Can Branagh save West End from musicals?

Can actor Kenneth Branagh help fight off the relentless march of the musicals and make serious plays popular again in the West End? The critical acclaim for his debut last night in the Donmar Warehouse production of Chekhov's Ivanov suggests there's a chance.

"Kenneth Branagh is in magnificent form as Ivanov, combining the heartache of a down-at-heel Hamlet with the vituperative, self-lacerating rage of Osborne's Jimmy Porter," says Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph. Paul Taylor in the Independent calls Branagh's performance "beyond praise".

Ivanov kicks off a year-long season of Donmar productions at the newly refurbished Wyndham’s Theatre on the Charing Cross Road. In an effort to fill the theatre, Donmar - which will continue to put on productions at its Covent Garden base – is keeping Wyndham’s ticket prices low, with best seats priced at £32.50.

Michael Grandage, Donmar's artistic director, is hoping the Wyndham's season - which includes Judi Dench and Rosamund Pike in Madame de Sade, Derek Jacobi in Twelfth Night and Jude Law in Hamlet - will tempt theatre-goers away from the increasingly dominant musicals.

"Right now there is a debate going on about whether the straight play is still valid in the West End," said Grandage, who admitted that musicals "seem to be taking over".

Ivanov - the story of a Russian landowner who has lost his appetite for life and is battling money and marital problems - has been adapted by Sir Tom Stoppard who believes it will take actors of Branagh's fame to draw the punters away from Andrew Lloyd-Webber offerings.

"It is hard for a straight play to survive in the West End if it does not have any actors in it that the public recognise in some way," said Stoppard. "My view of the matter is very simple: I think Kenneth is a great actor. I'm not going to hold it against him that he's a star." ·