Editing Alec McCowen (section)

===Later theatre work===
McCowen enjoyed a career breakthrough at the [[Mermaid Theatre]] in April 1968 as Fr. William Rolfe in ''[[Hadrian the Seventh]]'', winning his first [[Evening Standard Award|''Evening Standard'' Award]] as Best Actor for the London production and a [[Tony Award|Tony nomination]] after the transfer to [[Broadway theatres|Broadway]].

At the [[Royal Court Theatre|Royal Court]] in August 1970, McCowen was cast to play the title role in [[Christopher Hampton]]'s sophisticated comedy, ''[[The Philanthropist (play)|The Philanthropist]]''. If a philanthropist is literally someone who likes people, McCowen's Philip was a philologist with a compulsive urge not to hurt people's feelings – the inverse of [[Molière]]'s ''The Misanthrope''. Following enthusiastic reviews the production played to packed houses and transferred to the Mayfair Theatre where it ran for a further three years, making it the Royal Court's most successful straight play. McCowen and his co-star [[Jane Asher]] went with it to Broadway in March 1971 where he won the 1971 [[Drama Desk Award]] for Outstanding Performance.

McCowen's next big successes were in [[National Theatre Company]] productions at the [[Old Vic]]. In February 1973 he co-starred with [[Diana Rigg]] in Molière's ''[[The Misanthrope]]'' for which he won his second ''Evening Standard'' award; followed in July 1973 by the role of [[psychiatrist]] Martin Dysart ("played on a knife edge of professional skill and personal disgust by McCowen", according to [[Irving Wardle]] reviewing for ''The Times'') in the world premiere of [[Peter Shaffer]]'s ''[[Equus (play)|Equus]]''. McCowen took part in the first professional UK staging of Weill's ''[[Street Scene (opera)|Street Scene]]'', at the [[Palace Theatre, London|Palace Theatre]], London on 26 April 1987 (as Harry Easter), a charity performance in aid of [[London Lighthouse]] conducted by [[John Owen Edwards]].<ref>[[Milnes, Rodney]]. At the Musical - Street Scene. ''[[Opera (British magazine)|Opera]]'', July 1987, p840-841.</ref>

McCowen devised and directed his own solo performance of the complete text of the [[Gospel of Mark|St. Mark's Gospel]], for which he received international acclaim and another [[Tony Award|Tony]] nomination. It opened first at the [[Riverside Studios]] in January 1978 before beginning a long West End season at the [[Mermaid Theatre]] then at the [[Comedy Theatre]]. Taking the production to New York, he appeared at the [[Marymount Manhattan]] and Playhouse theatres.

[[Christopher Hampton]]'s stage adaptation of [[George Steiner]]'s novel ''[[The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H.]]'' at the Mermaid in 1982 gave McCowen a great final speech, an attempted vindication of racial extermination delivered by [[Adolf Hitler]], which for ''[[The Guardian|Guardian]]'' critic [[Michael Billington (critic)|Michael Billington]] was "one of the greatest pieces of acting I have ever seen: a shuffling, grizzled, hunched, baggy figure, yet suggesting the monomaniac power of the [[Nuremberg Rallies]], inhabiting the frail vessel of this old man's body." It was a performance that also won him his third ''Evening Standard'' Best Actor award, a record equalled only by [[Laurence Olivier]] and [[Paul Scofield]].

Two years later, again at the Mermaid, McCowen gave a portrayal of the British poet [[Rudyard Kipling]] in a one-man play by Brian Clark, performed in a setting that exactly matched Kipling's own study at [[Bateman's]] (his Jacobean rustic haven in [[Sussex]]) "and turning", as Michael Billington wrote, "an essentially private man into a performer." McCowen appeared in the play on Broadway and on television for [[Channel 4]].