June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Hamlet warns his company of actors not to “tear a passion to tatters” or to “out-Herod Herod.” Hollywood star Jude Law, in an incandescent London performance of Shakespeare’s tragedy, heeds that advice.

Law’s journey through the title role at the Donmar West End is beautifully controlled. At first, we see a Hamlet riddled with self-indulgent adolescent angst. Dressed in a loose, dark- gray cotton top and black trousers, Law presents a lean and arrogant figure. He wraps his arms tightly around himself, as if hugging and nursing his own griefs.

His verse-speaking is a joy. He begins by coloring his delivery with an occasional note of tremulous bombast and a vocal quiver, which is self-consciously actorly and immature. Then begins the slow, hard road to maturity. When he finally reconciles himself to death -- “If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.” -- there is a core of stillness and light in his presentation that is affecting and memorable.

He’s well served by Michael Grandage’s minimalist and fluid production, which creates a claustrophobic Elsinore out of granite blocks and two huge sliding doors. The cast dresses in simple modern outfits in black and gray.

Squeaky Ophelia

Not all the acting is up to Law’s standard. Gugu Mbatha- Raw’s Ophelia can be precious and squeaky. Ron Cook sometimes whips up an inappropriately cheap laugh as Polonius. (Would he had heeded another of Hamlet’s lessons to his players: “Though it make the unskillful laugh, it cannot but make the judicious grieve,” he says.)

Kevin R. McNally is an authoritative Claudius, and Penelope Wilton is superb as Hamlet’s mother Gertrude: Her fear during the closet scene is almost palpable.

Tickets are like gold dust, though over 30 seats are released daily from 10 a.m. It’s worth standing in line for. Rating: ***1/2.

It’s a good time to catch Hollywood stars in classic plays. Gillian Anderson (of “X-Files” fame) is also in London, wowing audiences with a thrilling performance in an adaptation of Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House.”

She plays Nora, an upper-class Edwardian Englishwoman blackmailed for forging a promissory note to help her husband. Anderson looks luminously beautiful, and her English accent is pitch-perfect. She creates a gripping impression of a woman who hides her intelligence under feminine dippiness and pretty self- sacrifices.

Brutal Husband

Toby Stephens is terrific, too, as her politician husband Thomas. Initially, he’s considerate and gentlemanly; later, his selfishness and brutality explode like a geyser. Kfir Yefet’s staging, in period costume, is fast-paced and clear.

Adapter Zinnie Harris doesn’t always change things for the better. In the original, Nora’s decision to leave her husband is an ambiguous move, as she is suddenly given an independent inheritance to support herself. Here, Nora simply strikes a feminist blow for women’s emancipation: The ambiguity is gone. There are also too many modern turns of phrase (“I’ll grab your husband by the testicles!”), which make a nonsense of the Edwardian setting. Perhaps next time Harris should write her own play, rather than adapt someone else’s.

Still, a great cast and a cast-iron plot make this a show worth catching at the Donmar Warehouse. Rating: ***.

Musician on Trial

For a living playwright to have a show in the West End is rare. To have two simultaneously is unheard of. Lucky Ronald Harwood, whose “Taking Sides” and superb “Collaboration” are running in tandem at the Duchess Theatre.

Both are about famous musicians who worked with the Nazi regime. The first is a courtroom drama about the (real-life) de- Nazification trial of conductor Wilhelm Furtwaengler, whom the U.S. interrogating officer calls “Satan’s band leader.”

The second is about the composer Richard Strauss, who collaborated with the Third Reich to protect his Jewish daughter-in-law. It tells the story of Strauss’s happy relationship with the Jewish librettist Stefan Zweig, and Zweig’s hounding by the Nazis.

The subject matter may sound off-putting: Nothing could be further from the case. “Collaboration” is a celebration of the joy of creation, and of the pleasures of music. Strauss’s speech at the end, about his love for the deceased Zweig, made my eyes brim.

That said, neither play is action packed. Both are closer to Socratic dialogues, in which fascinating issues of power, art and tyranny are debated. They’re both gripping though: “Collaboration” especially.

The acting is impressive. David Horovitch transforms from a bullish American officer in “Taking Sides” into the neat and precise Zweig. Michael Pennington is an arrogant Furtwangler and a puppyish, jolly Strauss. Rating: ***.

Suburban Falstaff

The 75th Glyndebourne Festival has opened with Richard Jones’s laugh-a-minute new production of Verdi’s “Falstaff.” Jones updates the action to the late 1930s, and creates a cozy suburban world of mock-Tudor homes and permed hairstyles.

Christopher Purves sings the title role beautifully while wearing his rubber fat-suit with panache, and mezzo Marie-Nicole Lemieux brings the house down as a hilarious Mistress Quickly dressed as a girl-guide leader. There’s gorgeous playing from the orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski too. It doesn’t get any better. Rating: ****.

“Hamlet” is at Wyndham’s Theatre through Aug. 22. For details, see http://www.donmarwestend.com or +44-844-082-5120.

“A Doll’s House” is at the Donmar Warehouse until July 18. Details: http://www.donmarwarehouse.com or +44-870-060-6624.

“Collaboration” and “Taking Sides” are at the Duchess Theatre through Aug. 29. For more information, go to http://www.nimaxtheatres.com or call +44-844-579-1973.

“Falstaff” is at Glyndebourne until July 11. For details, see http://www.glyndebourne.com or call +44-1273-813813.

(Warwick Thompson is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

What the Stars Mean:
****      Excellent
***       Good
**        Average
*         Poor
(No stars)Worthless

To contact the writer on the story: Warwick Thompson, in London, at warwicktho@aol.com.

Last Updated: June 8, 2009 19:00 EDT