Fully Committed Menier Chocolate Factory, London SE1
Recent off-Broadway hits have tended to tank in London (Wit, Fuddy Meers), and even former Broadway mainstays such as Dirty Blonde have also been struggling this side of the pond.
All the more reason, then, to raise a glass - or, perhaps, proffer a profiterole - to Fully Committed. Becky Mode's 1999 play opened in July at Borough's Menier Chocolate Factory, one of the capital's newer venues.
And last week came the news that its original seven-week run has been extended by nearly as much again - the solo show is now scheduled to close on 17 October.
Why this play's success? Chalk up some of the play's appeal to its subject: life in a posh Manhattan restaurant as seen from the below-stairs reservations room, where aspiring actor Sam deals with a cocaine-happy maitre d', a brutal chef, and the, uh, singular demands of diner Naomi Campbell.
('Fully committed' is pretentious New York-speak for 'fully booked'.) Then there's performer Mark Setlock, whose study in comic frenzy mixed with just a touch of fury fully deserves every critical bouquet.
· Matt Wolf is London theatre critic of Variety and the International Herald Tribune
