Top spot for Alan Bennett’s play about schoolboys studying for Oxbridge entrance exams followed by Noises Off and Hamlet It was hailed as “superb” and “life-enhancing” when it first opened at the National Theatre. Nearly a decade later, The History Boys has clearly kept its place in the public’s affection as it has been named the nation’s favourite play. Alan Bennett’s Olivier and Tony award-winning play about a bunch of clever northern schoolboys studying for Oxbridge entrance exams tops a poll organised by English Touring Theatre (ETT) to mark its 21st anniversary. The play made stars of the original cast including Russell Tovey, James Corden and Dominic Cooper. Michael Frayn’s farce within a farce, Noises Off, came second, followed by Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
Woo! I voted for The History Boys! It was the first play that really struck a chord with me and made want to go to theatre again. Noises Off, though… God. Am I really the only person who saw that and thought it was one of the most overrated, disappointing things they’d ever seen? I went to see it after someone I generally tend to agree with told me it was on par with She Stoops to Conquer. Um, NO. Probably the play I enjoyed least all year!