London
Director Robert Altman recently collected a special Oscar for lifetime achievement, but seldom has the yawning chasm between making movies and directing stage productions been so starkly illustrated. The late Arthur Miller's penultimate play (first produced in Minneapolis in 2002) is a topical response to the extremism of modern politics, religion, and pop culture set in an unspecified banana republic where the presiding general sells rights to the crucifixion of a new ''messiah'' to American television. But Miller's urgent satire is blurred by uncertain performances from Maximilian Schell, James Fox, Matthew Modine, and Neve Campbell. Far from resurrecting Blues, Altman effectively buries it. (Tickets: Call 01144 870 060 6628, or visit Old Vic Theatre's website)

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