Manuel Harlan Starring in "National Anthems" are, from left, Kevin Spacey as Ben Cook, Mary Stuart Masterson as Leslie Reed and Steven Weber as Arthur Reed. Click photo for larger image.

LONDON -- American audiences at English plays in London theaters are used to the experience, famously described by Shaw (or was it Churchill?) of being divided by our common language. It's English they're speaking, no doubt, but there's bound to be a range of allusion and reference to puzzle us, and even the accents are different -- a whole range of them these days, not just old BBC Standard, as any viewer of BBC America knows well.

The three dozen Pittsburghers on the Post-Gazette's theater tour ran into the language barrier most intensely but productively at Alan Bennett's wonderful "History Boys," a dazzling comic drama about education, politics and all the national issues that congregate under the heading of History.

But the reverse dynamic is also possible, since there are almost as many American actors in American plays in London as there usually are Brits on Broadway. And sometimes there will be American references the Brits can't be expected to get fully -- allusions to Iron City, objects of faith like Western Pennsylvania high school football and even dialectical oddities like "yuns."

Those are all features of "National Anthems," the small but edgy 1988 comic drama by the late Dennis McIntyre, now playing at London's Old Vic under the artistic directorship of Kevin Spacey and starring him along with Steven Weber and Mary Stuart Masterson. The surprise of our Pittsburgh group at the unexpected cluster of familiar references hit a peak with Spacey's knowing but not entirely affectionate description of Iron City beer ("you could taste it for a week"). The resulting burst of laughter from our seats was clearly unexpected; we heard from the company the next day that they had all they could do to keep from breaking up on stage.

On stage, which is where it matters, "National Anthems" has been doing very well, drawing an especially young audience, or so the Old Vic says. That's a testament to the drawing power of Spacey rather than McIntyre, a graduate of the Carnegie Mellon playwriting program in the late 1960s who, having died in 1990, just 47, is little known at home, let alone here. The only play of his I recall is "Modigliani," staged a couple of decades ago in Oakland.

McIntyre first wrote "National Anthems" as "The Partycrasher" at the University of Michigan, where it won the same Hopwood Award that had earlier launched Arthur Miller. Later it had a student production at CMU. Still later it was renamed "The Name of the Game Is Ben," and then renamed "National Anthems." It was developed at Connecticut's O'Neill Theater Center in the mid-'80s. It had its premiere at GeVa Theatre in Rochester, N.Y., and in 1988 it appeared at New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre with Mary McDonnell, Tom Berenger and Spacey -- which is what suggested it for production here.

The British are well known for appreciating American playwrights they feel we have slighted, and McIntyre is certainly a candidate. But London critics are also known to savage American movie or TV stars with the temerity to try their legit chops on the stage -- the latest example is Kim Cattrall in "Whose Life Is It Anyway?"

Spacey has made himself an even more prominent target by daring not just the London stage but also stage management. Having conquered the town by winning an Olivier Award in "The Iceman Cometh," he signed on a year ago, amid much ado and media attention, to help rescue the endemically vulnerable Old Vic, a gorgeous old house with a heroic tradition, but awkwardly located near Waterloo Station, far from the theater district.

He started his first full season by directing Maria Goos' "Cloaca," rated a disappointment by many, but a Christmas pantomime, "Aladdin," starring Ian McKellen as Widow Twankey, did very well. "National Anthems" has sustained that momentum, which should carry through "The Philadelphia Story" (opens May 3, directed by Jerry Zaks), in which Spacey will also star. And to start the next season he will play the title role in a fairly well-known English play called "Richard II."

In "National Anthems," Spacey plays Ben Cook, resident of Birmingham, a suburb (not Grosse Pointe, but trying) of Detroit. New residents Arthur and Leslie Reed are cleaning up after the first party in their posh new house when Ben arrives, ostensibly to welcome them. Like some agent provocateur, he forces himself upon them, and they tolerate him, bragging about their possessions, while he feeds them gossip about the neighbors. Obviously he has some other agenda and the play eggs us on to figure it out while tantalizing us with hints of possible violence.

Arthur is a successful lawyer while Ben turns out to be a fireman -- not exactly the socioeconomic type you expect to find in this community -- who has just recently performed a daring rescue. As Ben stays, the Reeds get irritated, then intrigued and even supportive. Eventually Ben and Arthur discover their real bond -- both were high school football stars. This blossoms into a rough physical competition, for which they prepare by bragging about the relative blood-guts-and-concrete toughness of football in Arthur's native Detroit and Ben's native Pittsburgh.

The insecurity of all three characters, proud at having risen above their origins, feeds a litany of money talk, which adds up to a painfully funny satire on American materialism. But gradually even the most repellent character gains some sympathy -- and there are melancholy revelations to come.

The play is more than adequate, with a brooding air of mystery and some great patches of writing, though it doesn't have the ultimate crackle of David Mamet or Neil LaBute. But the acting is crackerjack, with Weber (a real surprise to me) and Spacey going at each other like enraged turkey cocks and Masterson flitting about in between them like the unfulfilled former cheerleader she plays.

Presented on a lavish naturalistic set by Jonathan Fensom, the play opens with the entire stage filled by a giant American flag. But it isn't just America that comes under the satiric gun. The theater program lists the full title as "The Origins and Evolution of National Anthems," and we take the obvious point that this male competitive behavior is the source of nationalism and war.

But that flag is also a boast. Under Spacey's leadership and with the significant talents he attracts, the Old Vic is developing a new life as a flagship of good American acting in London. It looks like a case, as Churchill did say, of the new world coming to the aid of the old.

"National Anthems" is at the Old Vic Theatre, London, through April 23. For tickets, see www.oldvictheatre.com.