The Merchant Of Venice Opening Delayed
UPDATED: November 10, 2010
Up until yesterday, Daniel Sullivan's revival of The Merchant Of Venice was scheduled for a November 7 opening on Broadway. But late in the day, it was announced that the play will not open as scheduled, and that an announcement will be issued next week on a new opening night for the show.
The delay is due to an unplanned temporary departure for "personal family reasons" by Lily Rabe, who plays Portia. Since the show must go on, Rabe's understudy, Kim Martin-Cotten, is set to cover Rabe's role in her absence. No word (yet) on whether press previews are continuing while Martin-Cotten performs.
Here's wishing Rabe and her family the best.
Update: It was revealed over the past week that Lily Rabe's mother Jill Clayburgh passed away after a long battle with leukemia. Rabe returned to the play on Sunday for the scheduled opening, but the press opening has now been scheduled for November 13.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.Labels: Broadway, Daniel Sullivan, Delay, Lily Rabe, Opening Night, Play, Revival, The Merchant Of Venice
Merchant Sells Hot Broadway Ticket
The proverbial pound of flesh now being paid for tickets is particularly ironic given how
Daniel Sullivan's revival was first presented in Central Park this summer by the
Public Theater for
free.
The
Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) lists a total of
49 previous New York City productions stetching all the way back to
1768 for what is arguably The Bard's most controversial play. It's particularly provocative due to its depiction of the eponymous character and the ongoing debate over whether that
characterization is anti-Semitic. (The play certainly gave me pause when
I saw it for my first time a few years ago.)
It's been seven years since Pacino was last on Broadway's boards in another Jewish role as Harod in
Salome, one I thought bordered on vile stereotypes. Pacino will be joined in
The Merchant Of Venice by a large cast including
Lily Rabe as Portia,
Byron Jennings as Antonio,
Jesse L. Martin as Gratiano,
Christopher Fitzgerald as Launcelot and
Charles Kimbrough as the Prince of Aragon.
The official
Merchant Of Venice website
describes the show as follows:
The Merchant Of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s most thrilling and controversial plays, rich with love and betrayal, forgiveness and revenge. The Jewish moneylender Shylock makes a loan to Antonio, a Christian merchant. Their loan contract, steeped in prejudice and centered on the play's infamous “pound of flesh,” sweeps the two men and everyone in their worlds into chaos. Only the insightful Portia can imagine a way forward, but for her and those she loves, even “the quality of mercy” has its limits.
Despite the lingering controversy over the work, just try getting a decent seat. And with only 78 performances scheduled, you may as well forget about any discounts for the production.
The Merchant Of Venice opens on November 7 and runs through January 9, 2011. (I'll be seeing the show not long after it opens.)
This is
Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.Labels: Al Pacino, Broadway, Byron Jennings, Charles Kimbrough, Christopher Fitzgerald, Daniel Sullivan, Jesse L. Martin, Lily Rabe, Play, Revival, The Merchant Of Venice, Transfer, William Shakespeare
Time To Stand Still AgainOne month from today, the Tony-nominated play
Time Stands Still begins performances for its second time this year on Broadway, this time at the
Cort Theatre.
As regular readers will recall, I was among those who
offered thumbs up to Donald Margulies' superb and gut-wrenching new play during its acclaimed
run at the not-for-profit
Manhattan Theatre Club's
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Since MTC's season still had one more
play left in its Broadway season for subscribers,
Time Stands Still came and went much too quickly.
But the play's indelible mark left by its excellent cast was so profound that one of those rarest of rare announcements would be made about an already closed Broadway show. On May 12,
it was announced that the entire production would get a second lease on life through a return engagement at the mid-sized commercial Cort Theatre. (For those curious, the return engagement is
not Tony eligible.)
Three of the four original Broadway principals --
Laura Linney,
Brian d'Arcy James and
Eric Begosian -- are returning to the production. However, since
Alicia Silverstone's schedule does not permit, she will be replaced by film actress
Christina Ricci, making her Broadway debut.
The
Time Stands Still Web site
describes the show as follows:
Time Stands Still follows Sarah and James, a photojournalist and a foreign correspondent trying to find happiness in a world that seems to have gone crazy. Theirs is a partnership based on telling the toughest stories and together, making a difference. But when their own story takes a sudden turn, the adventurous couple confronts the prospect of a more conventional life...and everything changes -- in a flash.
Don't miss this rare second chance to see one of the most exceptional American plays in years!
Indeed, if you missed your opportunity to see this show earlier this year, now's a second chance that doesn't occur very often. I
highly recommend seeing
Time Stands Still. Its first act will leave you speechless.
Time Stands Still resumes performances at the Cort on September 23 with a second opening night slated for October 7. The limited engagement is currently scheduled through January 23, 2011.
This is
Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.Labels: Brian d'Arcy James, Broadway, Christina Ricci, Daniel Sullivan, Donald Margulies, Eric Begosian, Laura Linney, Play, Return Engagement, Time Stands Still
The Public To Transfer Merchant
If you're among the throngs of disappointed theatregoers who has been unable to get free tickets to see
The Merchant Of Venice in Central Park this summer, you can breathe a little easier.
While it won't necessarily cost you a pound of flesh, these tickets certainly won't be free. After weeks of speculation, the
Public Theater just announced it's transferring
William Shakespeare's
The Merchant Of Venice to Broadway this fall. Directed by
Daniel Sullivan, this production famously stars
Al Pacino as Shylock.
The
Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) lists a total of
49 previous New York City productions stetching all the way back to
1768 for what is arguably The Bard's most controversial play. It's particularly provocative due to its depiction of the eponymous character and the ongoing debate over whether that
characterization is anti-Semitic. (The play certainly gave me pause when
I saw it for my first time a few years ago.)
Perhaps that's why it's been nearly 20 years since the last Broadway revival of
The Merchant Of Venice.
That Tony-nominated revival opened on December 19, 1989, at the
46th Street Theatre (now Richard Rodgers Theatre) and played 84 regular performances. Directed by
Peter Hall, starred
Dustin Hoffman as Shylock and
Geraldine James as Portia. Hall, Hoffman and James would each earn Tony nods for their work.
The Public will produce this transfer at Broadway's
Broadhurst Theatre, a considerably smaller space than Central Park's Delacorte Theatre. The limited run's performances will commence October 19 and conclude January 9, 2011.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.Labels: Al Pacino, Daniel Sullivan, First Word On New Show, Play, Public Theater, Revival, The Merchant Of Venice, William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night (The SOB Review) – Delacorte Theatre, Central Park, New York, New York
**** (out of ****)Love is in the air, and its breeze that's blowing straight through Central Park is
William Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night.
It may not have been the playwright who coined that enduring mantra of the stage, “The show must go on.” But just try telling that to the extraordinary ensemble in the current
Public Theatre Shakespeare in the Park production of
Twelfth Night. The night I saw the show, they demonstrated a level of magnificent moxie even the Bard would surely have appreciated.
Early this decade, I experienced what many William Shakespeare purists believe was
the quintessential modern-day mounting of
Twelfth Night. In it, one of the great playwright’s most beloved works known for its gender-bending ways was gender-bending itself with recent Tony winner
Mark Rylance and
fellow (literally)
Royal Shakespearean actors portraying all the characters, male and female alike. Purists would say that this was not unlike how the play about mistaken identity and love would have been mounted long before women were ever allowed to take to legitimate stages.
So while I fully expect that some may sniff that
Daniel Sullivan’s truly lovely and gorgeous revival breaks virtually no new dramatic turf, I say, who really cares? With its bawdy charms, call this
Twelfth Night an impure delight filled with unmitigated thrills.
When you’re blessed to have some of the most revered theatrical royalty of our times on full display, including
Raúl Esparza as Orsino,
Audra MacDonald as Olivia,
Julie White as her attendant,
Michael Cumpsty as Malvolio and contemporary theatre’s greatest scene-stealer
David Pittu as Feste, is it any wonder that rain or shine, this is a formidable revival with which to be reckoned and revered?
Add to that mix film actress
Anne Hathaway’s wondrously mesmerizing turn as Viola, and you’re witnessing a new theatre queen being born. Hathaway doesn’t just acquit herself superbly, she more than proves her Shakespeare mettle with natural grace, and like Esparza and Pittu, she sings divinely as well. Someone needs to figure out how to bring her to a Broadway stage where she belongs.
During my particularly wet performance, I was struck by how unfazed Sullivan’s excellent ensemble seemed to be by the downpour. Indeed, immediately after the first scene of the second act, a rain hold was called. While the showers continued even after the hold was lifted one half hour later, the cast brought home such determined joy, that it was hard not to feel a symbiotic affinity with them for having braved the storm together with you.
Whether skies are clear or cloudy, don’t be deterred from seeing this
Twelfth Night. Either way, you’re not likely to come away anything but enthralled and enchanted.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Anne Hathaway, Audra McDonald, Daniel Sullivan, David Pittu, Julie White, Play, Raul Esparza, Revival, The SOB Review, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare
Did Critics Crown This Year's Homecoming King?Yesterday, the second Broadway revival of
Harold Pinter's
The Homecoming made a mostly triumphant return at the
Cort Theatre.
Daniel Sullivan helms the 40th anniversary incarnation, which stars
Raúl Esparza,
Michael McKean,
Ian McShane,
Eve Best,
James Frain and
Gareth Saxe. Critics largely praised the production, reserving some of their most favorable accolades for Best; however, they were across the board on Esparza's first non-musical Rialto performance.
Commencing his review simply by stating "First of all, it really is that good,"
The New York Times'
Ben Brantley positively raves: "[T]he first-rate revival that opened Sunday night at the Cort Theater makes electrifyingly clear,
The Homecoming is every bit as big as its reputation....It insists that some shadowy part of you is part of it. It burrows under you skin and festers....And the fine cast assembled for Daniel Sullivan's new production -- including Eve Best and Raúl Esparza in benchmark performances -- grasps the power of holding back in making a fathoms-deep impression."
Proclaiming this a "diamond-edged revival,"
David Rooney of
Variety similarly marvels: "The director's lucid, unblinking work is matched by a riveting ensemble, their vileness inching under the skin in ways as psychologically disturbing as they are theatrically bracing....[E]ven while withholding a full understanding of what drives the characters' actions, the play confronts its audience with the uncomfortable truth that there's a little of their base, animalistic cunning in all of us."
Labeling the revival an "admirable production,"
Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press says the show "...reconfirms its status as a contemporary classic....Eve Best was a sensational Josie Hogan last season in a revival of
Eugene O'Neill's
A Moon for the Misbegotten. As Ruth, she's a different kind of earth mother, more erotically charged, yet distant and forbidding. In this battle of the sexes, she definitely has the upper hand. And gets to display a great pair of legs. James Frain turns in a fine, deceptively understated performance as her acquiescent husband, and Gareth Saxe personifies dumb brute strength as the would-be prize fighter."
Deeming this a "lucid production,"
Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's
Daily News also offers his welcome to this
Homecoming: "There's plenty to chew on about power, sex, morality, misogyny and family, which Pinter, a 2005 Nobel Prize winner, serves up with signature intelligence, mystery and ambiguity. Daniel Sullivan's astute direction captures the distinct rhythms of Pinter's dialogue, as the production casts a strange spell that grips you tight. McKean gives Sam poignancy, while Frain's reserve feels right for the intellectual Teddy. The robust Saxe is well cast as the tongue-tied Joey, an amateur boxer who, unlike his dad, never mastered 'how to defend and to attack.' Best follows her Broadway debut in
A Moon for the Misbegotten with more fine work. In a beat, Ruth's cool detachment turns icy; you sense she is always acutely aware of the physical power she possesses."
Concluding that you "follow (Pinter) at your own risk,"
John Simon of Bloomberg neatly summarizes his thoughts in the first paragraph of his review: "
The Homecoming has been lovingly revived on Broadway with good direction, a fine cast and convincing production design. Though every prospect pleases, only the play is vile. It is widely considered the Nobel laureate's masterpiece; rather than as a drawback, its making no sense is perceived as a challenge."
Calling it a "fascinating and entertaining piece,"
New York Post's
Clive Barnes uses his three-star review to lament: "[T]he play, 40 years on, has not worn as well as I would have expected. Once Pinter was generally regarded as a possible successor to Samuel Beckett in nihilistic existentialism. Now he seems a markedly lesser talent. Yet it's difficult to imagine an all-over better cast or a more persuasive reading; led by McShane's ugly and embittered patriarch, Esparza's smoothly confident Lenny, Frain's shiftily ambivalent Teddy and the wonderful Best, whose smugly conspiratorial smile, caps the play's ending."
Eric Grode of the
New York Sun also offers a primarily solid endorsement: "This shabby all-male North London home may reek of sweat and cigar smoke, but Mr. Sullivan's forceful mounting, led by
Ian McShane and
Eve Best as the two primary combatants, breathes vivifying air into several of the play's mustier corners.Somewhat surprisingly, Mr. Sullivan's reputation as an exacting but empathic actors' director...is burnished, not offset, by Mr. Pinter's deterministic worldview....Ms. Best's mastery of Ruth's icy allure is as complete as her command of romantic anxiety and impulsiveness was in last season's
A Moon for the Misbegotten....In contrast to Mr. McShane's two-packs-a-day croak, Mr. Esparza employs a wheedling, almost adolescent speaking voice — very similar to one he used to campy effect in
Taboo. In fact, he grabs quick laughs on several occasions, severely limiting the potency of his later scenes."
Chalk up yet another solid December opening. This limited run is slated to perform through April 13, 2008.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Opening: Pinter's Homecoming Returns To Broadway (December 17, 2007)
Esparza's Homecoming Finds Him In Good Company (July 24, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Critics' Capsule, Daniel Sullivan, Eve Best, Harold Pinter, Ian McShane, Michael McKean, Play, Raul Esparza, Revival, The Homecoming
Opening: Pinter's Homecoming Returns To BroadwayForty years after
The Homecoming won four major Tony Awards, including for Best Play of 1967,
Harold Pinter's acclaimed play about lust, seduction and deception is set for yet another opening night on the Great White Way.
This is the second Broadway revival -- the first only played a total of 49 performances back in 1991. The limited run is slated to perform through April 13, 2008 at the
Cort Theatre.
Directed by
Daniel Sullivan,
The Homecoming features a starry cast including
Raúl Esparza (
Company)
, Michael McKean (
The Pajama Game),
Ian McShane (last seen on Broadway in 1967's
The Promise) and
Eve Best (
A Moon For the Misbegotten), as well as
James Frain and
Gareth Saxe.
Will critics welcome this work home? Find out tomorrow as I provide my critics' capsule.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Esparza's Homecoming Finds Him In Good Company (July 24, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Daniel Sullivan, Eve Best, Harold Pinter, Ian McShane, Michael McKean, Opening Night, Play, Raul Esparza, Revival, The Homecoming
Esparza's Homecoming Finds Him In Good CompanyIt's been sixteen years since
Harold Pinter's
The Homecoming was last staged on the Great White Way. That 1991 production lasted a mere 49 performances. But now, with plenty of star power to propel it forward, a second rival is headed for Broadway.
Not letting any moss grow under his feet,
Raúl Esparza -- whom many were shocked did not win the 2007 Tony for Best Actor in a Musical for his brilliant work in
Company -- will join
Ian McShane and
Michael McKean in Daniel Sullivan's production.
While this will be McShane's first Rialto outing in 40 years (he last appeared in
The Promise with a young
Ian McKellen and
Eileen Atkins), it also marks Esparza's first
non-musical role on Broadway. If he can bring even a fraction of the intensity he brought to his role as Bobby, this show may become unmissable.
When
The Homecoming made its
Broadway debut back in 1967, it earned four Tony Awards, including for Best Play. The show ran for a remarkable 324 performances at the
Music Box Theatre.
Will all the high wattage from the second revival turn it into a similar success? I'm mulling over the possibilities.
The Homecoming will open on December 4 at the
Cort Theatre.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Daniel Sullivan, First Word On New Show, Harold Pinter, Ian McShane, Michael McKean, Play, Raul Esparza, Revival, The Homecoming
