Frost/Nixon (The SOB Revisit) - State Theatre, Minneapolis, Minnesota*1/2 (out of ****)You'd think that all the ongoing Oscar buzz generated by the
film progeny of Broadway's
Frost/Nixon would be enough to place everyone associated with the
current national tour squarely on their "A" game.
With stage director
Michael Grandage apparently phoning it in with a lackluster ineffectual cast, I'm sorry to say that you'd be very wrong.
Granted, I just saw the silver screen incarnation over the past two weeks, and yes,
I thought it better than the original Broadway mounting (see my 2007 SOB Review
here). But this touring production pales dramatically in every sense of the word and is likely to disappoint the throngs of filmgoers who have been inspired to seek out the source material. If ever I doubted the extraordinary ability of
Frank Langella and
Michael Sheen to rise above
Peter Morgan's script, those doubts have forever been put to rest, even as the current cast sinks beneath it.
First and foremost,
Stacy Keach is just plain wrong as
Richard Nixon. Keach is a distinguished actor, to be sure, but he only rarely achieves any of the Nixonian cadences and posturing Langella effortlessly mastered. Sure, Langella may only bear a fleeting approximation to Nixon, but he had me believing. Even
Bob Ari, the actor who portrays
Robert Zelnick doing a Nixon impersonation is better (Ari also understudies Keach, after having understudied Langella on Broadway). The overly robust Keach, on the other hand, doesn't even seem to try, instead eerily coming off more like the personification of
Peter Griffin of television's "
Family Guy."
Speaking of cartoonish performances,
Alan Cox as
David Frost infuses his characterization with a mad dash of
Austin Powers. Sadly, to say that he gives the best performance of the evening is not saying much.
Perhaps the worst is the laughably miscast
Brian Sgambati as
James Reston, a narrative role intended to provide an undercurrent of moral and righteous indigation. However, Sgambati's Reston is merely a boy scout, exhibiting an inappropriately earnest gee-whiz half smile that makes questioning of whether Frost should work with this "loose cannon" completely incongruous -- loose marble is more like it.
Do yourself a favor, save your loose change and go see the far superior film version of "Frost/Nixon" with Langella and Sheen in lieu of the impeachable tour. It's one of the few times I've ever recommended a silver screen incarnation over a live stage show.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Alan Cox, Brian Sgambati, David Frost, Film, Frost/Nixon, Michael Grandage, Peter Morgan, Play, Richard Nixon, Stacy Keach, The SOB Revisit, Touring Production
Frost/Nixon Better On Silver ScreenJust when I thought it was not possible for a film to be better than its stage precursor, along comes
Ron Howard's enthralling
big screen adaptation of
Peter Morgan’s play
Frost/Nixon.
Please don't get me wrong. Nothing can match seeing
Frank Langella as
U.S. President Richard Nixon duke it out with
Michael Sheen as British television talk show host/gadfly/womanizer
David Frost live on stage. Both were superb, and Langella was completely deserving of the Tony Award he received for his portrayal of our disgraced president.
But seeing these two exceptional actors again, now with a completely fleshed out and contextualized story line -- compliments of Morgan himself -- now ensures that Langella and Sheen's stellar performances are matched by the material itself.
Yes,
I still have an issue with the ficticious middle-of-the-night telephone call that plays such a pivotal role in this story, especially since most casual observers will believe it to be fact. But that alone should not stop anyone, including students of history, from seeing the film. Or the North American
touring stage production, for that matter.
On that note, I'll be taking in one of the early legs of the tour, just so I can compare the two versions of
Frost/Nixon once more.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, David Frost, Film, Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon, Michael Sheen, Peter Morgan, Richard Nixon, Ron Howard, Touring Production
Frost/Nixon (The SOB Review) – Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, New York, NY
*** (out of ****)
Call it a case of overblown expectations.
No, I am not a kook.
After tracking the trajectory of
Peter Morgan’s play, from the time London’s
Donmar Warehouse announced the impending world premiere through its opening night on Broadway, I’d placed this show at the top of my list of dramas to see.
As previously noted, I’m a student of history and politics and vividly recall the actual landmark interviews of Nixon by British talk show host/gadfly/womanizer
David Frost, as well as the traumatizing, cataclysmic historic events that led Nixon to his place as the only president to resign his office.
While Morgan succeeds in going beyond the one-dimensional characterizations of the duo that are all too easy -- and, in fact, demonstrates a surprising degree of empathy for the former leader of the free world (so much so that I wondered whether his reading signaled a desire to declare Nixon’s much-desired rehabilitation complete) -- his fictionalization of conversations that never took place took me aback. Most egregious was Nixon’s drunken phone call to Frost late in the play.
Captivating? Yes. Memorable? You bet. Fascinating theatre? Without a doubt. But, such flagrant abuse of the facts borders on an abrogation of artistic license.
The play may run an intermission-less two hours, but
Michael Grandage’s direction moves the production along quickly after a slow start.
Frost/Nixon’s finest moments are derived directly from the interviews themselves, and that’s when the production shifts into high gear. It’s during these passages that
Frank Langella (Nixon) and
Michael Sheen (Frost) really shine. Just as Langella is breathtaking as his Nixon steamrollers over Frost in the early interview stages, you can’t help but be awed by how Sheen’s Frost cowers like a punch drunk fighter not knowing what hit him.
Notwithstanding the flaws in Morgan’s overall script, the two actors deliver two of the most riveting performances of the year. Their body language alone exhibits more potent artistry than the vast majority of performances I’ve recently seen. While it took some time for me to get beyond Langella sounding more like
Walter Cronkite than Nixon (and Sheen initially comes across more like a shrill
Austin Powers), each acquits himself well beyond a reasonable doubt.
In the end, however, almost in spite of Nixon’s apology during the last interview for his wrongdoing, it’s the magnificent Langella who triumphs with the 2006-07 Theatrical Season’s most impassioned, nuanced performance. That makes
Frost/Nixon a must-see event.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:
Labels: Broadway, David Frost, Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon, Michael Grandage, Michael Sheen, Play, Richard Nixon, The SOB Review
Nixon: Knowing What I Know And When I Knew itAs a student of history and political science (
those were my majors in college, as opposed to theatre, communications or English) who also had an earlier political career in both Washington DC and my childhood home state (Wisconsin), I naturally gravitate toward political theatre. After all, what could be more theatrical than the art of politics? (Most of the real thing
is rather bad, isn't it?!)
So it's against that backdrop that I confess to you the Broadway play I'm most looking forward to seeing this spring is
Frost/Nixon, starring
Michael Sheen as television talk show host/gadfly
David Frost and
Frank Langella as the disgraced
U.S. President.
Personally, as much as I hate to admit to it, I'm old enough to remember how devastating the damning truth of the
Watergate crisis was on this country, as bit after bit of new information slowly dribbled onto the front pages of newspapers and hovered like a dark cloud over the nation for what seemed like an eternity.
Yes, I remember watching the Senate's Watergate hearings and listening to individuals like
John Dean coming before the committee and divulging details of the cover-up, as well as what Richard Nixon knew and when he knew it. I remember the Constitutional crisis that developed over the White House's attempts to thwart the investigation by claiming executive privilege. I remember Nixon on the verge of becoming the second U.S. President to be impeached by the House for high crimes and misdemeanors And I certainly remember watching Nixon announce to a heartsick nation that he would resign the office of the Presidency on August 9, 1974. What had become a long national nightmare stretching over two years was finally in its final hours.
Three years later, after the non-elected President
Gerald Ford was ousted by
Jimmy Carter from the White House -- in part because of his pardon of the former President -- Nixon reemerged, ready to reclaim his legacy via his Administration's most positive initiatives (détente with the Soviet Union, resumption of dialogue with Mainland China, etc.), but he needed a forum for his redemption.
Enter David Frost, a British talk show host known as much -- or perhaps more -- for his womanizing, navel-gazing ways as for his journalistic prowess. I vividly recall the media hype surrounding the actual Frost interviews of Nixon and the manner in which both were seeking some level of redemption.
In my mind, that provides the type of riveting story you simply can't make up. In an era where there were just three commercial television networks (ABC, CBS and NBC), virtually no cable television and certainly no
new media like the Internet, the Nixon interviews became events unto themselves.
So, one week prior to making my personal pilgrimage to the
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre to see the dramatization surrounding the interviews, I have been awed not only by the positive
reviews and
buzz, but also by stories like
Michael Riedel's in yesterday's New York Post, which heralds this as actor Frank Langella's "history-making moment."
Simply put, I can't wait to see this show. While I know I'll be retracing my formative thinking from over thirty years ago, I also know that I'll likely leave that Broadway theatre with a fresh perspective on the man who so utterly disappointed and disgraced his nation more than a generation ago.
As a student of history, I'll certainly let you know what I think in an upcoming SOB Review. But I at least wanted to advise you in advance how that review will have been informed before I write it.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Critics Acquit Frost/Nixon (April 23, 2007)
Frost/Nixon Ready For Broadway Close-Up Tonight (April 22, 2007)
Box Office: Theatregoers Don't Passover Broadway (April 9, 2007)
West End Transfer Of Frost/Nixon Opens This Evening (November 15, 2006)
Which British Hits Will Be Broadway-Bound? (September 20, 2006)
Critics Find Frost/Nixon to Be Unimpeachable (August 23, 2006)
London's Frost/Nixon Opens Tonight (August 23, 2006)
Sheen/Langella to Portray Frost/Nixon in London (June 2, 2006)
Labels: Background, Broadway, David Frost, Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon, History, Play, Richard Nixon
