Theatre's Biggest News Of The Day Comes From Other Desert Cities
Perhaps the biggest theatrical news from yesterday didn't come from Broadway. But it was pretty darn close. And it was for a play that was originally planned for a Broadway berth.
Yesterday, The New York Times' Patrick Healy broke the news that Lincoln Center Theater's upcoming production of Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities would star one of this Theatre Season's most impressive casts since, well, that other Lincoln Center Theatre production: Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown.
According to Lincoln Center's news release:
Stockard Channing, Stacy Keach, Linda Lavin (and) Elizabeth Marvel will be featured in the cast of its upcoming production of Other Desert Cities, a new play by Jon Robin Baitz, directed by Joe Mantello, beginning performances Thursday, December 16 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 W. 65 Street.). Opening night is Thursday, January 13 at 6:45pm.
In Other Desert Cities, Brooke Wyeth (to be played by Elizabeth Marvel), a once promising novelist, returns home after a six year absence to celebrate Christmas in Palm Springs with her parents (Stockard Channing and Stacy Keach), former members of the Reagan inner-circle, her brother, and her aunt (Linda Lavin). When Brooke announces that she is about to publish a memoir focusing on an explosive chapter in the family’s history, the holiday reunion is thrown into turmoil and the Wyeths are both bound together and torn apart as they struggle to come to terms with their past.
Sounds pretty intriguing to me.
Expect this to be a much sought after ticket, especially given its opening date set amidst so many Broadway and Off-Broadway show closures about the same time.
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: Casting, Elizabeth Marvel, First Word On New Show, Jon Robin Baitz, Linda Lavin, Off-Broadway, Other Desert Cities, Stacy Keach, Stockard Channing
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
