Two shows dominated the Tony awards and proved Broadway’s debt to British taxpayers

Sam Mendes's The Lehman Trilogy and Marianne Elliott's Company took 10 prizes between them and demonstrated the power of UK subsidised theatre

Brits Triumph on Broadway" is one of those newspaper headlines - like Snow Causes Road and Rail Chaos" - that should be kept in permanent type. And, sure enough, the latest edition of the Tony awards has produced a slew of British winners including 10 top prizes shared between The Lehman Trilogy and Company. This confirms my thesis that Broadway, the most rampantly commercial theatre on earth, depends heavily on the British taxpayer - and before anyone points out that Company originated in the West End I would observe that its director, Marianne Elliott, and its designer, Bunny Christie, are both products of the subsidised sector.

What is striking this year is that both the big British winners offer an original take on quintessentially American themes. The Lehman Trilogy was originally a five-hour, large-cast Italian play by Stefano Massini. But it was Sam Mendes as director and Ben Power as adapter who had the bright idea of trimming the text and deploying just three actors for their triumphant 2018 National Theatre production. Mendes has said that the play was developed over three years without the constraint of a schedule or even a plan ... it was allowed time to find its form." That reminds me of the gradual evolution of another National Theatre hit, War Horse, and is the kind of luxury only a subsidised theatre can provide.