When actors have had their fill of the rich roles, but they still want to hone their craft, there's only one place they turn to: the theater. It's more than possible that the intense scrutiny and celebrity worship that was going on in the States was giving Culkin a headache, because instead of hitting up Broadway as most American actors do, he went to the other place for high-production stage shows: West End, in London.
The show was called Madame Melville, and featured the then 20-year-old Macaulay as a 15-year-old American student in Paris, seduced in the apartment of his older French teacher. It was a difficult, awkward role for Macaulay and an interesting gamble, but it paid off for him. Many critics praised his nuanced performance, and it looked like his career was set for a massive comeback.