Theater: Bound For the U.S.A.

When American stage professionals head off to London for a busman's holiday of playgoing, the standard witticism is that they are getting a head start on the upcoming season back home. Britain, long a supplier of straight plays and now seemingly the only source of successful musicals, this past season exported shows that won twelve of Broadway's 19 Tony Awards. The current London stage features seven works already announced for U.S. production; others are under consideration. In addition are the star-cast classics, adaptations of great novels, formula thrillers, trousersdown farces and sociopolitical dramas that make London during any summer week as...