Steve On Broadway (SOB)

Critics Find Frost/Nixon to Be Unimpeachable

Critics Find Frost/Nixon to Be Unimpeachable

Monday night marked the opening in London of The Donmar Warehouse world premiere of Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon, which was based on the famous 1977 interviews by Sir David Frost of disgraced U.S. President Richard Nixon. With Frank Langella as Nixon and Michael Sheen as Frost, director Michael Grandage appears to have another major success -- in terms of critical acclaim -- to his credit.

Providing 4 stars out of 5, The Times' Benedict Nightingale writes: "[W]hat gives the evening its frisson is partly the sense of watching history being made, and also the not-wholly-different characters of the principals....Factual, fictional, it makes for riveting drama."

The Guardian's Michael Billington also bestows 4 out of 5 stars, noting, "[T]he real fascination of Morgan's play lies in its suggestion that, behind the contest, there was a symbiotic link between Frost and Nixon....The magnificent central performances offer an intriguing contrast."

Paul Taylor of The Independent also strikes a laudatory, if cautionary, note: "Frost/Nixon [is] a sharp, witty and haunting production by Michael Grandage....A canny, flawed, and fascinating piece."

Variety's David Benedict also has praise: "As much about the rise of talkshow host David Frost as it is about the fall of Richard Nixon, his play is the story of two men, both in love with power. Their addiction to it is made all the more engrossing by Michael Grandage's taut, perfectly cast production....That Grandage's fleet zinger of a production should move to the West End, or even more likely, Broadway, is less a matter of conjecture than of inevitability."

Perhaps it's that last note that should give American audiences some hope that they might have another chance to get a fresh look inside the mind of their 37th President, all from the perspective of being more than thirty years beyond his resignation.

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Related Stories:
London's Frost/Nixon Opens Tonight (August 23, 2006)
Sheen/Langella to Portray Frost/Nixon in London (June 2, 2006)

Labels: Critics' Capsule, Frost/Nixon, London, Play

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Wednesday, August 23, 2006