The History Boys teach US a lesson

WHEN Alan Bennett's London hit The History Boys opened in New York, there were questions over whether Broadway would buy into a play laced with such Britishisms as "A-levels" and "Oxbridge".

But The History Boys walked away with six prizes yesterday, including best play, at the Tony awards, the equivalent of the Oscars for the New York stage.

Bennett, 72, first came to New York in 1962 with Beyond the Fringe, for which he shared a special Tony award with Peter Cooke, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller.

Accepting the best play award, Bennett said: "When we were told we were coming to Broadway, we were a bit nervous about the response and whether the play would mean anything really over here.

"It almost seems unfair to get prizes for something we have so much fun doing."

Richard Griffiths - Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films - won best actor for his role as Hector. Nicholas Hytner, the director of London's National Theatre, where the play opened in 2004, won best director. Frances de la Tour won best featured actress, and the show also took prizes for sets and lighting.

The History Boys takes place in a boys' school in northern England in the 1980s. A young teacher has been brought in to coach the pupils for the Oxbridge exam - but fellow teacher Hector believes instead in learning for its own sake.

When the play opened on Broadway, Time Out New York cheekily published a "glossary to Limey learning" to explain words in the play such as "sixth-formers", "Oxbridge", "dons" and "public schools".

But the play bowled over the New York critics as it had audiences in London. The US wing of the actors' union Equity agreed that all 17 British actors should come across for the transferred production.

"You are insanely talented people," actress Julia Roberts said before presenting the best actor prize to Griffiths for his portrayal of the unorthodox yet beloved Hector.

Roberts's own play, Three Days of Rain, was slated by the critics and shut out of the nominations. And big-hitters Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, now playing in The Odd Couple after starring in The Producers, were not nominated.

The Scottish actor Ian McDiarmid, playing the manager of an itinerant faith healer in the play Faith Healer, won the Tony for best featured actor.

McDiarmid is a familiar figure on the British stage, but more widely known for playing the Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars movies. Ralph Fiennes, who starred in Faith Healer, lost out in the best actor category to Griffiths.

Brit John Doyle won best director of a musical for a new production of Sweeney Todd first seen in London.

The winner of the other big Tony award, for best musical, was Jersey Boys. A so-called jukebox musical, it is billed as a biography of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, laced with their hits. It collected three further awards.

A UK tour of The History Boys, with a different cast, brings the play to the King's Theatre in Edinburgh and His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen in October.

A film version of The History Boys is now in production - Bennett's hugely successful play The Madness of George III was filmed as The Madness of King George in 1994.