The one-off evening, which is being overseen by outgoing NT artistic director Nicholas Hytner, will play in the Olivier Theatre to an audience of invited guests and broadcast live on BBC2.
According to the Evening Standard, the event will see Judi Dench revive her performance as Shakespeare’s Cleopatra by reciting her elegy to Antony as part of a number of extracts from “landmark plays and performances” in the National’s 50-year history.
Others reportedly include Maggie Smith reprising her acclaimed performance as Mrs Sullen in George Farquhar’s The Beaux’ Stratagem, NT stalwart Simon Russell Beale‘s Hamlet, and Michael Gambon and Derek Jacobi performing a scene from Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land.
© Alastair Muir
Ralph Fiennes will recreate the role of Lambert Le Roux in David Hare and Howard Brenton’s 1985 play Pravda, originally played by Anthony Hopkins.
The two-hour show will also feature a number of the original History Boys, though Hytner revealed a full reunion could prove tricky. “I don’t think we will get them all because they are unbelievably busy and successful,” he said. “But I know that James Corden and Dominic Cooper will move heaven and earth.”
He added that the scenes will be “properly and elaborately re-staged highlights from the shows that have made an impact over 50 years”.
Musical performances will also feature. Clive Rowe will sing “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” from Guys and Dolls, which was staged by Richard Eyre in 1982 and 1996, and there will be scenes from the famously controversial Jerry Springer – The Opera.
According to the Standard, “Dame Judi might sing ‘Send in the Clowns’, as she did in 1995 in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.”
Some tickets – priced up to £500 – will reportedly be made available for the dress rehearsal on the Friday preceding the Saturday broadcast.
Other events to mark the 50th anniversary include an ongoing series of talks, exhibitions and tours, and a visit by the Queen on 22 October to view the current development work as part of NT Future.
The announcement of Nicholas Hytner‘s successor as artistic director is expected to be made in October.
