Aren't We All?
Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York City
Opened 29 April, 1985; 93 performances
Role: Honourable William Tatham, aka "Willie"

Despite performing with a heavy heart, Jeremy won great acclaim for his role as Willie Tatham in this good old-fashioned drawing room comedy.

After wrapping up The Final Problem episode in the Sherlock Holmes series, Jeremy sought out work in the United States so he could be near his wife, Joan, who was undergoing cancer treatment.

He was so desperate to work in New York that he auditioned for the part. "At least I will have the distinction of being the oldest juvenile lead on Broadway," he reportedly told old friend Tarn Bassett.

Of course, there was no doubt that Jeremy was the man for the role, which the reviews below will prove.

But in the truest example of "the show must go on," Jeremy continued in Aren't We All? through July 23, 1985 -- after Joan's death on July 4. "I don’t know how I did those performances," he later told a radio interviewer.

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APPLAUSE

Heaping praise upon Aren't We All, a San Francisco Chronicle reviewer wrote that Frederick Lonsdale's "cheerfully vacant" 1923 drawing room comedy received a faultless revival under the direction of Clifford Williams:

The play revolves on the issue of whether a husband's malfeasance lies in kissing another woman or in being caught at it. From this burning issue, Lonsdale spins out a series of drolleries and elegant maxims about women and marriage and idleness and servants.

Jeremy Brett is the husband, Lynn Redgrave his wounded though far from blameless wife, and they both display a dancer's precision and assurance in every move.

Rex Harrison and Claudette Colbert play a pair of "seasoned'' observers of rocky young love.

A New York Times reviewer had further praise, especially for Jeremy: "Mr. Brett is the most charming specimen of debonair English manhood to come our way since Jeremy Irons skipped town."

The New York Times review further outlined the plot:

Aren't We All? is mostly about how Mr. Brett, having been consigned to domestic purgatory for his indiscretion of kissing a vamp while his wife was away on holiday, seeks to catch the self-righteous Miss Redgrave in an extramarital kiss of her own. The rest of the plot deals with Miss Colbert's attempts to snare a marriage proposal from Mr. Harrison, a randy peer fond of afternoon assignations with shopgirls at the British Museum.

A review in On Theater said:

The alluring, aristocratic Jeremy Brett manage[s] the not inconsiderable feat of being both romantic and funny, liberally scattering charm and comedic technique without losing a certain decorous equipoise.

And Liz Smith beamed in her June 27, 1985, column:

I had an incredible experience this week on Broadway -- in the Brooks Atkinson Theater, to be exact. I watched ... a distinguished cast play Aren't We All? to an audience of ladies and gentlemen. ... The nostalgic experience and delight of seeing this exquisite old-style drawing room comedy amid a group of civilized people was just perfection. ... Jeremy Brett, is one of the most accomplished and amusing actors ever.

PREPARATION

Jeremy described his approach to the role in a May 8, 1985, New York Times article:

"The way one works on these things, if you're me, is you try and find the essence of the person, where you came from and where you're going to," explains the actor, who has worked out a complicated history for his character. In Mr. Brett's mind, Willie has served in World War I, and has lost most of his contemporaries to the casualty lists. While he adores his wife, she has recently undergone some kind of breakdown that precipitated the long trip to Egypt from which she returns as the play begins.

Mr. Brett found the creation of such a history necessary for him to grasp the part. "I had a terrible time trying to find Willie," he admits. "I thrashed around and explored everything. The real greatness of Rex is that he makes it look so easy. It is all incredibly complicated."

Miss Redgrave also found such discussions necessary. "The thing Jeremy and I had to talk about a great deal was the back story of what sent Margot to Egypt," she says. "You don't go off for six months if your marriage is all right."

... The two continue to devote intense scrutiny to the interaction between their characters. "Lynnie knows comedy, and she teaches me," Mr. Brett reports. "She gives me notes." He points to his script, which is riddled with instructions from his co-star, each carefully dated by performance. "See -- here's a whole series from May 2. If I get something wrong, she'll tell me -- and she's always right, which makes it worse."

Wikipedia page // Internet Broadway Database