Ivanov (The SOB Review) - Wyndham's Theatre, London, United Kingdom**** (out of ****)My recent experience of taking in the boring Broadway revival of
Anton Chekhov's
The Seagull notwithstanding, I was dreading seeing another of the playwright's works so soon after landing in London.
After all, I had very little sleep on the flight across the pond, and the idea of taking in any matinee one day after gave me tremendous pause. How on earth was I going to stay awake?
Fortunately, the
Michael Grandage-helmed revival of Chekhov's
Ivanov was so vibrant and alive with pleasure, brimming with dark humor throughout, that I found myself completely rapt with attention. With excellent new adaptation from
Tom Stoppard,
Ivanov soars higher than any seagull dares fly.
I'll go even further to say that boredom was never this much fun. Entertaining and enlightening, literally and figuratively (nicely underscored by
Paule Constable's gorgeous lighting design), this play about the bored upper classes drew requisite comic relief for its allusions to our current financial doom and gloom.
Even better,
Ivanov captures ballast from one of the year's best ensembles on either side of the Atlantic. Yes, today's contemporary Laurence Olivier
Kenneth Branagh was absolutely brilliant in the title role, but this actor's actor clearly knows how to graciously share a stage. Chief among them is the breathtaking
Gina McKee as
Ivanov 's long-suffering, gravely ill wife Anna Petrovna. McKee turns in one of the year's most heartfelt performances, radiating enough warmth to melt the icy bitterness from any Russian town, past or present.
With uniformly scintillating performances from a sterling cast that doesn't take itself too seriously, there's no doubt why
Donmar Warehouse's superb
Ivanov is the West End's must-see sensation this fall.
Eat your heart out
Ben Brantley -- this is the real deal. I can only hope this revival receives a Broadway transfer.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Anton Chekov, Gina McKee, Ivanov, Kenneth Branagh, London, Michael Grandage, Paule Constable, Play, Revival, The Seagull, The SOB Review, Tom Stoppard
Ivanov AfternoonWhile today's
big theatrical event (for me) is reserved for this evening, this afternoon will find me taking in one of London's hottest tickets.
At the behest of
Modern Fabulousity, I snared tickets to see
Kenneth Branagh perform in the title role of a new revival for
Anton Chekhov's
Ivanov. Helmed by
Michael Grandage, this "new version" of the classic play is supplied by none other than the estimable
Tom Stoppard. This
Donmar Warehouse production is also being performed as the launch of the theatre company's year-long residency at Wyndham's Theatre.
While described by many London critics as a "must see," the assessment mattering most to me was from the real arbiters of West End taste: the West End Whingers. I was relieved to
read in their review:
Although Act 1 was distinctly un-gripping, Act 2 was better and good enough to get the Whingers back after the interval. It got grippier and grippier and by Act 4 the Whingers were having a whale of a time.
If not a whale of a time, I'm hoping my decision to reel in some tickets at least proves to be time well spent.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).Labels: Anton Chekov, Donmar Warehouse, Ivanov, Kenneth Branagh, London, Michael Grandage, Modern Fabulousity, Play, Revival, Tom Stoppard, West End Whingers
Did Seagull Revival Soar With Critics?Last evening, the seventh Broadway revival of
Anton Chekhov's
The Seagull, with fresh translation from the reigning king of adaptations
Christopher Hampton, opened at Broadway's
Walter Kerr Theatre.
The 14-week limited engagement stars
Kristin Scott Thomas and
Peter Sarsgaard in their Broadway debuts, alongside
Mackenzie Crook,
Zoe Kazan and
Carey Mulligan under the direction of
Ian Rickson. Most critics gave high marks to the production, even if a number of them took issue with the performance of Sarsgaard.
Heralding this as a "magnificent production,"
The New York Times'
Ben Brantley rhapsodically hurls superlatives: "The careful cultivation of such transparency, to the point that we feel instinctively tuned into the minds of every individual onstage, helps to make this
Seagull the finest and most fully involving production of Chekhov that I have ever known.... It is, to make honest use of the language of hucksters, a limited, once-in-a-lifetime offer... [T]his
Seagull has only ripened and deepened.... And Ms. Scott Thomas, who was excellent as the aging actress Arkadina in London, here delivers a magnified, intensified performance that more than ever is the keystone to understanding this play."
Nearly equal in his praise is
New York Post's
Clive Barnes, who offers up a rare four out of four star review: "Scott Thomas is an actor who doesn't act. Rather, she moves into a character, breathing the same air as a human reality. It's a style heaven-sent for the plays and people of Anton Chekhov, as she's now demonstrating as Arkadina, the overbloomed actress who sweeps her way through
The Seagull in the wonderfully subtle production that opened last night.... [H]ere it's staged with natural fluency by Ian Rickson, with an elegant new adaptation by Christopher Hampton that sounds as though it were written the day before yesterday."
Labeling
The Seagull "powerful theater," is
Variety's
David Rooney, who is largely effusive "despite one casting choice that doesn't quite measure up": "Rarely is the writer's signature balance of humor, pathos and tragedy so exquisitely rendered or the modulation between them orchestrated so affectingly.... It's the anchoring naturalism brought even to this diva in chronic performance mode that makes Scott Thomas so transfixing.... [W]hile he does slowly reveal the opportunistic worm beneath the self-possessed surface, Sarsgaard appears to be struggling to get a read on his role for much of the play."
Noting how this "serene, soaring
Seagull makes a 113-year-old story feel as fresh as a cool breeze," New York's
Daily News critic
Joe Dziemianowicz offers four out of five stars: "Scott Thomas is sly-eyed, sharp-tongued and sure-footed (a little sprightly scampering proves her vigor) and holds you rapt while just standing motionless. In short, she's heaven in her Broadway debut. Less well-known, but no less phenomenal, is Carey Mulligan, who plays Nina and instantly captures your heart with her teary-eyed, exquisitely emotional portrayal. Mackenzie Crook seems to draw from a deep well of sadness as Konstantin, the experimental playwright hopelessly in love with her.... (Sarsgaard) is too lackadaisical, almost borderline lazy, to set off bright sparks."
Calling the revival "visually stark, emotionally luscious,"
Newsday's
Linda Winer production offers a mostly positive review: "Most of the men are not as effective as the women, and not just because Chekhov wrote such wonderfully complicated women. Peter Sarsgaard ... plays Trigoran ... as puzzlingly effeminate and more than a little dull.
Seagull may be the hardest of Chekhov's late plays to get right.... But Rickson and Scott Thomas find the exquisite balance between being idealistic about the arts and satirizing that idealism."
Concluding that "its uneven casting makes for a frustrating experience,"
USA Today's
Elysa Gardner zeroes in on Sarsgaard in her two-and-a-half-star review: "If you're a fan of Chekhov's writing and Peter Sarsgaard's acting, you face a serious dilemma this fall.... Sadly, though, Sarsgaard doesn't rise to the challenges confronting him any more than his complex and crucial character does. It might be an overstatement to say that his curiously awkward, lackluster performance fatally wounds this
Seagull ... but only a slight one.... That's a shame, because the other legs in Trigorin's romantic triangle could hardly be sturdier. Leading lady Kristin Scott Thomas ... is a witty, poignant Arkadina, revealing a nervous fragility in the fading thespian who lives with and clings to Trigorin. As the doomed ingénue Nina, who suffers even more for her lover's callousness, fellow West End import Carey Mulligan is equally lovely and moving, at once a fresh-faced foil and a worthy rival to the elegant but vulnerable Arkadina."
My own personal view comes closest to that expressed by Gardner. You can review my own abbreviated SOB Review by clicking
here.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Anton Chekov, Broadway, Christopher Hampton, Critics' Capsule, Ian Rickson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mackenzie Crook, Peter Sarsgaard, Play, Revival, The Seagull, Zoe Kazan
The Seagull (The SOB Review) - Walter Kerr Theatre
**1/2 (out of ****)In what is sure to be the snob-appeal revival of the season,
Ian Rickson's imported British revival of
Anton Chekhov's
The Seagull starts out with a flash, quite literally.
But then, the drama descends into a moribund morass of unrequited love all around.
Christopher Hampton's adaptation of
The Seagull is devoid of nearly any humor Chekhov's works typically employed to make the Russian working classes laugh at the expense of the privileged -- the exception here is
Kristin Scott Thomas' wickedly funny take as the put-upon, scheming woman-of-privilege-wannabe Madame Arkadina.
As Trigorin,
Peter Sarsgaard is woefully miscast, essentially sucking the life out of the entire production, and he rarely connects, as he should, to ignite any flames of passion with the wonderfully incandescent
Carey Mulligan as Nina. It's actually a relief when after this long slog that
Mackenzie Crook's Konstantin Treplev finally shoots himself, because had the production gone on any longer, I would have been tempted to do the same.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Anton Chekov, Broadway, Carey Mulligan, Ian Rickson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mackenzie Crook, Peter Sarsgaard, Play, Revival, The Seagull, The SOB Review
London Seagull Flies Into Broadway Opening Night
London Seagull Flies Into Broadway Opening NightThis evening,
Ian Rickson's Olivier Award-winning revival of
Anton Chekhov's
The Seagull opens at Broadway's
Walter Kerr Theatre. The 14-week limited run stars
Kristin Scott Thomas opposite
Peter Sarsgaard, along with
Mackenzie Crook and
Zoe Kazan as Masha.
This seventh Great White Way revival of
The Seagull comes 92 years after its very
first Main Stem mounting.
Will Broadway critics be cheering? Well, as a sneak preview, I can divulge that
The New York Times' Ben Brantley was seated within my sightlines of the stage last Friday evening, and he was applauding enthusiastically. But then again, Big Ben already provided the initial London incarnation with praise.
Nevertheless, I'll be providing my critics' capsule tomorrow.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Anton Chekov, Ian Rickson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mackenzie Crook, Opening Night, Peter Sarsgaard, Play, Revival, The Seagull, Zoe Kazan
Broadway Preview: The SeagullMore than a year after its Olivier Award-winning run at London's
Royal Court Theatre,
Ian Rickson's revival of
Anton Chekhov's
The Seagull will play Broadway's
Walter Kerr Theatre. The 14-week limited run production will open October 2 after beginning previews on September 16.
With fresh translation by
Christopher Hampton,
The Seagull will star
Kristin Scott Thomas (pictured) opposite
Peter Sarsgaard (who replaces
Chiwetel Ejiofor, left, from the London production). Both will be making their Broadway debuts, but it should be duly noted that the Academy Award-nominated actress earned an Olivier Award for her turn as Arkadina.
Mackenzie Crook (pictured right) will reprise his turn as Constantin. I first became familiar with Crook for his hysterically funny portrayal of Gareth Keenan in the original British version of "
The Office," but American audiences may know him best for his work as Ragetti in "
The Pirates Of The Caribbean" trilogy. In addition to his television and film credits, Crook has been busy burnishing some impressive theatrical credentials across the pond.
While much of the London revival's original cast will transfer to the Great White Way, one notable American actress has been announced:
Zoe Kazan as Masha.
The Seagull has been performed on Broadway's boards a total of seven times (eight if you count 2004's
Drowning Crow). The first production came in
1916. A
1938 revival featured Rialto royalty
Lynn Fontanne and
Alfred Lunt, along with
Sydney Greenstreet and
Uta Hagen. A 1992-93 revival was star-studded with
Tyne Daly opposite
Jon Voight, along with
Danny Burstein,
Ethan Hawke,
Laura Linney and
Tony Roberts.
If this revival lives up to its advance acclaimed billing, expect critics to go gaga for the production. But I'm reminded that in calling the London incarnation "turgid, painfully languid," the reliable
West End Whingers have said "The characters (in)
The Seagull are so self-pitying or self-absorbed that it really is funny."
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Broadway Preview: Equus (June 30, 2008)
Broadway Preview: A Tale Of Two Cities (June 28, 2008)
Broadway Preview: for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (June 25, 2008)
Broadway Preview: [title of show] (June 24, 2008)
Broadway: What's Next (June 20, 2008)
Labels: Anton Chekov, First Word On New Show, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mackenzie Crook, Peter Sarsgaard, Play, Revival, The Seagull, Transfer
