In 1981 Helpmann staged another revival of his ballet "Hamlet", this time featuring Anthony Dowell. The production was given first at Covent Garden and was later taken to New York. In Sydney, Helpmann directed and choreographed Handel's opera "Alcina", and in the US he directed Lilli Palmer in a one-woman show about Sarah Bernhardt, "Sarah in America". The following year he appeared with Diana Rigg in Harvey Schmidt's musical, "Colette", which opened in Seattle but folded before reaching Broadway. He then made his last British appearance in an acting role, playing Cardinal Pirelli in a revival of Sandy Wilson's "Valmouth" at the Chichester Festival. Irving Wardle wrote in "The Times", "It is not a large part, but Helpmann's hooded smiles and baleful oeuillades, his capacity to express elegant corruption to his beringed finger-tips, lodge one imperishable image."