Did Critics Think This Revival Has Hedda Steam?Yesterday, the latest Broadway revival of
Henrik Ibsen's
Hedda Gabler opened at the
American Airlines Theatre.
Ian Rickson helms
Christopher Shinn's new adaptation of the classic work. The production stars
Mary-Louise Parker in the title role, along with
Michael Cerveris,
Paul Sparks,
Peter Stormare,
Helen Carey,
Lois Markle and
Ana Reeder.
Critics' reviews were uniformly negative.
Asking rhetorically, "Who would do such a thing?"
Ben Brantley of
The New York Times compares this piece to '
Twilight' in his pan: "That affectless, amateurish acting I’d been seeing onstage, with its flat-line readings and saggy pauses, was all in the name of creating the illusion of people already dead.... That (Rickson) is now responsible for one of the worst revivals I have ever, ever seen has me flummoxed. Mr. Rickson’s
Seagull was a fluidly integrated production in which everyone seemed to exist in the same moment and in the same universe. With this
Hedda it’s not just that everyone is bad. It’s that they’re all bad in their own, different ways. At times you feel that because of some confusing detours in the back alleys of Broadway, actors who were meant to be in -- I dunno, anything from
Grease to
Equus -- showed up at the wrong place."
Lamenting that the revival "is an aggressively contemporary take on the play, but one whose insights seem more perverse than illuminating,"
Variety's
David Rooney front loads his review with a dire assessment: "Mary-Louise Parker's interpretation of
Hedda Gabler was probably always going to be a little wacky, but in the Roundabout revival she's the loopiest of a fairly off-kilter bunch. Using a disappointingly blunt new adaptation by Christopher Shinn, this is a production so doused in glum eccentricities that Ibsen's terminally bored neurotic has already reached the apex of her caged desperation before a line of dialogue has even been spoken. And while there's entertainment to be had from Parker's curt sarcasm and nutty double-takes, too many perplexing choices make the great play unaffecting and the irrational actions of its self-destructive antiheroine unsurprising."
Regretting that "two big hurdles blocked (Parker's) path this time: the adaptation and the direction," Bloomberg's
John Simon is outraged: "Why is it deemed necessary for minor American playwrights to adapt masterpieces whose status is owed precisely to their timelessness and universality? ... Ian Rickson, a British director who already did serious current damage to
The Seagull, now gets to wreak havoc on another masterwork. Rickson’s people do not behave like proper, staid, 19th-century Scandinavians, the source, in large part, of Hedda’s ennui. Rather, they carry on like hot-blooded Sicilians storming through '
Cavalleria Rusticana' minus the music.... There are moments when Parker’s charm and talent keep Hedda afloat, but all too often she drowns in misdirection."
Quipping that this revival "is too contemporary by half,"
Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's
Daily News only awards two out of five stars: "Nuance seems to have flown the coop.... But there's no sense of her psychology. Hopeless? Helpless? Repressed? Bored? ... Parker... is an unpredictable actress, and that's what makes her so exciting. But in this outing, she's got two switches: seethe and boil over."
Concluding that "Ibsen deserves better. So do we,"
New York Post's
Barbara Hoffman piles on in her two-out-of-four star review: "(Parker's) sultry star turn in Ibsen's 1890 shocker is the only reason, really, to see the uneven revival that opened last night at the Roundabout. The fault lies not in its stars -- well, partly ... -- but in Christopher Shinn's tin-eared adaptation.... (The) playwright has given Hedda some terrifically bitchy zingers (this is the rare Ibsen production that keeps 'em laughing), (but) he's lost much of the music along the way. His is a clunkier, more contemporary
Gabler."
Noting "wow, is it ever weird. Unfortunately, it is also not interesting-and really not good at all,"
Newsday's
Linda Winer blasts the production: "Parker, a thoroughly modern theater creature before she became the world's favorite pot-selling mom in '
Weeds,' has many fascinating qualities. What we learn from the
Roundabout Theatre Company's revival, alas, is that period versatility is not one of them. At least as disappointing, and perhaps more surprising, is the awkward staging by Ian Rickson.... Except for a couple of erotic flourishes -- including a nonsensical opening shot of Parker's bare butt and breast -- this is a stodgy and straightforward version of the Ibsen's pioneering mad-housewife classic."
This is one case in which I fully agreed with the consensus. While I profess to be a longtime fan of Ms. Parker's and have thoroughly enjoyed some of her previous stage work, her portrayal of
Hedda Gabler left me cold. You may find my
SOB Review by clicking
here.
Roundabout Theatre Company's mounting of
Hedda Gabler is currently slated to run through March 29.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, Christopher Shinn, Critics' Capsule, Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen, Ian Rickson, Mary-Louise Parker, Michael Cerveris, Play, Revival
Hedda Gabler (The SOB Review) - Roundabout Theatre Company, American Airlines Theatre, New York, New York** (out of ****)You want to know the craziest thing about the latest revival of
Henrik Ibsen's
Hedda Gabler as directed by
Ian Rickson?
Surpringly, it’s not the wide, glassy-eyed deer in the headlights portrayal of the eponymous character by
Mary-Louise Parker, which, by the way, seems more like an extremely strung out page taken from her long-running Showtime hit “Weeds.” In fact, because
Hildegard Bechtler's lackluster set design includes a sparsely-appointed room, Parker continually appears desperately in search of more scenery to chew.
Nor is it that sad irony of this most vain mistress of seduction appearing to be more of a vanity project for the gifted Parker, especially given the sheer number of New York revivals of
Hedda Gabler staged over the past 15 years.
No, the craziest thing about this
Hedda Gabler is that the only fate worse than a serious misfire of squandered talent and classic script on the stage is Rickson’s tragically self-inflicted shot that comes close to fatally undermining this great work. While
Christopher Shinn’s new adaptation must bear some of the responsibility, it’s the director who can’t quite dodge his own bullet.
Indeed, it is Rickson’s
second Broadway outing in a row in which a leading character is done in by acute miscalculations on the part of both director and actor alike. Just as his revival of
The Seagull was thrown seriously off kilter by the egregiously miscast
Peter Sarsgaard as Trigorin -- a role fundamentally demanding a halfway decent striking man with at least some modicum of charm-- so, too, is this
Hedda Gabler so certifiably imbalanced that you can’t understand why any man would find her attractive.
There’s no pretense of nuance in Parker’s possessed performance. Because of that, not even the usually dependable
Michael Cerveris as her husband, a mousy Jorgen Tesman, can salvage this production. While the rest of the ensemble is capable, only
Ana Reeder as Thea Elvsted completely acquits herself.
If you're waiting for the right time to see
Hedda Gabler, you'll have to wait a little longer.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Ana Reeder, Broadway, Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen, Ian Rickson, Mary-Louise Parker, Michael Cerveris, Play, Revival, The SOB Review
Latest Gabler Gamble Opens On BroadwayPerhaps it's because the title character provides such an amazing opportunity for actresses to show their moxie that
Henrik Ibsen's
Hedda Gabler is opening on Broadway -- this evening -- for an astounding
19th time.
Coming just eight relatively short years after
Kate Burton's celebrated, Tony-nominated turn as Hedda -- and just three after
Cate Blanchett famously packed a pistol across the East River in
Brooklyn -- now
Mary-Louise Parker is sinking her teeth into the role of Sweden's coveted temptress.
Directed by
Ian Rickson,
Roundabout Theatre Company is presenting this latest incarnation with fresh adaptation from
Christopher Shinn. The ensemble includes
Michael Cerveris as Jorgen Tesman,
Paul Sparks as Ejlert Lovborg,
Peter Stormare as Judge Brack,
Helen Carey as Miss Juliane Tesman,
Lois Markle as Berte, and
Ana Reeder as Thea Elvsted.
Will critics hail this latest revival? Find out tomorrow as I not only provide my critics' capsule, but my own SOB Review.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Ana Reeder, Broadway, Cate Blanchett, Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen, Ian Rickson, Mary-Louise Parker, Michael Cerveris, Opening Night, Paul Sparks, Peter Stormare, Play, Revival
Peer Gynt (The SOB Review) - Wurtele Thrust Stage, Guthrie, Minneapo-lis, MN
* (out of ****)Ever seen a show where the actors are clearly having much more fun than their audience?
From the moment you step foot inside the
Guthrie's largest theatre for this Minnesodaptation of Norwegian playwright
Henrik Ibsen's
Peer Gynt -- with a surprise 50th birthday celebration already in high gear -- it's clear that the actors are enjoying themselves a little more than they should.
And that they sustain their own personal fun for the next three hours -- as the script meanders from a wedding where a bride runs off with the title character to a troll kingdom to the coast of Morocco to an insane asylum in Cairo to a place not unlike what I’d envision a place like purgatory would be -- certainly says something for
Peer Gynt's large ensemble. Sadly, they rarely achieve a similar response in return from the audience.
In her
analysis of the playwright,
M.C. Bradbrook wrote that "Ibsen’s use of the troll is more than the invocation of a piece of folklore, it is a poetic mode of stating what could not otherwise be stated except at tedious length, thereby losing its force and becoming another thing."
Try telling that to poet
Robert Bly and renowned Shakespearean director
Tim Carroll who have teamed up to painstakingly stage Ibsen’s rhythmic “dramatic” poem that was initially intended only to be read.
It’s obvious to me that this adaptation, which Bly poetically translated to a fault is not quite what Bradbrook -- or Ibsen for that matter -- had in mind. Sure it's ambitious, but the sprawling mess is unmistakably dull.
Bly's translation is not a mere straight-forward retelling of
Peer Gynt. Instead, he turns Ibsen's fairy tale into an ill-conceived, freakishly wild nightmare dreamt by Peter (master Shakespearean actor and current Olivier nominee
Mark Rylance, ironically sounding a bit like
Bobby Anderson in "
It's A Wonderful Life"), a modern-day Minnesotan who's on the receiving end of the aforementioned half century mark surprise party. Carroll takes this theatre of the absurd to a preposterous level, seeing to it that tedium rises with it to unparalleled heights.
Curiously enough, when the stage floor boards come undone via Laura Hopkins' mesmerizing undulating set design,
Peer Gynt's lack of cohesion is unintentionally underscored. It's the play's one true spectacular moment.
But in a show that ostensibly asks its title character whether being yourself is good enough, it’s my sad duty to report that this
Peer Gynt is not.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Labels: Guthrie, Henrik Ibsen, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Peer Gynt, Play, Revival, The SOB Review
