The notion of “best” when it comes to the arts is not an objective science; one person’s favourite performance of the year isn’t another’s, let alone performer. So are prize-winning ceremonies, or “top 45” lists, ever worth any more than a provocation to disagreement?
I thought of this twice yesterday, first when I caught up with The Observer’s survey of the excellence on British theatre acting with lists of 45 of what they called “our finest young talents and treasured veterans”. Sure, no such list purports to be comprehensive – or even representative. Since each candidate here is actually interviewed, perhaps it was to do with the ability to get them to speak, and those who didn’t lost the chance to be included. But why are Eileen Atkins, Maggie Smith, Patrick Stewart, Vanessa Redgrave and Derek Jacobi, for instance, missing from the veterans list? Or Daniel Evans, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Imelda Staunton, Michael Sheen, Alex Jennings and Tom Hardy missing from the lists of those in their prime?
Then on Sunday evening in New York – already Monday lunchtime where I am in Australia – this year’s Tony Awards were announced, with a virtual clean sweep to Spring Awakening in the musicals field and another to The Coast of Utopia (now shut) in the plays one. It was mostly very predictable, but every now and then there was a surprise: Julie White, who starred in the long-shuttered (and short-lived) Broadway transfer of the off-Broadway hit The Little Dog Laughed had the last laugh to scoop the Tony from under the nose of the favoured Eve Best (who invariably lives up to her name) or the utterly beloved Angela Lansbury (who at 81 was making her Broadway return for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, and was therefore expected by some, including me, to sweep in on a sentimental vote)?
I recently interviewed Angela for a profile that ran in last weekend’s Sunday Express, and she warned me that she wasn’t necessarily here for the long haul. This is simply a re-introduction to Broadway for me, but not necessarily an ongoing affair. I don’t think I want to spend a tremendous amount of time in it. It is tremendously hard work – not that I’m not up for that, I am, but I’d rather do things from time to time rather than on an ongoing basis now.” But she’s also indefatigable: I was surprised when the show’s PR instructed me to ring her as early as 9am New York time – and even more surprised when she answered the phone herself. She’s not just an early riser, but also clearly not a star who surrounds herself with a galaxy of assistants. That’s class.
