Second Chance: Broadway's Cyrano Revival On PBSIf you weren't able to catch the mostly captivating 2007 Broadway revival of
Edmond Rostand's classic
Cyrano de Bergerac, you'll have your opportunity this evening when
PBS broadcasts the
David Leveaux-helmed translation from
Anthony Burgess as part of its "
Great Performances" series.
The main attraction here is clearly
Kevin Kline. Regular readers may recall that I singled out his extraordinary turn in the title role for high praise in my November 6, 2007
SOB Review:
Kline firmly centers the show with his nuanced and understated performance that's breathtaking to behold. Seemingly without effort, he manages one of those rare spine-tingling feats of the stage...
While I wasn't exactly enamored with
Jennifer Garner's Broadway debut, I still gave the show three out of four stars, as well as props to the film and television actress for her critically important final scene. And in a bit of serendipity, the
actress just became a mother yet again just yesterday.
With Kline's "Great Performance" in mind, I would certainly recommend this for your viewing pleasure. PBS' "Great Performances" is scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m. EST, but be sure to check your local television listings.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, Cyrano de Bergerac, David Leveaux, Edmond Rostand, Great Performances, Jennifer Garner, Kevin Kline, PBS, Play, Revival
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The LooSo there I was yesterday, watching the very first
McLaughlin Group of 2008 when the panel began discussing Mike Huckabee's victory in Thursday's Iowa caucuses.
An image came on the screen of the Huckster's victory speech where he was framed, not by his family, but by Mr. and Mrs.
Chuck Norris (Gena O'Kelley). The
Chicago Tribune's
Clarence Page remarked that it demonstrated how pop culture was attracted to Huckabee's presidential candidacy.
Really?
Ironically, back in September 2006 when I last revisited
Wicked on Broadway, Norris and his spouse were seated directly across the aisle from me. I remember thinking to myself how interesting it was to see someone like the politically-conservative Norris -- who's most recently been relegated to sharing fitness tips with
Christie Brinkley on
infomercials -- taking in one of pop culture's true theatrical sensations. Even more interesting was that Norris clearly didn't like what he was seeing (I surmised it was due to the show's sly references to the current White House occupant). In fact, at intermission, Norris and O'Kelley walked out on the performance.
Another Sunday morning pundit,
Chris Matthews, turned up in my audience for
Cyrano de Bergerac. At least he appeared to enjoy himself -- I could hear his ... how shall I say this politely ...
distinguished laugh from a mile away. (Another celebrity sighting at that October performance was
Jennifer Garner's former castmate from "
Alias,"
Ron Rifkin).
Speaking of "distinguished" laughs, when I took in a
Steppenwolf opening performance of
The Unmentionables back in July 2006, I remember hearing this rather obnoxious laugh coming from behind me. Don't get me wrong. The play itself was a hoot. But this cackle was almost too much. When I turned around, who did I see but a "
Friends"-less
David Schwimmer.
Which brings me full circle back to yesterday.
One actor who clearly has a friend is
Bob Saget, whom I saw yesterday afternoon at the performance of
The Homecoming -- the former Man in Chair was in tow with
Danny Burstein, one of his co-stars from
The Drowsy Chaperone. I first spotted Saget as we were among the dozen or so men standing in line for the men's loo, waiting for a female to finish her business inside (seems the women's line was just too long for her). To his credit, the former "
Full House" star was quite affable, making a funny quip and kept his fellow liners entertained.
Call me crazy, but for some reason it made me wonder what Chuck Norris would do.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Bob Saget, Broadway, Chris Matthews, Chuck Norris, Cyrano de Bergerac, Danny Burstein, David Schwimmer, Mike Huckabee, Ron Rifkin, The Drowsy Chaperone, The Homecoming, The Unmentionables
Cyrano de Bergerac (The SOB Review) - Richard Rodgers Theatre, New York, NY*** (out of ****)It's more than a little ironic that
Kevin Kline as
Cyrano de Bergerac should exclaim, "My success is only achieved by excess!"
For despite the ungainly prosthesis of the proboscis Kline dons in the title role -- and in spite of
Jennifer Garner's completely over-the-top acting -- Kline firmly centers the show with his nuanced and understated performance that's breathtaking to behold. Seemingly without effort, he manages one of those rare spine-tingling feats of the stage that more than offsets all the other major issues I had with the show, ranging from Garner's considerable egregiously exaggerated excesses, as well as something downright tinny and hollow in
David Van Tiegham's sound design.
Although I was familiar with
Cyrano's story of unrequited love for his cousin Roxane (Garner) and how he aids the equally smitten yet tongue-tied Christian De Neuvillette (a rather benign
Daniel Sunjata) express
both of their love through written and spoken verse, this was my first time ever seeing
Edmond Rostand's classic play performed.
I enjoyed it largely due to Kline's superb performance and
Tom Pye's intoxicating stage design, as well as
Gregory Gale's exquisite costume design and haunting illumination from
Don Holder. If nothing else, it's a sumptuous feast for the eyes.
While
David Leveaux's largely crisp direction makes this
Anthony Burgess adaptation captivating enough -- he certainly motors the show along -- he doesn't seem to make equal demands of his cast. With the exception of Kline,
Max Baker (animated as Ragueneaua, the pastry cook) and
Euan Morton (pitch-perfect in his dual roles as Lignière and Théophraste Renaudot), the rest of the lot borders on the banal.
As Comte de Guiche,
Chris Sarandon comes off as merely one-dimensional -- a villain in name only, incapable of stirring up any real passion. Despite his "pretty face," Sunjata never really shows much charm or comic panache required for the role.
And then there's Jennifer Garner, whose forced performance is so stultifying that you'd be forgiven for thinking she was deliberately trying to be bad. Each overblown gesticulation was upstaged by the type of reading akin to the parodies of the novice actor in a production of Shakespeare. Yes, she's a natural beauty, but it's a mystery why anyone would be attracted to her
after she speaks.
But all of this is rather muted, curiously enough, whenever Kline takes to the stage to add his voice. And in the poignant final moments of the play when Garner
finally seems in tune with Kline's marvelous cadences, electrifying chills swept through me. I was moved by the grace of two actors in concert -- at last -- with each other.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Cyrano Critics Offer Thumbs Down By A Nose (November 2, 2007)
Opening Night By A Nose (November 1, 2007)
Cyrano On Broadway: In-Klined To Garner Success? (August 2, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Chris Sarandon, Cyrano de Bergerac, Daniel Sunjata, David Leveaux, Jennifer Garner, Kevin Kline, Play, Revival, The SOB Review
Cyrano Critics Offer Thumbs Down By A NoseCritics were decidedly mixed on the merits of reviving
Cyrano de Bergerac for the twelfth time on Broadway. Under
David Leveaux's direction,
Edmond Rostand's classic opened last night at the
Richard Rodgers Theatre and stars
Kevin Kline in the title role with
Jennifer Garner as Roxane.
Calling the show "a double shot of silvery hokum, sweet but surprisingly potent,"
The New York Times'
Ben Brantley offers -- perhaps astoundingly -- the single most positive review: "(Leveaux) is the perfect man to bring
Cyrano into the 21st century, presenting the play’s flowery sensibility without making audiences feel they’ve been doused in perfume.... Mr. Kline knows what he’s doing. His bluster-free take on a man of bluster grows on you by stealth, and once you’re used to it, it makes wonderfully good sense....Ms. Garner, I am pleased to report, makes Roxane a girl worth pining over."
Positing that Cyrano is one of those plays that "wear their elegance within,"
Linda Winer of
Newsday is mostly upbeat: "Kline, arguably New York's best argument for a popular classical theater, is not the only deeply satisfying pleasure in
Cyrano de Bergerac....Jennifer Garner has moved with astonishing grace from being a TV double-agent in "Alias" to making her Broadway debut as Roxane....Garner, who studied theater before TV and movies snapped her up, breaks the recent Broadway curse of the Hollywood stars. With a lamb face and long serious bones, she flips comfortably from the comic to the plucky and, finally, to the heroic."
Despite deadpanning "A great play, it isn't,"
New York Post's
Clive Barnes summons up some good things to say in his two-and-a-half star review: "In the
Cyrano that opened last night, Kline dishes out panache, clashes swords, flashes wicked grins and, finally, dampens hankies with the best of them. But there is more to
Cyrano than braggadocio and sentimentality, as the great
Sir Ralph Richardson first demonstrated more years ago than I care to calculate, and now Kline helps confirm....[I]f you just go to see Kline, battling against all odds -- and, even while looking far too handsome, acting his good-natured heart out -- you will certainly get your money's worth."
Criticizing it as an "only intermittently effective revival,"
David Rooney of
Variety delivers a less-than-glowing critique: "We get gorgeous stage pictures and an eloquent if oddly low-energy performance in the title role from Kevin Kline but not much in the way of real passion....In contrast to the bold design statements, Leveaux imposes a modern, naturalistic feel on a play that should thrum with melodramatic grandness and hyperbole. It's all a little tame and sober: Even the soaring declarations of love lack intensity."
Saying "It looks expensive, and it feels cheap,"
Eric Grode of the
New York Sun delivers a solid pan: "Kevin Kline doesn't do a blessed thing wrong in the title role of
Cyrano de Bergerac. And, as his whip-smart inamorata, Roxane, Jennifer Garner does almost nothing right. Yet David Leveaux's boisterous revival of Edmond Rostand's 1897 swords-and-sobs verse drama never offers the lift one can receive from great or, in those rare but almost as unforgettable moments, terrible theater. It just lumbers around the stage, dragging along a slew of staggering drunkards, giggling wenches and preening soldiers like so many stray puppies. It looks expensive, and it feels cheap."
Labeling the production "emotionally stillborn,"
Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's
Daily News also heaps on the scorn: "The listlessness of the three-hour production is all the more disappointing since Edmond Rostand's 1897 play is rich with drama, comedy, romance and even swashbuckling....(Kline is) never larger-than-life thrilling, and that's what's needed to make the story soar. It doesn't help that Kline gets swallowed up in the cavernous playing area devised by director David Leveaux....Jennifer Garner...brings her natural beauty to Roxane, but she's miscast....As Christian,
Daniel Sunjata...is okay-looking, but he rivals an onstage leafless tree for stark woodenness."
So with these reviews in mind, I'll be taking in a performance of the play over the next few days and will provide my own SOB Review shortly thereafter. The limited run of
Cyrano de Bergerac is scheduled to run through December 23.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Opening Night By A Nose (November 1, 2007)
Cyrano On Broadway: In-Klined To Garner Success? (August 2, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Chris Sarandon, Critics' Capsule, Cyrano de Bergerac, Daniel Sunjata, Euan Morton, Jennifer Garner, Kevin Kline, Play, Revival
Opening Night By A NoseIt's been 23 years since
Cyrano de Bergerac was last performed on the Great White Way. In the
1984 production -- the 11th revival of
Edmond Rostand's classic play about love and a very large proboscis --
Derek Jacobi portrayed Cyrano to
Sinéad Cusack's Roxane.
Tonight, the 13th incarnation opens at the
Richard Rodgers Theatre. With
David Leveaux at the helm,
Kevin Kline takes on the titular role while Mrs.
Ben Affleck (
Jennifer Garner) portrays Roxane. It also marks happy Broadway returns for
Daniel Sunjata (last
seen in 2003's
Take Me Out),
Euan Morton (
Taboo) and
Chris Sarandon (
The Light In The Piazza).
Although
Walter Hampden had the title role for each of the five revivals spanning 1923 to 1936, it was
José Ferrer who famously made the role his own in both the
1946 revival and the
1950 film version. Not only did Ferrer wind up taking home the very first
Tony Award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Role (he was up against just one other actor --
Fredric March -- in
Years Ago), but he also won the Best Actor Oscar a few years later.
As much as Ferrer became synonymous with the character, his was merely the eighth revival of the play, which was first produced on Broadway all the way back in 1898 at the
Garden Theatre.
Will the thirteenth time prove lucky for Kline and company? Find out tomorrow as I provide a critics' capsule.
Cyrano de Bergerac's limited run ends on December 21.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Cyrano On Broadway: In-Klined To Garner Success? (August 2, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Chris Sarandon, Cyrano de Bergerac, Daniel Sunjata, Euan Morton, Jennifer Garner, Kevin Kline, Opening Night, Play, Revival
Cyrano On Broadway: In-Klined To Garner Success?According to
Michael Riedel of the New York Post,
Kevin Kline appears to be inclined to take on one of the greatest romantic comedy roles of all time:
Cyrano de Bergerac.
Riedel reports that
David Leveaux would helm the 12th Broadway revival of
Edmond Rostand's classic play about the guy with the unusually large nose.
Perhaps most noteworthy in Riedel's report is that Mrs.
Ben Affleck (
Jennifer Garner) might "return" to the Great White Way as Roxanne -- she previously served as an understudy to
Patricia T. A. Ageheim in 1995's
A Month In The Country.
Perhaps
this is what
Alan Ayckbourn meant? And if she's ready to tread the boards, can her hubby be far behind?
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:The Empire Strikes Back! (January 26, 2007)
Labels: Alan Ayckbourn, Ben Affleck, Broadway, Cyrano de Bergerac, First Word On New Show, Jennifer Garner, Kevin Kline, Michael Riedel, Play, Revival
