The British came out for The Invention of Love opening March 29 - they are filmdom's Gwyneth Paltrow (not technically British, but associated with the other side of pond thanks to "Shakespeare in Love") and Alan Rickman and director Simon McBurney, currently in town with his creation, Mnemonic.
The Invention of Love has as its central character the conservative, not to say dour, 19th century English poet and scholar A.E. Housman (1859-1936). Stoppard's story begins with Housman, old and infirm, dreaming he is dead and being ferried across the river Styx by the mythical boatman Charon. Housman is best known for his collection of poems titled "A Shropshire Lad." Through his melancholy, longing poetry—according to Invention of Love production notes—he expressed his lifelong unrequited passion for a fellow student at Oxford, Moses Jackson. Robert Sean Leonard and Richard Easton play Housman young and old, respectively.