Could it be, all modesty aside, that British theatre is really the best in the world? It's terribly un-British to suggest it, of course - much more fun to moan about jaundiced jukebox musicals, Andrew Lloyd Webber, the annual announcement of the death of the West End. So, hey, we'll have to let the Americans do it for us. Nominations for this year's Tony Awards, to be held in New York on June 15, are so full of British names it's like the New World never happened. If it's not productions that began life on British soil - Rock'n'Roll, The 39 Steps, The Seafarer, Boeing-Boeing - it's British writers (Harold Pinter, Christopher Hampton), directors (Rufus Norris) and actors (Eve Best, Ben Daniels).

Is it that Broadway has become too bloated to originate any straight plays itself? (The musical nominees are American, apart from the Menier Chocolate Factory's high-tech revival of Sunday in the Park with George.) Stoppard's Rock'n'Roll and Boeing-Boeing cost £300,000 to put in the West End, but cost £2.5 million and £2.7 million respectively to put on Broadway. Perhaps New York producers can't afford to gamble on quality.

Or could it be that there is something about British theatre to shout about? That subsidised theatres and commercial producers are getting better at working together? That artistic ambition and entrepreneurial nous can come together, as in the unsubsidised Menier's Sondheim revival? And that the varied diet of British theatre allows directors to see bright ideas (such as Macbeth's witches as blood-spattered nurses) through to their conclusion. Or, hey-ho, maybe we just got lucky. We asked some prime local players, including several of this year's Tony nominees, whether the nods from New York should wake us up to the good news about British theatre.

Kevin Spacey, artistic director, Old Vic,

Tony winner

Should we be proud of these nominations? Absolutely! I've been here for five years, and I've always thought that something good is happening with London theatre. And if it takes the Tonys to wake us up to that, well, good for us. Theatre is the centre of British culture, it's the reason why London has become the cultural capital of Europe. Sometimes it gets noticed, sometimes it goes quietly in the night. Then you look back and think: “That was good, and that was good; wow, this is really a renaissance.”

Yeah, it's difficult to get new work to a big audience, but if you believe in something you make it happen. Last year we had 54 shows at the Edinburgh Fringe by people who had been on our writers' programme. All you can do is be a mentor for the next generation. Talented and ambitious people do not need motivating!

Michael Attenborough, artistic director, the Almeida

The nominations are both a function of the weakness of Broadway and the strength of London. New York is an unbalanced theatre town. People are used to shows, not plays, and when they see a play they like the reassurance of something that has already been on in London, the intimation of success.

If there is a flaw in the West End, it's this obsession with names. Producers ask who's in it before they've heard the title. And that educates the public into looking for names before anything else too. Creatively speaking, though, I think it's the most robust capital in the world, because there is such a crossover between commercial and subsidised. There may be lots wrong but these Tony nods - for a musical that started on the Fringe, 39 Steps, which started in Leeds and then the Tricycle, Tom's play at the Royal Court - are a sign of something.

Sonia Friedman, producer of Boeing-Boeing,

Rock'n'Roll

Do the Tonys suggest that things are getting healthier for new plays here? It's a complicated answer. One is quite pragmatic, to do with one man, the American producer Bob Boyett. He has 40 nominations, which makes my 10 look pathetic! His deal with the National has led to relationships with people such as me and the Chocolate Factory. Take his name away and it would be a different story.

Creatively, there will always be wonderful plays here, wonderful actors. The problem is that in the West End it's the stars that draw audiences for new work. And actors who sell tickets don't want to commit to more than 10 or 12-week runs. That makes it tough to make your money back. When it's a new play, it's even tougher. I'm hoping to transfer The Pitmen Painters from the National. I'm assuming that a wonderful new play, a great ensemble cast, great reviews, will be enough. But you don't know.

It's very exciting for theatre at the moment. It just has to be extra special - the average doesn't survive in the West End any more. And that's a good thing.

Rufus Sewell, nominee, best actor, Rock'n'Roll

The Pinter, Bennetts and Stoppards came through a theatre scene with a strong history of rep and subsidy, which doesn't happen on Broadway. There's one American playwright, Tracy Letts, who got a new play up for a Tony [August: Osage County]. But he's the exception. And, for sure, had it not been a hit, his next play wouldn't see the light of day.

The rep system has died, but subsidy is still a huge force in Britain, which means new playwrights can have a stab at something original and are at liberty to muck it up. Places such as the National and the Royal Court are constantly finding new talent that isn't judged on a strictly commercial basis, some of which ends up on Broadway. And though it's getting harder everywhere, in England the space is still there for tomorrow's Stoppards to come through.

David Babani, artistic director, Menier Chocolate Factory, producer, Sunday in the Park with George. Nine nominations

The big difference between London and New York is economic. Sunday in the Park we can put on at the Menier for an affordable sum of money. Just about. Off-Broadway, the start-up costs are prohibitive. Before you even design a set or hire an actor you're talking millions.

A few years ago, nine times out of ten the Pulitzer Prize went to something Off-Broadway playing to 300 or 400 people a night. But the the marketing, the labour costs, are killing that kind of operation. Off-Broadway has dwindled.

Everyone's saying, wow, look at all the straight plays on Broadway! They are there because they can't go anywhere else. And the British shows that make it there have had months or years to develop. It's not that we're better than New York. It's that we can afford to take more risks. And now we're seeing the bounty.

Edward Snape, producer, The 39 Steps. Six nominations

Our show has gone from being performed in village halls to playing in 20 countries. I've been involved for six or seven years. A lot has changed, but the original idea of four actors, two of whom have the unfair task of playing most of the characters, has persisted.

The cost factor of New York is astonishing, although the West End is for the first time more expensive for tickets. It cost us £225,000 to put on The 39 Steps in London. It's cost $2.2 million in New York. And I did it tightly!

For the land of the free, the unions are very powerful. The New York Times has a stranglehold on marketing. London is so lucky to have all these funded theatres - £20 million for the National? There's no comparison!

Nica Burns, West End producer and theatre owner, former Tony nominee

London theatre is thriving. But, being British, we're not very good as saying that this is what we're really good at. Instead we have to complain about how many musicals are on. And it was always thus. There was always a place for light entertainment. There no music halls any more, so musicals take their place.

I saw Tony Harrison's play Fram at the National the other day, and I said to Tony I couldn't have come to see this if I'd been really tired. You can go to Mamma Mia! or Hairspray whatever mood you're in. You go to That Face - which is an outstanding new play - and you're asked to go on an emotional journey, you want to talk about it all evening. It's fantastic when theatre can engage you like that. But it's not for everyone, is it?

Brits' hits and misses: critical raves or commercial graves

HIT The Homecoming (1967)

Poorly reviewed at first, Peter Hall's production made Pinter something to shout about in America. Won Tonys for best play, best actor (Paul Rogers) and best actress (Vivien Merchant).

HIT Sleuth (1970)

Anthony Shaffer's cat-and-mouse thriller ran for three years after first crossing the Atlantic in 1970. Anthony Quayle's role went to Laurence Olivier in the 1972 film.

MISS Bruce Forsyth on Broadway (1979)

Didn't he do well? He didn't, alas - Brucie's (above) one-man show closed after six nights. A similar fate befell Rowan Atkinson in 1986, in the days before Mr Bean made him as exportable as football.

HIT Amadeus (1980)

Peter Shaffer had his greatest triumph with this story of Salieri and Mozart, which ran for three years. Ian McKellen and Tim Curry replaced Paul Scofield and Simon Callow from the London production.

HIT The History Boys (2006)

A sell-out run and a ton of Tonys, as Alan Bennett's account of Oxbridge candidates in a Leeds comp proved universal.

MISS Coram Boy (2007)

The National's family spectacular sold out for two Christmases in London, but came and went on Broadway in May 2007, losing its backers an estimated $6 million (£3 million). Ouch. DM

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