Life Is Short For A Life In The Theatre
So much for any additional life support for
A Life In The Theatre. Sadly, it's time to write the obit as they're pulling the plug more than a month early.
Today, a
closing notice was posted for the limited run
revival of
David Mamet's slight, 33 year old work presented for the very first time on Broadway this fall. The show will close on November 28.
On paper, it certainly sounded brilliant, particularly with
Neil Pepe directing
Patrick Stewart and
T.R. Knight, both extraordinarily gifted actors in their own right. Yet, it seemed extremely tiny, even in its smallish
Broadway house. It also seemed woefully thin,
not only to me, but also to a
host of critics.
Even worse, the show has been languishing near the bottom of the weekly grosses for the past
couple weeks (and I'm sure this week's box office totals will bear similar results). In fact, with one
notable exception,
A Life In The Theatre was not only the lowest grossing show on Broadway for the week ending October 31 ($218,150), but also at the bottom in attracting capacity crowds at 39.3%.
When the show closes, it will have performed 56 regular performances. As Ben Brantley of
The New York Times has so
eloquently stated, "And now when I see a good production Off Broadway, I shudder to think that it may soon be pushed onto a big, unloving stage where it may well die from exposure." As much as I love Broadway, not every play or musical -- including ones I love -- belongs there.
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: A Life In The Theatre, Ben Brantley, Broadway, Closing Notices, David Mamet, Neil Pepe, Patrick Stewart, Play, Revival, T.R. Knight
** (out of ****)
In recent years, Atlantic Theatre Artistic Director Neil Pepe has been with his theatre's co-founder David Mamet through thick and through thin. And for that, I'm grateful, given the works Pepe has breathed exciting new life into.
But nothing has been nearly as thin as Mamet's A Life In The Theatre, a mildly amusing, intermittently humorous and even potentially poignant play about two actors at the opposite ends of their careers. If this work was a real life, you'd think it had overdosed on plavix, making its blood so thin that its veins are left as brittle as Mamet's surprisingly stilted dialogue -- an unfortunate coincidence that has rendered this inert revival as surprisingly lifeless.
How thin can this show be? Running at an exasperatingly long 90 minutes, A Life In The Theatre is divided into dozens of short, distinctive vignettes punctuated by what seems like at least 15 minutes worth of changes in scenery. In fact, Santo Loquasto's scenic design and the stage hands who move it essentially become this revival's third character.
All of what little action there is takes place in the same theatre. However, it's drawn out over an endless, if unlikely, series of plays in which both Robert (Patrick Stewart) and John (T.R. Knight) are continually cast opposite one another.
At first, budding thespian John seems eager to accept the sage advice of Robert, an actor in the twilight of his career. The interplay between Stewart and Knight is at its best when the two are backstage, even if most of the play's funniest moments are reserved for the mishaps onstage.
What makes A Life In The Theatre particularly thin is that Mamet never seems interested in going beyond the superficial relationship between the two actors. Beyond painting one actor's ascent and the resulting jealousies of the other, Mamet misses the opportunity to explore who these men beneath the greasepaint are. Leaving them rather one-dimensional, Mamet deprives the audience the chance to become invested in who Robert and John are.
There is A Life In The Theatre lurking somewhere in this revival, but it's pulse is just too faint.
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: A Life In The Theatre, Broadway, David Mamet, Neil Pepe, Patrick Stewart, Play, Revival, T.R. Knight, The SOB Review
Theatre Finally Coming To BroadwayI've read it so many times that I was almost beginning to believe it was true: that revivals of
David Mamet works have long since become perennial events on Broadway.
Well, it isn't necessarily so.
Sure there was that Tony Award-winning Best Play Revival of
Glengarry Glen Ross in 2005. But it wasn't really until the very recent 2008 Broadway revival of
Speed-The-Plow that the Mamet machine really swung into gear. And summarily got stuck. Just weeks later, the blink or you'd miss it revival of
American Buffalo largely opened to pans. In 2009, a revival of
Oleanna opened to more receptive acclaim.
Now comes only the fifth Mamet revival of the last decade.
Frequent Mamet collaborator
Neil Pepe is set to direct
A Life in the Theatre with
Patrick Stewart and
T. R. Knight star as Robert and John, respectively -- two stage actors in a power struggle. Stewart is no stranger to the play, having performed as Robert on the West End opposite
Joshua Jackson in 2005.
Although it has seen life in London and Off-Broadway,
A Life In The Theatre has never before been mounted on Broadway. Until now. The official Web site
describes the 33 year old play as follows:
A Life In The Theatre will be making its Broadway premiere. The play made its world premiere at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago in February of 1977 with Mike Nussbaum and Joe Mantegna and was directed by Gregory Mosher. The play opened off-Broadway on October 20, 1977 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and ran for 288 performances. That production was directed by Gerald Gutierrez and starred Peter Evans and Ellis Rabb.
Describing life in the footlights from an actor’s point of view, A Life In The Theatre focuses on the relationship between two thespians: Robert, an older, experienced performer; and John, a relative newcomer. Though Robert’s guidance is welcomed by John at first, as the play progresses Robert falters as an actor and mentor, and John emerges as a mature actor. Mamet was inspired to write A Life In The Theatre by what he had observed backstage as well as by his own experiences in his early career as an actor.
Stewart, of course, is one of the foremost actors on either side of the Atlantic, and his participation alone would be enough to entice me to see
A Life In The Theatre. But having witnessed Knight's impressive acting range on stage as both an amazing Amadeus Mozart in
Amadeus and as Tim in
Noises Off! -- both before he ever became known to television audiences as
Dr. George O'Malley -- I can honestly say that I'm every bit as anxious to see him perform as I am his co-star.
Previews begin at Broadway's
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on September 21, with opening night set for October 12, 2010. The limited run will conclude on January 2, 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: A Life In The Theatre, Broadway, David Mamet, First Word On New Show, Neil Pepe, Patrick Stewart, Play, Revival, T.R. Knight
Macbeth (The SOB Review) - Lyceum Theatre, New York, NY** (out of ****)Forget, just for a moment, all the stylishly subversive and ultimately superfluous Stalinist influences infused by director
Rupert Goold into this maddeningly uneven, noisy revival of
William Shakespeare's bloody classic.
Essentially, what Goold has created is the world's first hiphop
Macbeth, complete with its trio of rapping witches, er, wee
atches, baby. You have to give him credit for being inventive.
With plenty of piss and vinegar, Goold throws in everything,
including the proverbial kitchen sink. Heck, he even goes so far as to provide a gratuitously perverse peeing
in the kitchen sink from
Christopher Patrick Nolan's appropriately named Seyton, footsoldier to
Macbeth. Suffice to say, at times Goold's pretentious production
often borders on the obscene when it isn't reaching for parody.
Fortunately, this crass rendition of Shakespeare's bloodcurdling warrior-cum-king and his manipulative wife (a seductively chilling
Kate Fleetwood) rises whenever a superb follicularly-challenged, classicly-trained English actor takes to the stage. No, I'm not talking about
Patrick Stewart as the eponymous traitor, although this gifted thespian does offer up a fairly competent take that like much of this bombastic production is all too often muted by
Adam Cork's overblown sound design.
No, it was the brilliantly nuanced portrayal of Macduff by the aptly named
Michael Feast, who provides a veritably bold Bard banquet as the nobleman agonizing over the death of his family. His gritty determination to avenge their murders is amplified, ironically enough, because Cork's sound is specifically turned down.
Thankfully, Goold has also enlisted Broadway's ubiquitous
Byron Jennings with all-to-brief, but welcome appearances both as King Duncan of Scotland (who meets with his bloody end at the hands of
Macbeth fairly early) and a Scottish doctor. Blessedly, Jennings has also mastered the art of enunciating his words so they may be understood and savored by the audience.
Never mind, however, that this is, indeed, the Scottish play. Evoking the Soviet's most ruthless dictator,
Lorna Heavey's frequently repetitious yet equally enthralling projection design and
Howard Harrison's eerie lighting add tremendous texture to
Anthony Ward's deceptively simple set, making for a visually stunning set design.
But all this overblown pomposity, amped up a few decibles too many, needlessly overtakes
Macbeth's often obsolete Old English language that's spoken with largely indecipherable accents. In the end, it only serves to obscure what is arguably Shakespeare's greatest tragedy.
And
that's the biggest tragedy, if you ask me.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, Kate Fleetwood, Macbeth, Michael Feast, Patrick Stewart, Play, Revival, Rupert Goold, The SOB Review, Transfer, William Shakespeare
Did Critics Think Macbeth Revival Foul Or Fair?Last evening, Director
Rupert Goold's acclaimed London production of
William Shakespeare's
Macbeth starring
Patrick Stewart opened at the Great White Way's
Lyceum Theatre.
On the other side of the pond,
Goold was honored just last month with an Olivier Award for turning the Bard's work into a more contemporary tale by borrowing heavily from
Joseph Stalin’s
Great Terror. The play transferred from London to Broadway by way of the
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) where it played earlier this year; many critics are allowing their earlier critiques to stand.
Heralding this "a
Macbeth you'll never be able to forget,"
Clive Barnes of
New York Post awards the production four stars: "Goold's brilliance is not in time or place but method - dissecting the play's pathological madness better than I've ever seen. His radical production choices, so wholeheartedly embraced by his cast, offers a
Clouzot-like film noir environment (backed up with cool, black and dazzling efficiency by his designer,
Anthony Ward) which runs from field hospital to abatoir to kitchen, from shabby banquet table to darkling wood.... The 67-year-old Stewart ... has reinvented himself from an admirable character actor to one of the stars of the English-speaking theater."
While taking note of "an admittedly kitchen-sink aspect to the proceedings" that "threaten to overwhelm,"
Frank Scheck of
The Hollywood Reporter is nevertheless largely positive: "Stewart delivers a fascinatingly complex performance in the title role, cannily hinting at the character's initial hesitancy and vulnerability before adopting a more fearsome demeanor.... He's well matched by
Kate Fleetwood's particularly sultry Lady Macbeth -- that she's so much younger than her co-star only adds to
Macbeth's motivation -- and
Michael Feast's subtly anguished Macduff."
Deeming the revival "overstated but fascinating,"
USA Today's
Elysa Gardner offers three out of four stars: "[F]lashy features, plus high-pitched performances by Michael Feast as Macduff and
Christopher Patrick Nolan as the demonic porter, are miraculously put in context by Stewart's witty, nuanced work, which reveals
Macbeth as an intelligent, rational person driven to madness by outside forces and his own violent transgressions."
In his February review of the BAM incarnation,
The New York Times'
Ben Brantley took particular note of Stewart's performance: "[A]ll (the show's) sound and fury would signify, if not nothing, then yet another politically minded evening of Shakespeare in period drag were it not for the brilliant performance at its center. What makes this one a must-see is Mr. Stewart’s thrilling recognition that his character is as close kin to the fatally introspective Hamlet as he is to power-wielding men of ill will like Richard III. His performance is the first I have seen to realize completely what the scholar Harold Bloom means when he calls this play 'a tragedy of the imagination.' Small wonder that Lady Macbeth (Kate Fleetwood, excellent and original) -- willful, canny and hard-wired for success -- sees danger signs whenever her husband’s gaze goes hazy."
Concluding that Stewart offers a "commanding, meticulously shaded performance in a production generally far less subtle, but unstinting in high-style inventiveness,"
Variety's
David Rooney also reviewed the earlier BAM staging: "Exactly how well Stewart is served by the blood-soaked flamboyance of Rupert Goold's overburdened production will be a matter of taste, but the rising-star Brit director's
Macbeth is as cinematic as it is boldly theatrical. It may not always elucidate the plot or characters to best advantage but it sure keeps you glued.... Goold's take on one of Shakespeare's most violent plays is to make it even more horrific, freely mixing bone-chilling supernatural shivers with vicious warmongering,
Machiavellian politics, psychological unease and technological intrusions."
Calling "this occasionally overstuffed form," in his earlier BAM review,
Eric Grode of
The New York Sun offers a mixed review: "The milk of human kindness, always a rare commodity in Shakespeare's spare but unsparing
Macbeth, is nowhere to be found in the scorched-earth production on grisly display at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Set amid the depravity of Stalinist Russia and firmly anchored by a wrathful Patrick Stewart, director Rupert Goold's daring and diabolical mounting turns all of Scotland into a virtual abattoir, peopled with little more than a pile of corpses that an ever-dwindling coterie of survivors must climb over on the way to a gore-slicked crown."
This very limited engagement is due to close on May 24, several weeks before the revival is expected to be in contention for the Tonys. Having missed the BAM staging, I'll be taking in a production early next month on Broadway and provide my own SOB Review soon thereafter.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Lucky #45? Macbeth Opens On Broadway (April 8, 2008)
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2008 Laurence Olivier Award Nominations Announced (February 6, 2008)
Labels: Broadway, Critics' Capsule, Macbeth, Patrick Stewart, Play, Revival, Rupert Goold, Transfer, William Shakespeare
Lucky #45? Macbeth Opens On BroadwayThis evening, the celebrated
Rupert Goold-helmed revival of
William Shakespeare's
Macbeth opens for a very limited engagement at Broadway's
Lyceum Theatre.
Starring
Patrick Stewart as the eponymous Scottish general, this is a play that instills so much legendary fear among theatregoers
(
correction: casts and crews - my apologies)theatregoers that the name
Macbeth is rarely uttered inside the theatre. Instead, just call it "The Scottish Play."
With previous New York performances dating all the way back to the 1700s, this London transfer is the 45th incarnation of the notorious work.
Will critics swoon? Find out tomorrow when I provide my critics' capsule.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Labels: Best New Plays, Broadway, London, Macbeth, Opening Night, Patrick Stewart, Revival, Rupert Goold, Transfer, William Shakespeare
