Broadway success, Deathtrap in which he originated the role of Sidney Bruhl, a murderous playwright. Explaining his decision to take the part (a more commercial and contemporary venture than he was normally associated with), Wood told Newsweek, "I just wanted to get onstage in ordinary pants and do one-liners." His performance won the 1978 Outer Critics Circle Outstanding Actor in a Play award. Wood returned to London as Richard III in a 1979 National Theatre production of the Shakespeare play, but his performance received mixed reviews. At the National Theatre at the same time he was also in Arthur Schnitzler's Undiscovered Country. Wood returned to Broadway in November 1981, taking over for Ian McKellen as Salieri in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus until spring 1982. From 1983 and 1986, he acted in a variety of Hollywood films, including WarGames (1983), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1984), Ladyhawke (1985), and Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986). He then played the Player in the 1987 New York revival of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Wood then returned to England and the RSC for three towering roles over the next three years. In 1988 he played an acclaimed a successful Prospero in Nicholas Hyner's production of The Tempest. The critic Irving Wardle said that Wood, "lit up the text like an electric storm, and simply had no rival as a source of nervous energy on a stage." Michael Billington wrote that Wood's Prospero "struck me as the best I had ever seen". His Solness in Adrian Noble's 1989 production of Ibsen's The Master Builder was as critically lauded. In the same 1989 RSC season he played Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner directed by Gene Saks. His King Lear in Nicholas Hytner's 1990 production was called his "crowning achievement" with one of his most compelling performances, in which Michael Billington claimed, "No actor has also brought out King Lear's emotional anarchy: I've never forgotten how Wood, having issued the most terrifying threats to Goneril, suddenly rushed up to embrace her.". His performance won the Evening Standard award for Best Actor of 1991. In that RSC season, he also played Don Armado in Terry Hands production of Love's Labour's Lost. Thereafter, Wood appeared in far fewer plays but returned to playing character roles in films and television. This included Shadowlands (1993), Nicholas Hytner's The Madness of King George (1994), Sabrina (1995), and Ian McKellen's fascist-themed