Did Critics Want To Rock 'N' Roll All Night?Last evening,
Tom Stoppard's hotly anticipated
Rock 'N' Roll opened at Broadway's
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. Helmed by
Trevor Nunn, the cast features
Rufus Sewell along with
Sinéad Cusack and
Brian Cox. Reviews ranged from absolutely rhapsodic to downright disappointing (sadly,
I fell into the latter category after having my hopes set, perhaps, unattainably high).
Praising it as "triumphantly sentimental,"
Ben Brantley of
The New York Times reaffirms his earlier laurels: "Writing about the political and cultural legacy of the late 1960s in his own late 60s (Mr. Stoppard recently turned 70) has, for better or worse, exposed this playwright’s soft side -- mostly for better. Mr. Stoppard treats the contentious, confused characters of
Rock ’n’ Roll with a deep, protective affection I’ve never encountered from him before, even in the supposed self-portraiture of his
Real Thing....Ms. Cusack -- who plays the cancer-riddled Eleanor in the first act and her grown daughter, Esme, in the second — is marvelous as two different women of feeling holding their own among men of ideas. Her bravura presentation of Eleanor’s argument against Max’s materialism in the first act is the emotional touchstone of the play."
Offering up four stars,
New York Post's
Clive Barnes is ecstatic: "Sir Tom Stoppard's new play
Rock 'n' Roll is funny, enthralling and, yes, it offers you something to take out of the theater you didn't come in with....The director Trevor Nunn is a wizard...at revealing the human face of Stoppard behind all the nervy, nervous brilliance. And -- a lot of any directorial success comes with the casting -- he has here a marvelous team of actors, the four leads from his original London production last year, with all the newcomers blending in with the effortless
Wilde-like grace that characterizes Stoppard's writing."
Calling it a "humane play,"
Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press is unequivocally positive: "It's splendid, illuminating entertainment, chock full of ideas and high-flying arguments (could there be a Stoppard play without them?) yet resonating with an emotion that springs from several fully developed characters....The amazing Sewell...anchors the richly embroidered story....Cusack, too, is extraordinary, tackling two roles."
"Dense, but enormously satisfying," is how
Eric Grode of
The New York Sun describes the play: "Substituting
Dylan and
Jagger for
Bakunin and
Turgenev, he completes this latest task in a third of the time and with nearly triple the impact....The astonishingly good Ms. Cusack delivers one of the single most powerful sequences in all of Stoppard, a ferocious demand that Max not reduce Eleanor and her cancer-ridden body to one of his dialectic constructs."
Saying "it's too sprawling and ambitious to be consistently involving,"
Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's
Daily News offers a mixed assessment: "The estimable Trevor Nunn directs, and not without missteps. The cast shouts throughout the very long first act before settling in for the tighter, more satisfying second half. Cox gives heart to his barking Communist, while Sinead Cusack brings high contrast to dual roles. She morphs from searing to soft as Max's strong-willed wife and then her own hippie-chick daughter. As Jan, who might be a stand-in for the Czech-born Stoppard, Sewell paints an aptly earnest portrait as a reluctantly political man who realizes you can't play an LP without causing a revolution."
Citing its "unwieldy reflection on politics, poetics, rock music as expression of personal liberty and a whole lot else,"
Variety's
David Rooney is more critical: "Would that the intellectually overburdened play's journey -- or those of its mostly unengaging characters -- had half the humanity packed into Sewell's wonderful performance.
Rock 'n' Roll commands admiration simply by virtue of being unafraid to make demands on its audience, and it has an affecting central figure in Jan. But in order to get to 90 minutes of reasonably satisfying emotional drama, it first force-feeds you another 90 minutes of stodgy political-science backgrounding, made more cumbersome by awkward cross-cutting between Cambridge and Prague. (The latter aspect is not helped by
Robert Jones' clunky set, with its pedestrian use of a central turntable.)"
Comparing Stoppard's works with "going to school,"
Michael Sommers of the
Newark Star-Ledger offers one of the other discordant notes: "The trouble is that this erudite play's characters exist not to behave like messy human beings, but to voice different points of view. So they come to life only fitfully, despite the very good acting of director Trevor Nunn's ensemble. Stars imported from the award-winning play's London production shine brightest. Sewell's gentle Jan endures decades of troubles with saintlike patience. Cusack's quirky classics scholar blazes into rage over her piece-by-piece death."
The critical response was a bit more favorable than the audience response during the performance I attended. In fact, I overheard one person emphatically say, "This is the worst play I ever saw." While I didn't think it was quite that bad, it should be duly noted that
Rock 'N' Roll clearly will not be for everyone.
Tickets are currently available through March 2, 2008.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Rock 'N' Roll (The SOB Review) (November 5, 2007)
Broadway Ready To Rock Tonight (November 4, 2007)
When It Comes To Broadway, Stoppard's On A Roll (May 16, 2007)
Which British Hits Will Be Broadway-Bound? (September 20, 2006)
Labels: Brian Cox, Broadway, Critics' Capsule, Play, Rock 'n' Roll, Rufus Sewell, Sinead Cusack, Tom Stoppard, Trevor Nunn
Rock 'N' Roll (The SOB Review) - Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, New York, NY*1/2Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.
Right around the beginning of the third hour of
Tom Stoppard's
Rock 'N' Roll, which opened last night at the
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, Jan -- the play's Czech protagonist sociologist -- dares to utter what many in the audience are already thinking: "We aim for inertia."
While the context should underscore how mired and resigned the Czech people were ten years after capitulating to the Soviet occupation of 1968, it unintentially serves as a stark reminder for how frustrating Stoppard's undeniably high-minded and intensely personal work is to slog through.
Unfortunately, this very sentimental journey is all too heavy-handed, relying on far too much pontificating and far too little character or plot development, which is only hampered by
Trevor Nunn's exasperating fits and starts direction.
Rock 'N' Roll spans 22 years (1968-1990) and jarringly shifts back and forth between Prague and Cambridge. Just as you think the story is getting somewhere, the scene is interrupted with yet another lengthy rock and roll intersticial with nary a connection to situation.
Stoppard himself was born in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, but left as a baby. Through Jan -- portrayed with uncompromising zest by
Rufus Sewell -- Stoppard explores what might have been had he never left his homeland, save providing Jan with a rare opportunity to attend England's prestigious
Cambridge University.
While at Cambridge, Jan becomes a student of Professor Max Morrow (a steely
Brian Cox), an avowed and unapologetic communist, who uses the Soviet's World War II victory over the Germans to remind Jan, a Jew, that he essentially owes his life to the party.
But from his lofty academic perch, Max casts a blind eye on the authoritarian realities of communism and deflects criticisms that the corrupt system inherently disapproves of free thought. As an informer to the Czech secret police, he is told "We're supposed to know what's going on inside people -- that's why it's the Ministry of the Interior."
Max ultimately betrays Jan, who's imprisoned when he's deemed unemployable -- although it's actually for his considerable subversive activities, not the least of which is being a rock and roll music aficianado and active participant in a concert from the outlawed Czech psychadelic rock band,
The Plastic People of the Universe, a living breathing symbol of the Western scourge of free will. After his release from prison, Jan submits to a 12-year stint as a bakery worker until he's "freed" by the astounding 1989
Velvet Revolution, enabling him to journey back to Cambridge and confront Max with his past, but also reconnect with Max's daughter Esme.
Amidst all these noble themes, we're introduced to one unsympathetic character after another, with the exception of Jan and the two handled expertly by the amazing
Sinéad Cusack, who imbues both Eleanor (Max's cancer-ridden wife) in the first act and the older Esme (Max and Eleanor's former flower child daughter) in the second with a unique level of dignity and humanity largely absent from the rest of the portrayals. Most stirring is Eleanor's comparison of her cancer to communism as she strives to impress upon Max that a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
If only the rest of play were as coherent or as riveting, I'd be able to say
Rock 'N' Roll is here to stay.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Broadway Ready To Rock Tonight (November 4, 2007)
When It Comes To Broadway, Stoppard's On A Roll (May 16, 2007)
Which British Hits Will Be Broadway-Bound? (September 20, 2006)
Labels: Broadway, Play, Rock 'n' Roll, Rufus Sewell, The SOB Review, Tom Stoppard, Transfer, Trevor Nunn
Broadway Ready To Rock TonightDespite its breathtaking critical success across the pond, it's easy to forget that
Tom Stoppard's
Rock 'N' Roll did
not win the Olivier Award for Best New Play earlier this year.
That distinction went to
David Harrower's Blackbird, although
Rufus Sewell was awarded the trophy for Best Actor.
But with many London critics proclaiming it even better than Stoppard's monumental
The Coast Of Utopia, which managed to clean up at this year's Tony Awards, anticipation is running high that this could be the play to beat come Tony time 2008.
Tonight,
Rock 'N' Roll officially opens at the
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre with
Trevor Nunn at the helm and a cast that includes
Sinéad Cusack and
Brian Cox in addition to Sewell.
Of all the new Broadway shows I've been looking forward to, this is the one (my other pick would be
August: Osage County, although I've already had the very good fortune of seeing that one during its Chicago premiere). Stoppard's use of the spoken word is spellbinding.
Look for my critics' capsule tomorrow, along with my very own SOB Review.
Tickets are currently available through March 2, 2008.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:When It Comes To Broadway, Stoppard's On A Roll (May 16, 2007)
Which British Hits Will Be Broadway-Bound? (September 20, 2006)
Labels: Broadway, Opening Night, Play, Rock 'n' Roll, Rufus Sewell, Tom Stoppard, Transfer, Trevor Nunn
When It Comes To Broadway, Stoppard's On A RollNot enabling any moss to grow under his feet, playwright
Tom Stoppard -- whose critically-acclaimed marathon theatrical production
The Coast Of Utopia is the early favorite to win the Best Play Tony -- will enjoy another highly anticipated Broadway opening later this year.
Having already enjoyed a celebrated, sold-out run in London, Stoppard's
Rock 'N' Roll is now confirmed for a Broadway transfer this November at the
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.
Rock 'N' Roll is described by London's
Royal Court Theatre -- where it premiered last summer -- as "[T]he years from 1968 to 1990 from the double perspective of Prague, where a rock 'n' roll band comes to symbolise resistance to the Communist regime, and of Cambridge where the verities of love and death are shaping the lives of three generations in the family of a Marxist philosopher."
Trevor Nunn, who helmed the London production, will have the honors of directing the play in New York. Additionally, most of its heralded cast will make the transfer as well, including Olivier Award-winning
Rufus Sewell (last seen on Broadway in the original mounting of
Translations in 1995),
Brian Cox and
Sinéad Cusack.
After the resounding success of
The Coast Of Utopia, expect Broadway to be positively buzzing about this work, roundly considered one of Stoppard's best ever. While I regretfully missed
The Coast Of Utopia, I won't miss
Rock 'N' Roll.
As for
The Coast Of Utopia, you can still vote for it along with all your picks for the shows that will earn Tonys in the categories of Best Musical, Best Play, Best Revival of a Musical and Best Revival of a Play in the SOB Polls on the right-hand column of this site.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, First Word On New Show, London, Play, Rock 'n' Roll, Rufus Sewell, The Coast Of Utopia, Tom Stoppard, Transfer
