Behanding Begins On BroadwayIf no applause is heard this evening at Broadway's
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, perhaps it's just the first preview audience's way of honoring playwright
Martin McDonagh's macabre title:
A Behanding In Spokane.
Directed by
John Crowley, who previously brought McDonagh's acclaimed
The Pillowman to the Great White Way five years ago,
A Behanding In Spokane is officially described as follows:
Carmichael (Christopher Walken) has been searching for his missing left hand for over a quarter of a century. Enter two bickering lovebirds (Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan) with a hand to sell, and a hotel clerk (Sam Rockwell) with an aversion to gunfire, and we're set for a hilarious rollercoaster of love, hate, desperation and hope.
A Behanding In Spokane marks Christopher Walken's first Broadway show since his Tony-nominated turn in
James Joyce's The Dead ten years ago. No stranger to the Great White Way, Walken made his Main Stem debut as "Ken" Walken in 1952's
The Climate of Eden with
Rosemary Harris and was later featured in
The Visit (1958) with
Lynn Fontanne and
Alfred Lunt. He then performed as "Ronnie" Walken in
J.B. (1959) and
High Spirits (1964) before adopting his Christopher moniker for 1965's
Baker Street.In
Behanding, Walken is teamed with Zoe Kazan (
Come Back, Little Sheba and
The Seagull) and Anthony Mackie (
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and
Drowning Crow), both of whom have already tread Broadway's boards over the last decade, as well as with indie film star Sam Rockwell, who apart from his participation in four of
The 24 Hour Plays benefits is making his
real Rialto debut here.
Regular readers will know of my deep appreciation for Kazan's work. I've been a fan since her "stunning, breakthrough performance" in
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie (Off-Broadway, 2006). After seeing her in
100 Saints You Should Know (Off-Broadway, 2007), I remarked, "Kazan once again demonstrates that no young stage actress delivers sassy adolescent insolence quite the way she can."
Fans of "
The Hurt Locker," which has been nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, will recognize Mackie as the tough Sgt. J.T. Sanborn, who is anxiously awaiting the end of his tour of duty. But Shakespeare in the Park aficionados will recognize this distinguished actor from his work this past summer in
The Bacchae in Central Park.
As for McDonagh himself, count me among the admirers of his, er, body of work, ranging from his
Cripple Of Inishmaan to "
In Bruges." The man is a genius. While many of his characters get bloodied, the playwright is also known for arming many of them with his wicked, biting wit.
That's why the world premiere of his latest work -- a four-hander, if you will -- is particularly intriguing to me. If it receives anything like the praise for McDonagh's four other plays that have been produced on Broadway, expect to see lots of Tony nods for the show. The limited run of
A Behanding In Spokane opens March 4 and is currently slated to close June 6, allowing just enough time for all Tony voters to see this dark comedy.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: A Behanding In Spokane, Anthony Mackie, Broadway, Christopher Walken, John Crowley, Martin McDonagh, Play, Sam Rockwell, World Premiere, Zoe Kazan
A Steady Rain (The SOB Review) - Schoenfeld Theatre, New York, New York**1/2 (out of ****)There are star vehicles, and then there are superstar vehicles.
A Steady Rain easily offers the most revved-up four-on-the-floor to hit the Great White Way this season.
With a couple of the silver screen's biggest names,
Daniel Craig and
Hugh Jackman, taking turns at the wheel of this full-throttled two-hander, it's no wonder
Keith Huff's 90-minute play has already been breaking Broadway box office records.
In his Main Stem debut, Craig is nothing short of a revelation. Here, the mustachioed British thespian completely loses himself, accent and all, in the role of Joey, a flawed, yet dutiful Chicago cop desperately trying to stay within the lines. Craig's excellence suggests that despite the dapper duds he's become accustomed to as 007, he's at heart a character actor of the first order.
Craig's Joey is a recovering alcoholic. His newfound sobriety opens his eyes to the damage his lifelong police buddy Denny (Jackman) is inflicting upon himself, his family and even his community. As murky and outside the lines as Denny's self-destructive path becomes, Joey remains loyal to a fault, even putting his own career on the line.
As much as I forgot I was watching "Daniel Craig, movie star," I wish I could say the same for Hugh Jackman. While the latter turns in a completely riveting performance, he simply can't doff his star persona quite the way he did when he triumphed as
Peter Allen in
The Boy From Oz. Yes, he is good and he's deeply intense as the drug-addled, infidelity-proned Denny, but perhaps because of
John Crowley's direction, I still saw Hugh Jackman, and that became a distraction, albeit a pleasant one.
As for the play itself, Huff's writing is cliché-driven and lacking in originality. He even borrows a key plotline out of a
real cop drama that played out over a 13 year period just
90 miles to the north of the Windy City. To say we saw where he was hauling us from a mile away would be an understatement.
Fortunately, with Craig in the driver's seat,
A Steady Rain steers into arresting play anyway.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: A Steady Rain, Daniel Craig, Hugh Jackman, John Crowley, Keith Huff, Play, The SOB Review
Will Steady Rain Open Box Office Flood-gates?Yesterday came
official news that
Hugh Jackman and
Daniel Craig are Broadway-bound this September in what is sure to be one of the 2009-10 Theatrical Season's hottest tickets.
The dynamic duo will bond as Chicago cops in
Keith Huff's
A Steady Rain, directed by
John Crowley, who received a Tony nomination for helming
The Pillowman in 2005.
As everyone knows, neither of these two actors are just another couple of pretty faces.
Jackman, of course, scored bigtime with his heartbreaking take on the late
Peter Allen in
The Boy From Oz back in 2003. Almost in spite of the lackluster material, the Australian actor soared high above it, winning praise, adoring fans and a permanent place in the hearts of Broadway theatregoers with his Tony-winning performance.
As for Craig, although this marks his Broadway debut, he's an established stage presence in London theatre circles. Long before he captured the public's attention as James Bond, he first made his mark doing Shakespeare in the
National Youth Theatre when he was just 16. Craig burnished his stage credentials with West End roles, including in the
Royal National Theatre's original London production of
Angels In America; Craig played four roles, including Joseph Porter Pitt.
A Steady Rain made its debut at the tiny
Chicago Dramatists in 2007 under the direction of Russ Tutterow. At the time,
Chris Jones of The Chicago Tribune described the two-hander play as:
...a gritty, rich, thick, poetic and entirely gripping noir tale of two Chicago police officers whose inner need to serve and protect both consumes them and rips them apart.... [T]he storytelling skills of this Iowa-trained playwright are truly remarkable.
A Steady Rain will pour at the
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre beginning September 10 with opening night slated for September 29. The limited engagement will run through December 6.
Expect a deluge at the box office (American Express cardholders get first dibs tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. EDT via
Telecharge). If it goes dry, then the economy is really much worse than any of us thought.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: A Steady Rain, Broadway, Chicago, Daniel Craig, First Word On New Show, Hugh Jackman, John Crowley, Keith Huff, Play
