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NT25 Poll
In 1976, following 125 years of hopes, speculation, plans and dreams, and after lodging for the first twelve years of its life at the Old Vic, the National Theatre moved into its permanent home on the South Bank. Twenty-five years on, NT25 celebrates a rich, fertile and remarkable quarter of a century.
Many thanks to so many of you who voted in the NT25 Poll - the results show how much you have enjoyed so many different productions over the years. The outcome of the poll will form the basis for the first part of our celebrations with The NT25 Story -a series of pre-show Platforms that will trace, year by year, the National's unique theatrical history. As well as celebrating the 'winner,' each Platform will look at the various milestone productions and events from that year. We will be inviting a variety of key figures to talk about their memories of the work and to recreate some of those great moments from the National's past.
The results of the poll are as follows:
1976 - Jumpers
1977 - Bedroom Farce
1978 - Plenty
1979 - Amadeus
1980 - The Life of Galileo
1981 - The Oresteia
1982 - Guys and Dolls
1983 - The Rivals
1984 - Wild Honey
1985 - Pravda
1986 - Brighton Beach Memoirs
1987 - A View From The Bridge
1988 - Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
1989 - Fuente Ovejuna
1990 - Wind In The Willows
1991 - The Madness of George III
1992 - An Inspector Calls
1993 - Arcadia
1994 - Broken Glass
1995 - A Little Night Music
1996 - John Gabriel Borkman
1997 - Amy's View
1998 - Copenhagen
1999 - The Merchant of Venice
2000 - All My Sons
1976: Film Taxi Driver; TV The Muppet Show, I Claudius; Politics Callaghan becomes PM, USSR dubs Thatcher 'The Iron Lady'; Sport 14 year-old Nadia Comaneci wins three gold medals at Montreal Olympics; Pop Dancing Queen, Don't Go Breaking My Heart; NT Britain's new National Theatre officially opens on 25 October - many productions make their way to the South Bank from the Old Vic, including Peggy Ashcroft buried in sand in Happy Days; Finney's Hamlet; Richardson, Ashcroft & Hiller in John Gabriel Borkman; Ben Traver's lively farce Plunder; Gielgud & Richardson in No Man's Land; the first new production in the Olivier is Marlowe's Tamberlaine the Great. 1977 - NT25 Poll Winner: Bedroom Farce by Alan Ayckbourn; directed by Alan Ayckbourn
1977: Film Annie Hall, Star Wars; Book Fowles' Daniel Martin; Sport Red Rum wins third Grand National, Virginia Wade wins Wimbledon; Royal Queen's Silver Jubilee; News Gary Gilmore executed in US; PopDon't Cry for Me Argentina; NT the Cottesloe opens with the epic Illuminatus! ; Ayckbourn's NT debut is Bedroom Farce; Paul Scofield & Ben Kingsly team up in Volpone; NT campaigner Granville Barker's The Madras House is presented in the Olivier; Pinter directs Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit. 1978 - NT25 Poll Winner: Plenty by David Hare; directed by David Hare
1978: Film The Deer Hunter; TV The Smurfs; Book Irving's The World According to Garp; Politics Pieter Willem Botha elected South Africa's PM; Sport Argentina wins football's World Cup; News Arab-Israeli Peace Accords signed; Science First test tube baby born in the UK; Pop Three Times a Lady, Rivers of Babylon; NT Kate Nelligan plays Susan Treherne in David Hare's Plenty; audiences are enchanted by Bryden's promenade Lark Rise; Finney & Tutin appear in Macbeth; Pinter's new play Betrayal premieres in the Lyttelton; the production of John Galsworthy's Strife mirrors the National's own union troubles. 1979 - NT25 Poll Winner: Amadeus by Peter Shaffer; directed by Peter Hall
1979: Film Apocalypse Now; TV Not the Nine O'Clock News; Book Mailer's The Executioner's Song; Politics Thatcher wins election; Sport Bjorn Borg wins Wimbledon; Royal Mountbatten killed by IRA; News Brighton opens nudist beach; Pop Bright Eyes; NT Stoppard's version of Schnitzler's Undiscovered Country delights audiences in the Olivier; John Wood plays the title role in Richard III; Sara Kestelman plays Rosalind in As You Like It; Paul Scofield kills Simon Callow's Mozart in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus; Warren Mitchell plays Willy Loman. 1980 - NT25 Poll Winner: The Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht, translated by Howard Brenton; directed by John Dexter
1980: Film Kramer vs Kramer; TV Dallas: Who Shot JR?; Book Golding's Rites of Passage; Politics Regan becomes US president; News John Lennon assasinated; Science First cloned fish; Pop Don't Stand So Close To Me; NT Bogdanov's adaptation of Hiawatha delights both children & adults in the Olivier; Scofield plays Othello; McCowen & McEwan play the leads in Rattigan's The Browning Version & Harlequinade; Gambon affirms his place as one of Britain's foremost actors in The Life of Galileo; Simon Callow performs the complete Sonnets; Mary Whitehouse takes the National to court over The Romans in Britain. 1981 - NT25 Poll Winner: The Oresteia by Aeschylus in a version by Tony Harrison; directed by Peter Hall
1981: Film Raiders of the Lost Arc, Chariots of Fire; TV MTV launched; Book Rushdie's Midnight's Children; Sport Muhammed Ali retires from boxing; Royal Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer; Science US Space Shuttle's maiden flight; Pop Tainted Love, Stand and Deliver; NT Daniel Massey & Penelope Wilton appear in Man and Superman, Michael Bryant bites his tongue out in The Mayor of Zalamea; Sher & Hoskins fight it out in True West; Yvonne Bryceland stars in Dario Fo's One Woman Plays; Felicity Kendal drags-up in On the Razzle, Peter Hall directs the masked Oresteia. 1982 - NT25 Poll Winner: Guys and Dolls by Damon Runyon, Loesser, Swerling & Burrows; directed by Richard Eyre
1982: Film ET, Sophie's Choice; TV Brideshead Revisited, Channel 4 launched; Book Walker's The Color Purple, Allende's The House of Spirits; Politics Falkland's War, Religion First papal visit to Britain since 1531; Pop Ebony and Ivory; NT Judi Dench plays Lady Bracknell, as well as Deborah in Pinter's A Kind of Alaska; A Midsummer Night's Dream pairs Susan Fleetwood & Paul Scofield as Titania & Oberon; Way Upstream floods the Lyttelton while the nation suffers water shortages; NT Education's first Mobile production is The Caucasian Chalk Circle; Richard Eyre leaves his calling card with Guys and Dolls & The Beggar's Opera. 1983 - NT25 Poll Winner: The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan; directed by Peter Wood
1983: Film Fanny and Alexander; TV Breakfast TV launched; Book Kingsley Amis' Stanley and the Women; Politics Gerry Adam's elected leader of Sinn Fein; Sport Shergar kidnapped; News Lech Walesa wins Nobel Prize for peace; Pop Uptown Girl, Every Breath You Take; NT Hordern & McEwan breathe new life into The Rivals; Ralph Richardson's last stage appearance in Inner Voices, Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross is a phenomenal success; Fugard's 'Master Harold'... and the Boys visits; Hampton's epic Tales from Hollywood opens in the Olivier; the NT embraces the world of panto with Cinderella in the Lyttelton. 1984 - NT25 Poll Winner: Wild Honey by Anton Chekhov in a version by Michael Frayn; directed by Christopher Morahan
1984: Film A Passage to India, 1984; TV The Jewel in the Crown; Books Lurie's Foreign Affairs; Sport Torvill and Dean win gold at Sarajevo; News Indira Ghandi assassinated, Desmond Tutu wins Nobel Peace Prize, first untethered space walk; Music Purple Rain, Born in the USA; NT Peter Hall's production of Animal Farm opens in the Cottesloe and goes on to play all three theatres; there are many laughs with Feydeau's A Little Hotel on the Side; Julie Walters and Ian Charleson make a violent pairing in Shepard's Fool for Love; Ian McKellen plays Coriolanus; Michael Pennington plays a horse in Strider and a playwright in Anton Chekhov. 1985 - NT25 Poll Winner: Pravda by Howard Brenton and David Hare; directed by David Hare
1985: Film Back to the Future; Books Tyler's The Accidental Tourist; News Pont Neuf 'wrapped' by Christo, Rock Hudon dies of an AIDS related illness, Geldof organises Live Aid; Music The Power of Love, I Know Him So Well; NT For the first time the entire Mysteries cycle (The Nativity, The Passion, Doomsday) is performed on a single day; McKellen and Petherbridge's NT company perform The Duchess of Malfi, The Real Inspector Hound/The Critic and The Cherry Orchard to great acclaim; Ayckbourn's A Chorus of Disapproval opens in the Olivier; Joan Plowright makes her South Bank debut in Mrs Warren's Profession. 1986 - NT25 Poll Winner: Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon; directed by Michael Rudman
1986: Film 9 ½ Weeks; Books Amis's The Old Devils, Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale; News Space Shuttle Challenger explodes on take off, Channel Tunnel Treaty signed, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson engaged; Music So Macho NT The Pied Piper brings in children from London schools as the Massed Rats; Richard Eyre directs Futurists in the Cottesloe, Anthony Hopkins plays King Lear; Irene Worth stars in David Hare's Wrecked Eggs; Arthur Miller's The American Clock premieres in the Cottesloe. 1987 - NT25 Poll Winner: A View From The Bridge by Arthur Miller; directed by Alan Ayckbourn
1987: Film The Last Temptation of Christ, Fatal Attraction; Books Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities; News the UK hurricane, Black Monday, Thatcher visits Moscow, free eye and dental tests abolished, Prince Edward resigns from the Marines; Music I Wanna Dance With Somebody NT Dench and Hopkins play Antony and Cleopatra; Peter Stein's visually staggering The Hairy Ape visits from Berlin and Ingmar Bergman's Miss Julie and Hamletvisit from Stockholm; Peter Hall directs promenade in the Cottesloe in Entertaining Strangers . 1988 - NT25 Poll Winner: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams; directed by Howard Davies
1988: Film The Accused, A Fish Called Wanda Books Carey's Oscar and Lucinda News the Lockerbie plane crash, George Bush elected US President, the Turin Shroud declared a fake; Music I Should Be So Lucky NT The Olivier "drum revolve" makes a dramatic debut in The Shaughraun; Peter Hall stages a cycle of the Late Shakespeares (Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest); Richard Eyre becomes Director of the NT; Gillian Barge plays the title role in Mrs Klein; Alan Bennett and Simon Callow direct and act in Single Spies. 1989 - NT25 Poll Winner: Fuente Ovejuna by Lope de Vega, in a version by Adrian Mitchell; directed by Declan Donnellan
1989: Film TV Books News Music NT Joshua Sobol's remarkable Ghetto plays in the Olivier; Richard Eyre's production of Hamlet opens with Daniel Day Lewis in the title role, subsequently played by Jeremy Northam and Ian Charleson; Harley Granville-Barker's The Voysey Inheritance opens in the Cottesloe; Fiona Shaw plays Shui Ta in The Good Person of Sichuan. 1990 - NT25 Poll Winner: The Wind in the Willows by Alan Bennett, from the book by Kenneth Graham, directed by Nicholas Hytner
1990: Film Dances With Wolves; Books Byatt's Possession; News Lech Walesa elected Polish President, Yeltsin resigns from Soviet Communist Party; First Anglican women priests ordained, Music Nothing Compares 2 U, Vogue; NT Oliver Ford Davies plays Rev. Lionel Espy in David Hare's Racing Demon; Ian McKellen stars in Bent and Richard III; Tony Harrison's clog-dancing satyrs invade the Olivier in The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus. 1991 - NT25 Poll Winner: The Madness of George III by Alan Bennett; directed by Nicholas Hytner
1991: Film Thelma and Louise, The Silence of the Lambs; Books Easton Ellis's American Psycho; News Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Gulf War ends, Birmingham Six released, death of Klaus Barbi, the 'Butcher of Lyons'; Music (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, I'm Too Sexy; NT Christopher Hampton's White Chameleon; Théâtre de Complicité's The Visit visits the Lyttelton; William Gaskill directs an adaptation of Bulgakov's Black Snow; Antony Sher plays Arturo Ui. 1992 - NT25 Poll Winner: An Inspector Calls by JB Priestley; directed by Stephen Daldry
1992: Film Reservoir Dogs, The Crying Game; Books Ondaatje's The English Patient, McEwan's Black Dogs; News Bush and Yeltsin proclaim an official end to the Cold War, Bill Clinton is elected US President, Prince Charles and Princess Diana agree to separate Music Tears in Heaven, Erotica; NT McKellan and Sher team up in Uncle Vanya; Alan Howard teaches Frances Barber how to speak in Pygmalion; Robert Lepage flies in with Needles and Opium; Eileen Atkins plays the gentle Hannah Jelkes in The Night of the Iguana; the Mobile Billy Liar tours the country; Jane Horrocks sings up a storm (courtesy of Bassey, Garland, Monroe et al) in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. 1993 NT25 Poll Winner: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard; directed by Trevor Nunn
1993: Film Schlindler's List, Philadelphia Books Doyle's Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha News Audrey Hepburn, the star of films including My Fair Lady and Roman Holiday dies, Waco in Texas is the scene of a 51-day siege between the Christian Branch Davidian cult and federal agents, British novelist William Golding dies; Music Moving On Up NT The Absence of War completes The David Hare Trilogy in the Olivier; Fiona Shaw descends into automated madness in Machinal; Alan Bleasdale stands his actors On The Ledge; the blood flows freely in Sweeney Todd; Peristroika concludes Tony Kushner's epic Angels in America; Hytner's invigorating production of Carousel provides the setting for Kenneth MacMillan's last choreography. 1994 NT25 Poll Winner: Broken Glass by Arthur Miller; directed by David Thacker
1994: Film Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sense and Sensibility Books Proulx's The Shipping News News South Africa holds its first interracial election with Nelson Mandela elected President, Burt Lancaster dies; Music Love Is All Around NT Claire Higgins and Harriet Walter appear in The Children's Hour; Sean Mathias directs a breathtaking production of Les Parents Terribles; Dora Bryan wins an Olivier for The Birthday Party; Judi Dench plays Arkadina in The Seagull; Peter Brook's The Man Who visits the National; Katie Mitchell directs Githa Sowerbury's little known Rutherford and Son. 1995 NT25 Poll Winner: A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler; directed by Sean Mathias
1995: Film Seven, Leaving Las Vegas Books Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh, Barker's The Ghost Road wins the Booker Prize News Scores are killed in a terrorist bombing in Oklahoma, Seamus Heaney wins the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Rwanda massacre death toll rises to 2,000 Music Common People, Wonderwall NT Patrick Marber's debut play, Dealer's Choice, opens in the Cottesloe; John Alderton and Richard Wilson star in What the Butler Saw; Fiona Shaw plays the title role in Deborah Warner's production of Richard II; David Hare's Skylight stars Michael Gambon and Lia Williams; Judi Dench wins two Best Actress awards for Absolute Hell and A Little Night Music. 1996 NT25 Poll Winner: John Gabriel Borkman by Henrick Ibsen, in a version by Nicholas Wright; directed by Richard Eyre
1996: Film The English Patient, Fargo Books Swift's Last Orders, McCourt's Angela's Ashes News Jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald dies, Britain is alarmed by an outbreak of 'mad cow' disease; Dr Ian Wilmut and his team clone the world's first sheep, Dolly, from adult cells; Music Firestarter, Ooh Ahh.. Just A Little Bit NT Antony Sher plays Stanley Spencer; David Hare directs Wallace Shawn's The Designated Mourner; Robert Lepage's epic Seven Streams of the River Ota visits the Lyttelton; Steve Coogan appears in Blue Remembered Hills; Peter Hall returns to the South Bank to direct The Oedipus Plays; Alun Armstrong plays Willy Loman; Richard Eyre revives Guys and Dolls. 1997 NT25 Poll Winner: Amy's View by David Hare; directed by Richard Eyre
1997: Film Titanic, The Full Monty, LA Confidential Books Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Roy's The God of Small Things wins the Booker Prize; News Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister; Britain mourns the death of Princess Diana, Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule, Mother Teresa dies, Gianni Versace murdered; Music Paranoid Android, Bitter Sweet Symphony NT Ian Holm plays King Lear; Peter Gill's Cardiff East opens in the Cottesloe; the Olivier Theatre is transformed for the in-the-round season; Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan opens in the Cottesloe; Maria Friedman is 'girl of the moment' in Lady in the Dark; Closer brings cybersex to the South Bank; Trevor Nunn becomes the National's fourth Artistic Director. 1998 NT25 Poll Winner: Copenhagen by Michael Frayn; directed by Michael Blakemore
1998: Film Shakespeare in Love, The Truman Show Books Hughes' Birthday Letters, McEwan's Amsterdam News A landmark peace settlement the Good Friday accord is reached in Northern Ireland, Frank Sinatra dies, former Chilean dictator Pinochet is arrested in London; Music Ray of Light, Millennium NT Trevor Nunn directs Tenessee Williams' lost play Not About Nightingales; Fiona Shaw plays Jean Brodie; Oh What a Lovely War tours the country in a tent; Oklahoma! bursts onto the Olivier stage; Carry On comes to the National in Terry Johnson's Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick; Anthony Calf, Douglas Hodge and Imogen Stubbs star in the revival of Betrayal. 1999 NT25 Poll Winner: The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare; directed by Trevor Nunn
1999: Film American Beauty, The Sixth Sense Books Frayn's Headlong, Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee News A massive earthquake kills more than 15,600 in Turkey, the world awaits the consequences of the Y2K bug with more drastic millennial theorists warning of Armageddon, President Clinton is acquitted in the White House sex scandal Music (Hit Me) Baby One More Time, Livin' La Vida Loca NT Trevor Nunn forms his first Ensemble company, performing Troilus and Cressida, Candide, Money, The Merchant of Venice, The Darker Face of the Earth, The Villain's Opera and Honk!; Juliet Stevenson and Anton Lesser play Amanda and Elyot in Private Lives; NT2000 Platforms present 100 plays during the course of the year; Olympia Dukakis plays Martin Sherman's Rose. 2000 NT25 Poll Winner: All My Sons by Arthur Miller; directed by Howard Davies
2000: Film Gladiator, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Books Atwood's The Blind Assassin News Concorde Crash Kills 113 near Paris, the Queen Mother Turns 100, Milosevic concedes defeat in the Yugoslavian Presidential elections after street protests; Music Sexbomb, Stan NT Simon Russell Beale plays Hamlet; John Kani and Winston Ntshona visit with The Island; Ayckbourn's House and Garden are performed simultaneously in the Lyttelton and Olivier; Vanessa and Corin Redgrave play brother and sister in The Cherry Orchard; Paola Dionisotti wins the Best Actress Olivier award for Zinnie Harris' Further than the Furthest Thing.