National Theatre has new policy

LONDON -- Reduced ticket prices and an expanded repertoire are planned for the Royal National Theatre under its new artistic director, whose projects will include plays by Shakespeare, Mike Leigh and Tom Stoppard, and a musical inspired by Jerry Springer.\nNicholas Hytner, artistic director-designate of one of the most important playhouses in the English-speaking theater, announced at a news conference on Thursday that ticket prices would be lowered by as much as 75 percent in the three-theater complex's largest auditorium.\nFor six months, starting in May, and including four productions, two-thirds of the seats in the 1,200-seat Olivier will be priced at $16.20, with the remaining one-third priced at $40.50 -- well below the prevailing top of $61.50.\nThe productions return the National to a policy of rotating repertory after several years that saw numerous straight runs of shows, including last fall's production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" with Glenn Close.\nHytner, 46, takes over in April and will direct the opening production in the Olivier's reduced-cost season -- a staging of Shakespeare's "Henry V," starring British actor Adrian Lester.\nJoining "Henry V" in repertory in June is a stage version by American playwright John Guare of "His Girl Friday," the 1939 Howard Hawks film that was inspired by the classic theatrical comedy, "The Front Page." Alex Jennings and Zoe Wanamaker will play the parts originated on screen by Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Jack O'Brien makes his National debut as director.\nFurther along in the Olivier are a new version of Odon von Horvath's "Tales From the Vienna Woods," which Hytner called "the best play written in German in the last century," and a production, yet to be named, from the rising young director Edward Hall.\nThe mid-sized Lyttelton gets the long-awaited London premiere of "Jerry Springer -- the Opera," which attracted attention in various workshops and concert performances over the last year or so. The show opens April 29.\n"Jerry Springer" will be joined in repertory in June by a revival of the 1972 Stoppard play, "Jumpers." Simon Russell Beale, the English actor currently winning raves for his performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in "Uncle Vanya" and "Twelfth Night," will play the part of the moral philosopher, George.\nAlso planned are revivals of Chekhov standards ("Three Sisters") and Eugene O'Neill rarities ("Mourning Becomes Electra"), as well as a two-part stage version of Philip Pullman's children's epic, "His Dark Materials."\nPullman's books, Hytner said with a laugh, "are unstageable, so that should keep me busy." The adaptation is by Nicholas Wright, whose play "Vincent in Brixton" opens on Broadway in March.\nAlso planned: new plays by Michael Frayn ("Copenhagen"), Martin McDonagh ("The Beauty Queen of Leenane"), Mike Leigh ("Abigail's Party") and David Hare ("Plenty"), all of which will be seen in the smallest National playhouse, the Cottesloe.\nHytner's predecessor, Trevor Nunn, has had no artistic associates or advisers during his five-and-a-half year term, but Hytner will have quite a few.\nIn September, Howard Davies, who directed the Tony-winning revival of "Private Lives" on Broadway, becomes associate director; actors Jennings, Wanamaker and Russell Beale are among those who have been named to an advisory panel of associates.