| National Theatre Live: 50 Years On Stage | |
| Director: | Nicholas Hytner |
| Starring: | Michael Gambon Maggie Smith Judi Dench Helen Mirren Ralph Fiennes Benedict Cumberbatch Derek Jacobi Penelope Wilton Simon Russell Beale Andrew Scott Frances de la Tour |
| Distributor: | PBS / BBC 2 |
| Runtime: | 2 hours 31 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
National Theatre Live: 50 Years On Stage is a 2013 live staged event film directed by Nicholas Hytner. Shown in theatres and on PBS and National Theatre Live.[1] The program is presented by The Royal National Theatre which celebrates 50 years of theatre, with some extracts of the best productions from the last five decades including Alan Bennett, Noël Coward, David Hare, Tony Kushner, Eugene O'Neill, Harold Pinter, William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Tom Stoppard, and Tennessee Williams performed by the countries best performers including Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott, Penelope Wilton, Simon Russell Beale, Frances de la Tour, Ian Holm, Derek Jacobi, and Joan Plowright.[2] [3]
The program features a variety of live performances from productions by the Royal National Theatre from the past five decades:[4]
The final curtain call includes all the actors from each decade of the national theare.
Clips from original staged productions include:
The production was a part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Royal National Theatre started by Laurence Olivier. The presentation included live performances, interspersed with documentary footage, and archival footage of live performances of original productions from the National Theatre. The night also featured a short film about Olivier, which included recent footage of Plowright reprising her role of St Joan shot at the Old Vic.
The program was released in theaters for a limited time in the United States and in the United Kingdom. In the United States it was shown on PBS. In the United Kingdom it ran on BBC 2.
Michael Billington of The Guardian wrote, "We got a brilliant, kaleidoscopic entertainment that evoked the National's past and opened up possibilities for the future...Obviously it was moving to see legendary actors, either through archival footage or live performance, repeating past successes."[5] Dalya Alberge of The Observer wrote, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Derek Jacobi, Michael Gambon, Simon Russell Beale ... the cast was a dream for any director. But the audience was also filled with titans of British theatre, with a guest list that seated playwrights Tom Stoppard, Peter Shaffer and David Hare alongside directors Richard Eyre and Peter Hall and actresses Prunella Scales and Juliet Stevenson. Also present was Joan Plowright, widow of Laurence Olivier – the National's first director and one of the last century's greatest actors."[6]