LONDON: A grande dame -- indeed, a Dame -- of the British theater will get to play an American theatrical matriarch when Judi Dench headlines a London revival of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's 'The Royal Family,' opening Nov. 1 at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket (previews from Oct. 24).
Plans are for a limited run through Feb. 2, 2002, with no New York stand yet in sight -- though given Dench's everrising cachet across the Atlantic, Broadway is sure to come sniffing. (First Dench must segue to the next Bond film, once again playing M.)
"The package wasn't there, and now it is," says 'The Royal Family's' director Peter Hall who has worked on and off with his leading lady for most of their professional lives. How did this particular venture come about? "If I may be extremely conceited," Hall tells Variety, "it was simply Judi saying to me, 'It's time we do another play,' which we do every three years." (Their last collaboration was 'Filumena' in 1998.)
Capitalized at L360,000 ($500,000), the show is being produced inhouse by the Haymarket in conjunction with Kim Poster's Stanhope Prods. "We need to keep up our profile," explains Arnold Crook, chairman of the elegant playhouse that has come a cropper of late with such offerings as 'Collected Stories,' 'Japes,' Jeffrey Archer in his play 'The Accused' and even Dame Edna.
For a while, Crook adds, "We were not in control of our own ship; we like to be steering the ship ourselves."
The 1927 comedy seems to be newly back in vogue, having last resurfaced in a 1975-76 Broadway revival, with Rosemary Harris and the late Eva le Gallienne, that Hall in fact saw. Since then, it has spawned a still-gestating Broadway musical, 'The Royal Family of Broadway' (same title as the play's 1930 film version) and is at last appearing on the West End under its proper title, having opened in London in 1934 under the name 'Theater Royal.'
But might 'The Royal Family' prompt confusion with recent BBC sitcom 'The Royle Family,' about a sloppy clan of lower-middle-class couch potatoes?
"Anyone who goes to the Haymarket," says Hall, "and expects to see Judi sitting on a couch is going to be very disappointed."
Thanks to Mike Kennedy for sending this article which appeared in Variety's June 11-17 Issue.