THEATRE: CURTAIN CALLS

When the National Theatre was searching for a successor to Richard Eyre (above), a story did the rounds. Apparently, the leaders of the NT's six stage management teams announced that if a certain leading director were given the job, they would all resign. Stage managers, you see, are among the very few who actually experience the skills - or lack thereof - of a theatre director.

Even the most theatrically literate of audiences have a much harder time trying to sort out what a director has done on a show. That said, there are times when a programme credit is the only proof that a director has been in attendance.

Take West Side Story. The director is a veteran of more than 30 productions of this masterpiece and boy does it show. The cast is expertly drilled and dances up a storm. But the non-dance scenes are played, at best, like cartoons. Has anyone explained that, say, the potentially tense balcony scene might be improved with the suggestion of real fear? Acting, anybody? Then there's Filumena. Peter Hall has done great things in his time but this is absolutely not one of them. Even a great actress like Judi Dench struggles against being completely miscast. Most of the rest wander about poorly staged scenes looking lost. It feels as Italian as Grimsby. What was Hall doing?