PLAYING FOR IMMORTALITY.(theater producer Sam Mendes)

In 2001, the British director Sam Mendes announced the end of his run as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, the flashy and successful London theatre he had co-founded nine years earlier. Under Mendes's supervision, the Donmar had been transformed from an unused rehearsal hall for the Royal Shakespeare Company to the focal point of theatrical chic. For the most part, Mendes had staged contemporary plays, ranging from David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross" to David Hare's "The Blue Room," in which Nicole Kidman briefly appeared nude, and David Auburn's "Proof," starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Mendes also directed a tricked-up version of "Cabaret" (more raunch, more drugs, ...