National Theatre goes global with 'Phèdre' broadcast

LONDON — In his six years as head of the Royal National Theatre, Nicholas Hytner has made a name for himself with his bold moves. He has commissioned large-scale plays and productions dealing with hot-button political issues, he brought in a major sponsor to make large swaths of tickets cheaper than a trip to the movies, and he's championed female and minority directors and playwrights -- even accusing London's critics of being "dead white men." But this past week saw the debut of Hytner's biggest gamble to date: NT Live.

NT Live, which launched Thursday in more than 270 cinemas, is an attempt to bring upscale drama to the multiplex. Sitting in his office overlooking the Thames River, Hytner says the initial idea for NT Live sprang from the National's mandate to deliver live shows to the British public. "To be honest," he admits, "initially we weren't looking at outside Britain." The reason they developed the idea was "because we're the National Theatre, and anything we can do to make ourselves more available outside of London the better."

The initial numbers from Thursday indicate that more than 30,000 people purchased tickets to see the performance live in Britain and more than 16 other countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Malta. In the United States, NT Live is presenting "Phedre" in 17 states and the District of Columbia. Encore and delayed broadcasts continue in theater hubs like New York City, Minneapolis and Chicago -- as well as Telluride, Colo., Charlottesville, Va., and Damariscotta, Maine -- through July 19. The final West Coast "Phedre" screening will be in Berkeley on July 2.

Hytner says the decision to expand outside of England came about when they spoke with the firm that distributes the Metropolitan Opera HD broadcasts. "We realized there was a big market for it abroad," he says, "and we always challenge ourselves to be as widely available and widely accessible as we possibly can."

The wide accessibility and exposure is not cheap, however. Hytner would not specify the price tag for the initial broadcast, but he admits that "it's quite costly. At the moment, we require sponsorship, and the only way it's going to be self-sustaining is if we can spread it quite wide across the world."

When asked for his vision of how big this can get, Hytner is both modest and optimistic. "I think it's just for theater audiences. We're not bending over ourselves to bring in the multiplex, popcorn audiences," he says, "but I think those of us who live in big metropolises like London, New York, Los Angeles, we forget how large a sophisticated, literate audience there is outside of the big cities."