The Country Girl (The SOB Review) - Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, New York, NY** (out of ****)For all the
pre-opening fuss about flubbed lines, it's more than just a little ironic, if not downright disconcerting, to discover that's exactly what
Clifford Odet's
The Country Girl is really all about.
And while I never detected any mispoken dialogue from
Morgan Freeman as alcoholic actor Frank Elgin, his muffled voice is all too often imperceptible. In fact, this undeniably gifted Academy Award-winning favorite frequently sounds as though he's mumbling.
Method acting? Perhaps, but when Frank's lines are so intrinsic to this backstage story, it is truly a shame we can hardly make out what he's saying in his desperate gambit to reach the pinnacle of Broadway fame one more time after practically losing it all because of his bout with the bottle.
Among his continuing potential losses is his long-suffering wife Georgie (a sadly miscast
Frances McDormand), whom he calls by her eponymous moniker -- whether affectionately or derisively is never really clear. Early in Act One, with bags nearly packed, Georgie's willful resoluteness in escaping her nightmarish existence is trumped when Broadway director Bernie Dodd (an effective
Peter Gallagher) offers Frank a dream come true: a major comeback role. Bernie enlists her aid in making sure Frank stays on the wagon and learns his lines while the play is being tried out in New England.
Not only does Georgie go with Frank to the out of town tryout, but she acts as his biggest protector against the two primary forces that could plunge her husband headlong back into the alcoholic abyss: Bernie and the show's producer Phil Cook, portrayed by an exceptional
Chip Zien, who singlehandedly transports us back to the fifties.
In maintaining the 1950s milieu, director
Mike Nichols imbues this production with an utterly dissembling, anachronistic feel. Sure, the scenic and costume designs by
Tim Hatley and
Albert Wolsky, respectively, evoke the fifties, but the actors themselves seem like they're from another time. McDormand, in particular, comes across as far too sophisticated and self-assured for a woman who's not only supposed to be from farm country, but also from the middle of the 20th Century.
The more perplexing issue is just how much direction Nichols actually offered. It's as if he's directing several different shows at once, with each of his major stars serving as the center of their own unique solar system. Yes, they're all powerful in their own right, but rarely during the rather inert first act do their stars collide in a way that would make an astronomer sit up and take notice. Instead, these actors are left orbiting around one another, missing opportunities to display what this revival sorely lacks -- passion and chemistry.
Fortunately, all is not lost as the second act provides unexpected twists, which at least place the three principals in the same general trajectory. And make no mistake, at its root, Odets has provided a pretty compelling story that practically begs for the assembled star wattage to shine brightly.
For one brief, triumphant moment near
The Country Girl's climax, they finally twinkle with all the brilliance you'd have every right to expect throughout.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.
Related Stories:How Well Did Critics Believe Country Girl Has Matured? (April 28, 2008)
Country Girl Hits Big Apple (April 27, 2008)
Looking Forward: The SOB Top Five (January 2, 2008)
Country Girl To Return To Big City (September 28, 2008)
Labels: Broadway, Clifford Odets, Frances McDormand, Mike Nichols, Morgan Freeman, Peter Gallagher, Play, Revival, The Country Girl, The SOB Review
How Well Did Critics Believe Country Girl Has Matured?Yesterday, the second Broadway revival of
Clifford Odets'
The Country Girl opened at the
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.
The
Mike Nichols-helmed production starring
Morgan Freeman,
Frances McDormand and
Peter Gallagher has been tabloid fodder thanks in no small part to Michael Riedel's now
infamous columns on the supposed problems ranging from deviations from the original script to Freeman's "struggling with his lines." However, despite his
third column on the topic -- this time predicting an onslaught of negative reviews -- most critiques came up favorable, with two notable exceptions.
Heralding the revival as “wonderfully on the side of the angels,” New York Post’s
Clive Barnes salutes with three and a half stars: “It is crisply and, so far as humanly possible, unsentimentally directed by Mike Nichols, who knows how to let his actors breathe, react and interact, and has a handsomely picked trio of stars in Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormand and Peter Gallagher…. These three are all heart-rendingly credible -- it's among the finest acting of the season - and transcend the simplistic writing to leap into the reality at which Odets surely, and sometimes not so surely, aimed.”
Assessing the work as “surprisingly durable thanks in part to its flavorful evocation of the theater milieu,” Variety’s
David Rooney offers praise: “[I]n Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormand and Peter Gallagher, Nichols finds three intelligent collaborators capable of investing those characters with their own distinctive shadings…. While the play's psychology belongs to an era before addictive personalities and parasitic relationships were regularly placed under an unforgiving dramatic microscope, its depiction of co-dependency retains veracity and complexity…. Nichols and the actors respect the exacting rhythms of Odets' writing, constructing these conflicted characterizations nuance by nuance, and frequently risking unsympathetic bluntness before whipping away veils to show a larger, more humanistic picture.”
Calling The Country Girl “a subtle, engrossing and deeply straightforward shaping of a far-from-perfect script,”
Linda Winer of Newsday is largely positive: “Nichols has directed a carefully-calibrated three-star turn, with Frances McDormand as Georgie, the disappointed wife of Frank Elgin, whose career disappeared in a bottle and a bluff. The third side of the triangle is the terrific Peter Gallagher, the most aptly cast of them all, playing the workaholic hotshot director as if channeling Jerry Orbach's dark New York way with a fast-talking dream…. Nichols keeps picking away at these people until, quietly, the relationships click into the complex ways we perceive one another and ourselves.”
Deeming this a “well-mannered mounting,” The New York Sun’s
Eric Grode is also decidedly upbeat: “The occasional hesitations and reversals at a recent press performance by Mr. Freeman (and by his co-star, the fellow Oscar winner Frances McDormand) came to feel less like nerve-racking scrambles and more like the gambits of a magician who piques the interest of his audience by inserting intentional flubs in anticipation of a final cathartic ‘ta-daaaa!’… But The Country Girl" is, in addition to a three-pronged drama about the codependencies of marriage as well as of artistic collaboration, a love letter to the art of stage acting…. The stars on display may flicker now and then, but they cast a strangely compelling -- and equally mysterious -- light on the counterintuitive and wistful energies that create art.”
Noting that “passion -- and I don’t mean just a mechanically raised voice or fist -- never makes an appearance here,”
Ben Brantley of The New York Times : “[W]hat keeps you vaguely but uncomfortably on tenterhooks is wondering whether three of the finest actors around can make you care, for a single second, about any of these questions before the play ends. Sorry to jump to the last page, folks, but the answer is no…. Each star has a few abrupt moments of simulating anger or sorrow via sharp, attention-grabbing technique. But I rarely felt prepared for these explosions; they seemed like unanchored, virtuosic exercises. And while Mr. Gallagher and Ms. McDormand bring a brisk surface energy to the proceedings, the overriding note of this production is fatigue…”
Concluding “By the time the curtain falls, you've already stopped caring,”
Joe Dziemianowicz of New York’s
Daily News also bemoans the “lackluster revival”: “Freeman is a talented actor but isn't fully convincing in this role. He captures Frank's insecurity, but his slack diction undermines his credibility as a once-great star hiding vast reserves of ‘power and majesty.’ As his beleaguered spouse, McDormand looks tired, that's for sure. But her performance is flat and lacks spontaneity. She and Freeman have little chemistry, so it's hard to buy them as a couple who have endured so much, including their child's death. The surprising and rock-solid turn comes from Gallagher, who brings enthusiasm and energy to his scenes, ingredients the show sorely needs.”
I'll be seeing the production next week and will weigh in shortly thereafter with my own SOB Review. Of course, the reviews may not matter at all given the major starpower of this limited run.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Country Girl Hits Big Apple (April 27, 2008)
Looking Forward: The SOB Top Five (January 2, 2008)
Country Girl To Return To Big City (September 28, 2008)
Labels: Broadway, Clifford Odets, Critics' Capsule, Frances McDormand, Michael Riedel, Mike Nichols, Morgan Freeman, Peter Gallagher, Play, Revival, The Country Girl
Country Girl Hits Big AppleToday, the second Rialto revival of
Clifford Odets'
The Country Girl opens at the
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre under the direction of
Mike Nichols.
Celebrated actors
Morgan Freeman and
Frances McDormand headline as Frank and Georgie Elgin, along with
Peter Gallagher,
Remy Auberjonois,
Anna Camp,
Joe Roland,
Lucas Caleb Rooney and
Chip Zien.
Odets' award-winning story is the stuff of pure Broadway, providing meaty roles about a Great White Way alcoholic actor and his wife. The
original 1950-51 production at the
Lyceum Theatre lasted 236 performances, while the
one lone revival before this one in 1972 had 62.
This latest revival is a limited run scheduled through July 30. With all its star power, as well as legendary director a the helm, will critics herald
The Country Girl yet again? Find out tomorrow as I provide my critics' capsule.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.
Related Stories:Looking Forward: The SOB Top Five (January 2, 2008)
Country Girl To Return To Big City (September 28, 2008)
Labels: Broadway, Clifford Odets, Frances McDormand, Mike Nichols, Morgan Freeman, Opening Night, Peter Gallagher, Play, Revival, The Country Girl
Country Girl To Return To Big CityWill Tony-nominated actors
Morgan Freeman and
Frances McDormand finally return to the Great White Way?
Although nothing's been formally announced, they're rumored to be the favorites for the leads in the upcoming Rialto revival of
Clifford Odets'
The Country Girl, which will be directed by
Mike Nichols.
Freeman last appeared on Broadway in 1988's
The Gospel At Colonus, although it was his portrayal of Zeke in the very short-lived nine performance run of
The Mighty Gents in 1978 that earned him his one and only Tony nod. While most audiences know him from his extensive, award-winning work in film, it's to Freeman's enormous credit that he's never forgotten his theatrical roots. In fact, he's acting as the honorary chairman of a $15 million capital campaign for
Playhouse on the Square in his hometown of Memphis.
The Academy Award-winning McDormand's last Broadway appearance came in the 1988 revival of
Tennessee Williams'
A Streetcar Named Desire. Her Tony-nominated performance as Stella was opposite
Aidan Quinn's Stanley. McDormand's one other Broadway performance came in another Odets work: the 1984 revival of
Awake And Sing! This is one actress that I would travel just about anywhere to see perform on stage.
Despite its name,
The Country Girl is a classic showbiz play centering on an alcoholic Broadway actor and his long-suffering wife. The
original production enjoyed 236 performances at Broadway's
Lyceum Theatre back in 1950-51; legendary actress
Uta Hagen earned a Tony in the title role. The play's only
revival in 1972 played a mere 62 performances, but boasted a cast including
George Grizzard,
Maureen Stapleton and
Jason Robards, who received a Tony nomination for his work.
Perhaps most famously, the play was turned into a critically acclaimed
1954 film that received seven Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Actor (
Bing Crosby), but it was the future Princess of Monaco
Grace Kelly who won the Oscar for her portrayal of
The Country Girl.
With this potentially becoming one of Broadway's hottest revivals, you can bet that I'll be reporting on it further as casting is announced.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Clifford Odets, Frances McDormand, Morgan Freeman, Play, Revival, The Country Girl
