I really enjoyed the NT Live productions of One Man, Two Governors, and Frankenstein. The one that really surprised me, however, was their production of Les Blancs. I originally saw Les Blancs, written by Lorraine Hansberry, in November 1970 (might have been 69), and thought that it was a total bore, even with an excellent James Earl Jones in the lead. Asa result, I turned it on with a little trepidation, expecting to watch it for 10 minutes and then give up. I ended up really liking it although I had two reservations. I felt that the actor who played the James Earl Jones role became a little to emotional a little too early, which lessened the impact of his transformation for me. Secondly, between scenes, there were atmosphere transitions involving African music and dancing. They were done extremely well, but I thought they went on too long. Nevertheless, I thought it was an outstanding production and I recommend it to anyone seriously interested in serious drama.
Re One Man, there were things I liked better and things I liked less. Corden's performance was still stellar and I appreciated Tom Edden's performance as the elderly waiter even more in a way. Since I had seen it live, and split a gut while he was on stage, the impact was not the same a second time, but I appreciated little things with his performance that I had not noticed before. Just comic genius.