The U.K.'s public health service is in crisis, threatening an institution at the center of British culture

“Nye,” an unlikely hit about the creator, and origin story, of Britain’s taxpayer-funded National Health Service, came at an inflection point for the NHS.

LONDON — Despite being headlined by a genuine star and staged at one of London’s premier theaters, a play about the foundation of a sprawling and troubled public service seemed unlikely to provoke night after night of standing ovations.

But that’s what happened with “Nye,” an unlikely hit about the creator, and origin story, of Britain’s taxpayer-funded National Health Service.

The play, written by Tim Price and directed by Rufus Norris, came at an inflection point for the NHS, as it’s known. Almost 80 years after it was founded, the medical service once touted as the envy of the world is “broken” and suffering the “biggest crisis in its history,” the government says. The crisis at this national bedrock is part of a bigger malaise at the heart of British culture: rising prices, stagnant wages and crumbling public services.

“I’m terrified, not just for the NHS, but for the whole of our society,” Michael Sheen, who starred as Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, the founder of the NHS, told NBC News in an interview. “Once it’s torn down, then I guess people will think about what they’ve lost.”

Michael Sheen performing in "Nye" at London's National Theatre. Johan Persson / National TheatreSheen, 56, better known to international audiences as Tony Blair in “The Queen,” David Frost in “Frost/Nixon” and the angel Aziraphale in the Amazon Prime series “Good Omens,” has spent much of the last two years honing his portrayal of Bevan, the socialist politician who dragged himself out of Wales’ coal mines to will the NHS into existence.