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Hytner at the National Theatre, in London. Photograph by Gareth McConnell.

Nicholas Hytner’s theatrical golden age.

If you stand on London’s Waterloo Bridge, overlooking the Thames as it carries the dust of the ages toward the sea, you will find yourself in one of the most strategic spots in Great Britain. To the east, behind the refulgent dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, is the City, one of the banking capitals of Europe; to the west are the Houses of Parliament; to the south, at the apex of this triangle of British power, is the Royal National Theatre, where the worlds of spirit, money, and politics come together in play. These days, the Church is embattled, the City is in disrepute, and Parliament is floundering, but the National, under the canny stewardship of Nicholas Hytner, is on a roll unmatched in its nearly fifty-year history.

In his twenty-three-year association with the National, the past nine of them as artistic director, Hytner has been responsible for staging some of the theatre’s most popular and memorable shows: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s "Carousel"; the two-part adaptation of Philip Pullman’s "His Dark Materials"; Martin McDonagh’s "The Cripple of Inishmaan"; Alan Bennett’s "The Madness of George the Third" and "The History Boys"; and, most recently, "One Man, Two Guvnors," Richard Bean’s adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s 1743 commedia-dell’arte classic "The Servant of Two Masters" (which opens at New York’s Music Box on April 18th and is running concurrently in London’s West End). "War Horse," the international blockbuster, which began at the National, was also developed on Hytner’s watch.

His directorial talent has brought renewed lustre to the National; his skills as an impresario have also generated a robust balance sheet. (Last year, the theatre, which is open for business fifty-two weeks a year, took in an income of more than seventy million pounds, almost half of which came from box-office receipts.) Once upon a time, the National, which is spread over five acres, with three stages—the Olivier, the Lyttelton, and the Cottesloe—was considered "the home counties’ theatre"; now, thanks in part to National Theatre Live—a program that Hytner developed in 2009 to broadcast the National’s performances via satellite to cinemas around the world—the joke no longer applies. In 2011, the National’s productions were seen by more than a million and a half people in twenty-two countries and broadcast in venues as far-flung as Bulgaria and Tasmania. Helen Mirren, who starred in Hytner’s 2009 staging of Racine’s "Phèdre," which was N.T. Live’s début, told me, "He will be remembered as overseeing an incredible golden era in British theatre."

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