Alan Bennett Play: Rave Reviews
Alan Bennett’s new play, “The Habit of Art,” about poet W. H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten, has opened at the National Theatre in London. After Bennett’s big success with “The History Boys,” “Habit” was already a tough ticket to get, but after these raves — here and here and here — you can fugettaboutit! (The only mixed notice I’ve come across is here.) About this production starring Alex Jennings (left) and Richard Griffiths (right), Charles Spencer writes: “Initially it looks as though Bennett is doing something of a hatchet job on Auden, who has such nasty habits as peeing in the sink and confusing respectable men from the BBC with the rent boys he pays to fellate. Yet somehow Richard Griffiths makes you care about Auden’s frailty and dried up talent while also playing an actor who can’t remember his lines and hates the way Auden is presented.’
