The National Theatre - 50 Years on Stage

The Royal National Theatre celebrated it's 50the anniversary with a glittering and star packed gala. One of the highlights for me had to be  Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon in the roles originally played by Gielgud and Richardson in Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land, my favourite play of all time. But there were other outstanding contributions from Maggie Smith in Hay Fever, Roger Allam in Copenhagen, Simon Russell Beale's Hamlet and James Corden's argument with himself in One Man Two Guvnors.

But the two outstanding pieces came from The History Boys where the role played by the late Richard Griffiths was played magnificently by Alan Bennet himself, and the boys were the members of the original cast including Dominic Cooper and James Corden. But surpassing even this was Judi Dench singing "Send in the Clowns" from Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music. Is there no end to this woman's talents. it was perfection.

The ending had to be an extract from Alan Bennet's The Habit of Art where a stage manager muses about the National Theatre's creation. Frances De La Tour was brilliant.