Nicholas Hytner’s tenure at the head of the UK’s National Theatre has not been without difficulty, but at the moment, he is presiding over an institution widely thought to be at the top of its creative and popular game. “In the last financial year he made a small profit, even with a slash in ticket prices, instead of the $900,000 loss that was predicted. He has filled 90 percent of the 2,300 seats, many with first-timers (as credit cards receipts attest). And he has staged new, risky work and venerable classics – from “Jerry Springer – the Opera” to Euripides’ “Iphigenia at Aulis” to David Hare’s “Stuff Happens,” a docudrama about the Iraq war – while sometimes dazzling audiences and critics.”