’ ”
And a major Broadway producer, also at the opening, e-mailed: “People will love this in New York — it’s exactly what American audiences love, a show about literate British people, and you just feel smarter watching it. And it’s very romantic, too.”
So it came as a surprise to the producers — Sonia Friedman and Disney Theatrical Productions — that Ben Brantley at the Times was very cool on the production, dismissively dubbing it “Shakespeare for Sophomores,” which I guess is marginally better than “Shakespeare for Morons.”
There has long been talk that the show will arrive in New York in the 2015-16 season. The question is: Has Big Ben stopped the momentum? Not likely, I’m told.
The show is doing brisk business at the Noël Coward Theatre, and Friedman (who’s producing Hugh Jackman in “The River” this fall) and Disney are plowing ahead with plans for New York, sources say.
This is not an intimate show — it will need plenty of Disney money to stage it on Broadway. There are 28 actors and musicians in the cast, plus a dog, which can sometimes be more expensive than an actor, since they come with minders, trainers and a substantial per diem of Alpo and Milk-Bone Brushing Chews.
“Shakespeare in Love” is based on the delightful 1998 movie co-written by Tom Stoppard that starred a sparkling Gwyneth Paltrow, who won an Oscar.
It was adapted for the stage by Lee Hall, who wrote the fine musical “Billy Elliot,” and directed by Declan Donnellan, co-founder of the theater group Cheek by Jowl, which has performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The leads are Lucy Briggs- Owen and Tom Batemen. Both will almost certainly accompany the show to New York.
The production is an expensive proposition in London. The cost, I’m told, is almost 2 million pounds. A rough estimate for the Broadway version comes in at about $3.5 million.
A risky undertaking, to be sure, especially since Brantley will probably be gunning for it.
But one man should not be allowed to stand between New York theater audiences and their love of all things British and Bardish.