I got to see two of the three "Norman Conquests" plays today...and I think, in this murderously competitive year for play revivals, this might be the winner.

It's violently funny stuff, balanced with some lovely poignancy. I don't think I've ever seen an audience enjoy a play quite as much as this. The six-members of the cast are each utterly perfect in their roles under the superb staging of Matthew Warchus (this, plus his staging of God of Carnage, make his Tony chances look mighty fine this year.)

Its three-plays are sure to be considered under one banner for the Tonys (like Coast of Utopia was) and that is, needless to say, a big leg up on the rest of the competition right there.

What a turnaround this season has made! It's just too bad that none of the truly best work of the season on the play side didn't originate in the U.S. - something that made last year's "August: Osage County" a cause for celebration.

Sounds like the Norman Conquests were a lot of fun! I was definitely intrigued by the concept; alas, we're already seeing 5 shows when we come to NYC in late May, and we had to draw the line somewhere. As I understand it, all three of the plays work as stand-alone experiences. Is that right?

Do you think Norman Conquests would ever tour? I wonder why plays don't usually tour like musicals do? Not enough audience appeal?

In general, the plays do work as stand-alone experiences, but there are a few jokes I missed in "Living Together" because I had not seen "Table Manners"; "Round and Round the Garden", which was the last one performed, is pretty stand-alone but had a few references to "Living Together".

I don't think these plays will tour...the trilogy aspect presents schedule challenges and I think one of the principal assets of this production is its cast, who are not international stars and will probably choose to go back to their homes in England when the Broadway run is completed.

I think that outside New York it is difficult for many plays to find enough of an audience to make a tour profitable. It usually happens only for very popular plays with a wide appeal (Proof, Doubt, A:OC).

Darn. Sometimes I really wish I lived closer to the city. My partner and I are seriously considering retiring to an area near NYC one day just so we can have the option of seeing more things.

The NY Times is a rave:

By BEN BRANTLEY
Published: April 24, 2009
“Oh” is not widely acknowledged as one of the funniest words in English. Nor does the simple “aah” generally induce convulsive giggles. Yet these unassuming monosyllables acquire brute force in the topping, London-born revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s “Norman Conquests,” crippling you with laughter that shakes the body and, more subversively, fractures the soul.

The response these words elicit is in inverse proportion to the volume at which they are spoken. They are usually uttered quietly, as reflexively as you or I might say them in the course of an average day. But “oh” and “aah” are stealth killers — variously packed with surprise, disappointment, anger, triumph and confusion — in the context of the trilogy of plays now in giddy rotation at the Circle in the Square. And they keep gathering strength during the seven speeding hours it takes to perform Mr. Ayckbourn’s three comedies, first staged in the early 1970s and looking younger and healthier than ever in the production that opened Thursday night.

Has there been a better season on Broadway for ensemble acting? This six-character work, which arrives from the Old Vic Theater Company under the mighty Matthew Warchus’s direction, joins the swelling list of comedies, dramas and musicals in which performers connect and balance like ace trapeze artists. These include the recently opened “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” “reasons to be pretty,” “Next to Normal,” “Mary Stuart” and Mr. Warchus’s production of “God of Carnage,” which in its fiercely comic depiction of toxic families bears a passing resemblance to “Conquests.”

But the show that pairs off most naturally with Mr. Ayckbourn’s trilogy is one that opened in the fall. That is (and no, I haven’t lost my mind) Ian Rickson’s transcendent interpretation of Chekhov’s “Seagull.” For in its impeccably natural portrayal of tales of ordinary misery, “Conquests” suggests nothing so much as Chekhov pumped full of nitrous oxide. Like “The Seagull” it is built on one of the wonderful paradoxes of theater: deeply unhappy people can generate profound happiness in audiences allowed to eavesdrop on their lives.

Throughout his prolific career Mr. Ayckbourn has more traditionally been characterized as a British Neil Simon, whipping up one hit sitcom after another. That was pretty much how I felt when, as a student, I first saw “The Norman Conquests” on Broadway in 1976, with a cast that included Richard Benjamin, Paula Prentiss and Estelle Parsons. I thought it was mildly funny but kind of lame. Asked to rank it in relation to “All in the Family” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” I would have given it a distant third.

I have grown to appreciate Mr. Ayckbourn more, partly from having the chance to see his work with British casts who plug into his rhythms with an ease that eludes most American actors. But after seeing this “Conquests,” I’m moving Mr. Ayckbourn into my private V.I.P. lounge of contemporary playwrights, to join, among others, Harold Pinter, August Wilson, Caryl Churchill and David Mamet. The story of a philandering loser and the lives he brightens and smudges, “Conquests” finds Mr. Ayckbourn manipulating the conventions of theater with an abstract mathematician’s cold genius and a poet’s broken heart.

I’m surprised by my own assessment. “Conquests” is of an era (the 1970s) and a genre (the sex farce) I have little innate fondness for. The setup, which would seem to invite mostly smirks, is established anew in all three plays, which cover the same time period in different settings: “Table Manners” (set in a dining room), “Living Together” (a living room) and “Round and Round the Garden” (guess).

Norman (Stephen Mangan), an assistant librarian with unruly hair and manners to match, arrives to run away for a “dirty weekend” with the downtrodden Annie (Jessica Hynes), who for years has been trapped taking care of her invalid mother in a big Victorian house in the country. Without revealing her real plans, Annie has enlisted her brother, Reg (Paul Ritter), and his wife, Sarah (Amanda Root), to look after the tyrannical (and never seen) Mum.

Annie and Norman would have both left someone behind: Tom (Ben Miles), the veterinarian who is Annie’s kind-of boyfriend, and Ruth (Amelia Bullmore), Annie’s sister and Norman’s wife. It isn’t giving away too much to reveal that Annie and Norman’s weekend never happens. Well it does, but it happens at Annie’s house and involves every one of the people just mentioned.

Does this description sound familiar? I mean, the part about out-of-town visitors descending on a resentful homebody in the country. That’s the starting point in at least three Chekhov plays, “The Seagull,” “Uncle Vanya” and “The Cherry Orchard.” And Mr. Ayckbourn, like Chekhov, mines the explosive potential of irritable, dissatisfied and restlessly bored people in close quarters. Explosions of lust, anger and fed-up exasperation all occur.

But it’s the sense of fraught emotions percolating beneath the surface that makes Mr. Warchus’s production feel so eye-openingly ordinary. You know what it’s like when grown-up family members reunite, when simple domestic tasks like setting the table, seating a dinner party, washing the dishes or playing a board game become occasions for quick (and instantly repressed) flare-ups. The hostility behind such outbursts would be scary if it weren’t so damn funny.

Mr. Ayckbourn takes artful advantage of the plays’ time period, the height of the sexual revolution, to probe the discontented wistfulness of his self-involved characters. (Rob Howell’s designs capture both the unfortunate fashion sense of that era and the classical shabbiness of a long-neglected family homestead.) The prospect of a “dirty weekend” becomes a glimpse of paradise, because it offers the fantasy of escape from a no-exit world of monotony. When the characters in “Norman” are asked if they’re happy, a typical response goes like this: “Yes. Mostly. Occasionally. Now and then. I don’t know.”

That’s how Sarah answers the question, but it could be any of the others. Except that it couldn’t, because everyone here, while cut from the same cloth of loneliness and selfishness, is so achingly individual, from the way they wear their hair to how they kiss (which, under Mr. Warchus’s direction becomes a comedy of biological improbabilities).

Ms. Hynes’s frowsy, brusque Annie; Ms. Root’s thin-lipped controlling Sarah; Mr. Ritter’s passive, clownish Reg; Mr. Miles’s slow-thinking, stoical Tom; and Ms. Bullmore’s brittle, disaffected Ruth: all are as vivid as your own family at breakfast on the vacation from hell. Mr. Mangan’s oversexed-sheepdoglike Norman is magnetic to them all because he is their unedited ids incarnate: narcissistic, longing to dominate and oh so hungry for attention and affection.

That the theater is in the round is not, for once, a disadvantage, because the backs and shoulders of these performers are as expressive of these bottled emotions as their faces are. As for what happens when the decanting comes (three times), via some homemade wine, I’ll gallantly refrain from diluting the pleasure of your tasting it.

I know the question you want to ask. If you see only one of these plays, which should it be? Let me put it this way: You can’t lose with any one, but you win big if you go to all three. Seeing the entire trilogy in one day, as I did, allowed me the luxurious privilege of getting to know characters in a way that only fat novels allow. I wouldn’t have sacrificed one “oh,” “aah” or pause of those seven hours.

Ruth, who is seriously nearsighted but refuses to wear her glasses, says testily to her husband: “I can see as well as you. It’s only people I sometimes can’t see very clearly.” This is a condition shared by all the characters in “The Norman Conquests.” But you, lucky theatergoer, will see them with 20-20 vision. That’s guaranteed by each of the plays. Go to all three, and you’ll be thinking you have Superman’s X-ray eyes.

A *** review from Elisabeth Vincentelli in THE NEW YORK POST...

A MERRY British sprite has been sprinkling magic dust all over Broad way. No, it's not Mary Poppins: It's Matthew Warchus. After last season's "Boeing-Boeing" and, more recently, "God of Carnage," the director's just spun comic gold out of another good-not-great play.

Warchus' main asset is his sense of the way timing and spatial relationships work together. He's like a chess master mapping his moves several turns in advance, a gift that comes in handy when tackling the intricately plotted "The Norman Conquests."

Over the course of three distinct plays ("Table Manners," "Living Together" and "Round and Round the Garden"), playwright Alan Ayckbourn scrutinizes the hectic events that take place over two days in an English country house. Each installment unfurls in a different part of the estate at various times of the weekend.

And while the pieces stand alone, making it possible to see just one (if pressed, I'd opt for "Table Manners"), Ayckbourn's intended effect is definitely cumulative.

As is customary in farce, there is a detonator. Here it's the perpetually disheveled Norman (Stephen Mangan), a self-described "gigolo trapped in a haystack," whose merry appetite for women and life simply cannot be contained.

Even though he's married to Ruth (Amelia Bullmore), Norman plans a romantic getaway with his wife's sister, Annie (Jessica Hynes), herself sort of wooed by hapless veterinarian Tom (Ben Miles). Adding to the fun are a third sibling, Reg (Paul Ritter), and his spouse, Sarah (Amanda Root), both of whom have their own conflicted relationship with Norman.

Fatigue seeps in by the time the third play rolls around -- let's count our blessings that Ayckbourn didn't include the bedroom and the basement. At times the tracking of the characters' moves starts feeling like a game of Clue: It's Reg in the setting room with the wastebasket! No, it's Sarah in the garden with the fuse wire!

Such a reference certainly fits with Ayckbourn's playful love for puzzle-like structures. The technical complexity often camouflages a bittersweet sense of general dissatisfaction, but while this aspect certainly isn't brushed off here, the show, staged in the round, shines most in inspired comic set pieces.

Warchus understands on a visceral level the seemingly contradictory importance of abandon and precision when drawing laughs: You have to let loose but always remain in control. Here this translates into utmost clarity (you always know who's doing what where) and actorly fireworks.

Whether it's Bullmore endowing the nearsighted Ruth with chicken-like twitches, Hynes awkwardly fumbling in an oversize cardigan, or Ritter reacting to foul homemade carrot wine, the cast (brought over from the Old Vic production) is never less than awe-inspiring.

Ayckbourn may have turned standard boulevard comedy inside-out in "The Norman Conquests," but this crack team stitched it back together with brio.

elisabeth.vincentelli @nypost.com

THE NORMAN CONQUESTS

A ***** review from Joe Dziemianowicz in THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS...

"The Norman Conquests"
Through July 25,
Circle in the Square, 235 W. 50th St.
Tickets: $107-$112; $225 for the trilogy.
(212) 239-6200

Unbridled libido makes for uncontrollable laughter in "The Norman Conquests," now back on Broadway for the first time since 1975 in a gold-standard revival.

Alan Ayckbourn's ingenious play consists of three interlaced full-lengths: "Table Manners," "Living Together" and "Round and Round the Garden." The plays, which are running in rep, stand alone or as a trilogy.

Each comedy is set in a different part of an English country home and propelled by the eponymous horn dog's attempt to hook up with his wife's sister. (The intellectual trilogy "Coast of Utopia" this ain't.)

The show, direct from London's Old Vic, is a real treat. Not just because of the sheer size, but because Ayckbourn's ability to crack you up is consistently on display - zinger after zinger, scene after scene, play after play.

Much of the success owes to Matthew Warchus ("God of Carnage," "Boeing-Boeing"), a director with a Midas touch for comedy who's steered a wonderful, well-oiled cast from across the pond. The six actors draw you irresistibly into their exploits.

Stephen Mangan plays the fuzzy-faced assistant librarian and cad-clown Norman; Amelia Bullmore, his workaholic wife, Ruth; Jessica Hynes, her put-upon, fidgety sister, Annie, who's had a one-nighter with Norman; Paul Ritter, their henpecked brother, Reg; Amanda Root, his control-freak wife, Sarah, and Ben Miles is Tom, the dim vet who fancies Annie.

When all the characters collide at Annie's house, the comedy comes from the too-close-for-comfort situation. Some deeper observations about marriage, family and relationships also emerge.

"Table Manners" is the best, most essential, of the bunch. "Living Together" illuminates Norman and Ruth's marriage and Reg's hilarious penchant for inventing board games. "Round and Round the Garden" turns Ruth's myopia into something riotously slapstick, while Norman's desperation also gets spotlighted.

At the reconfigured Circle in the Square, the revival plays in the round. One eye-catching scenic element is a circular rendering of the family's country home, plus tiny trees, roads and cars. The model is depicted on the top and bottom of a disk the size of the stage, hanging just above the playing area - underscoring how the world can turn upside down in a flash.

As each act begins, the model disk rises up to the ceiling, reminding me of the mother ship in "Close Enounters." Fitting for an experience that's out of this world.

jdziemianowicz@nydailynews.com