from june 1971 to january 1972, he worked for the royal national theatre. he acted in jean giraudoux's "amphitryon 38" directed by laurence olivier; georg büchner's "danton's death"; adrian mitchell's "tyger"; luigi pirandello's "the rules of the game"; and eugene o'neill's "long day's journey into night" at the new theatre in london. from may to june 1973, he was on broadway. he played the main character in "cyrano". it was a musical version of edmond rostand's 1897 play "cyrano de bergerac". plummer won a tony award and a drama desk award for that role. later that year, he played anton chekhov in neil simon's "the good doctor". he played quentin in arthur miller's 1974 version of "after the fall".