Editing Robert Helpmann (section)

===1950s===
[[File:Fonteyn Helpmann Sleeping Beauty Sadler's Wells US tour (2).jpg|thumb|Helpmann and Fonteyn in ''The Sleeping Beauty'', 1953]]

In 1950 Helpmann directed an opera for the first time – the Covent Garden production of ''[[Madama Butterfly]]'', with [[Elisabeth Schwarzkopf]] in the title role. The production outlasted its director: after many revivals its final performances at the Royal Opera House were in 1993.<ref>[http://www.rohcollections.org.uk/Production.aspx?production=1674 "Madam Butterfly"], Royal Opera House performance archive. Retrieved 27 May 2019</ref> The following year he joined Olivier and Vivien Leigh at the [[St James's Theatre]], where they presented Shakespeare's ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]'' and [[George Bernard Shaw|Shaw]]'s ''[[Caesar and Cleopatra (play)|Caesar and Cleopatra]]''. Helpmann played Octavius Caesar in the first and Apollodorus in the second.<ref name=who/> When the productions were taken to [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] at the end of the year he played the same roles.<ref name=who/> He appeared in another Shaw play the following year, as the male lead, the Doctor, opposite [[Katharine Hepburn]] as Epifania, in ''[[The Millionairess (play)|The Millionairess]]''.<ref>"New Theatre", ''The Times'', 28 June 1952, p. 8</ref> Between these plays Helpmann acted in the [[Powell and Pressburger]] film ''[[The Tales of Hoffmann (film)|The Tales of Hoffmann]]'', conducted by [[Sir Thomas Beecham]] and choreographed by Ashton. Helpmann played all four of the villains in the various stories within the opera, his singing voice dubbed by the Welsh bass Bruce Dargavel.<ref>[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b799f78 "The Tales of Hoffmann" (1951)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107105127/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b799f78 |date=7 January 2019 }}, British Film Institute. Retrieved 27 May 2019</ref>

In 1953 Helpmann returned to the Old Vic, directing a new production of ''[[Murder in the Cathedral]]'' with [[Robert Donat]] as Becket.<ref>"The Old Vic", ''The Times'', 1 April 1953, p. 6</ref> On [[Coronation of Elizabeth II|Coronation night]] in June 1953 Helpmann returned to Covent Garden as a guest artist to dance Prince Siegfried in ''[[Swan Lake]]''.<ref name=who/> The following year he again directed and choreographed an opera there, ''[[The Golden Cockerel]]'', with a cast including [[Mattiwilda Dobbs]], [[Hugues Cuénod]] and [[Geraint Evans]].<ref>[http://www.rohcollections.org.uk/production.aspx?production=4224&row=1&searchtype=workprodperf&person=Robert%20Helpmann "Le Coq d'or (1954)"], Royal Opera House performance archive. Retrieved 27 May 2019</ref> The following year brought two contrasting directing engagements: the first was ''[[The Tempest]]'' at the Old Vic, with [[Michael Hordern]] as Prospero, [[Richard Burton]] as Caliban and [[Claire Bloom]] as Miranda.<ref>"Old Vic", ''The Times'', 14 April 1954, p. 4</ref> Then followed [[Noël Coward]]'s musical ''[[After the Ball (musical)|After the Ball]]'', based on [[Oscar Wilde]]'s ''[[Lady Windermere's Fan]]''. Helpmann discovered that the combination of Coward and Wilde was not a success: "Everything that Noël sent up, Wilde was sentimental about, and everything that Wilde sent up Noël was sentimental about. It was two different points of view and it didn't work."<ref>Castle, p. 213</ref>

In May 1955 Helpmann returned to Australia, leading a tour of the country by the Old Vic company, with Hepburn as a guest artist. He played Petruchio in ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]'', Angelo in ''[[Measure for Measure]]'' and Shylock.<ref name=adb/> At the Old Vic in 1956 he directed [[John Neville (actor)|John Neville]] and Claire Bloom in ''Romeo and Juliet'',<ref>"The Old Vic", ''The Times'', 13 June 1956, p. 3</ref> a production later given on Broadway.<ref name=who/> He joined the company as an actor later in the year, playing Shylock, Launce in ''[[The Two Gentlemen of Verona]]'', Saturnius in ''[[Titus Andronicus]]'' and the title role in ''[[Richard III (play)|Richard III]]''.<ref name=who/>

During 1957 Helpmann played the title role in [[Jean-Paul Sartre]]'s ''[[Nekrassov]]'',<ref>Sorley Walker (1998b), p. 275</ref> and then took over the lead part of Sebastien in Coward's comedy ''[[Nude with Violin]]'' in London. The role had been created by [[John Gielgud]], who had been succeeded, not altogether satisfactorily, by [[Michael Wilding]].<ref>Gielgud, p. 205</ref> Helpmann's vitality revived the spirits of the company, and the play continued its run into the following year.<ref>Mander and Mitchenson, p. 460; and "Theatres", ''The Times'', 1 February 1958, p. 2</ref> Helpmann toured Australia in the piece in 1958–59, after he had returned to ballet for a season at Covent Garden in ''The Rake's Progress'', ''Hamlet'', ''Coppélia'', ''Miracle in the Gorbals'' and ''[[Petrushka]]''.<ref name=who/> His performance in the last of these was not well received: in the role of a lovelorn puppet, he was seen as too overtly human and intelligent.<ref>Sorley Walker (1998b), p. 276$277</ref>