Farnsworth Invention To Be Turned OffLast night, it was announced that
Aaron Sorkin The Farnsworth Invention has posted its closing notice. The play about the race to build the first television will shutter at the Broadway's
Music Box Theatre on March 2.
Directed by
Des McAnuff and starring
Hank Azaria and
Jimmi Simpson, the show scored
mediocre reviews when it opened in early December (
I gave it two out of four stars). Sorkin has been put through the
proverbial wringer for twisting historical facts in fictionalizing this true story.
No matter now. The cold hard facts as we know them are this. During the February winter doldrums,
The Farnsworth Invention's box office take last week was down to $186,343 for a total capacity of just 43.2%, while the average ticket price was $53.65. The only show to pull a lower capacity crowd was the 11 year old revival of
Chicago (42.8%), and the only shows to pull in lower grosses were the very funny
Is He Dead? (which at just $165,165, sadly appears to almost be caput) and cult favorite
Xanadu ($153,328).
When Sorkin's drama finally closes, it will have played a total of 104 regular performances. Then on March 2, it will be history.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Sorkin "No Tracy Letts" (December 14, 2007)
Did Critics Enjoy Sorkin's Invention? (December 4, 2007)
The Farnsworth Invention (The SOB Review) (December 4, 2007)
Don't Touch That Dial: Farnsworth Invention Opens (December 3, 2007)
All Of Great White Way Gleams Tonight (November 29, 2007)
Strike Fallout, Part Two? Opening Nights In Question (November 12, 2007)
Television Comes To Broadway (June 21, 2007)
Labels: Aaron Sorkin, Box Office, Broadway, Closing Notices, Des McAnuff, Hank Azaria, Jimmi Simpson, Play, The Farnsworth Invention
August: Best Time Of The YearThe more appropriate title for this story really would be
August: Osage County is
Time's "Best of the Year," but no matter.
The point is that the theatre critic for the venerable news magazine has selected my personal favorite show of the past year as
his top choice for theatre. I couldn't agree more.
But the list itself is a bit suspect to be honest. I know everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, including Richard Zoglin, but c'mon.
I'll give Zoglin a pass on
The Farnsworth Invention and I may even agree with him on
Pygmalion, but how could the Broadway revival of
Grease possibly make any discerning critic's list? Zoglin says, "Even with reality-TV stars, a stylish, happy, underappreciated revival."
Still, it's in his top
ten?
Do
Grease and
best go together like rama lama lama ke ding a de dinga a dong?
Zoglin's full top ten list for 2007 includes:
#1 -
August: Osage County#2 -
Journey's End#3 -
Fuerzabruta
#4 -
The Overwhelming#5 -
Wooster Group's Hamlet
#6 -
Pygmalion
#7 -
Grease#8 -
The Farnsworth Invention#9 -
Eurydice#10 -
Intimate ExchangesOf these shows, only the Broadway shows,
Fuerzabruta and
The Overwhelming remain open
(Pygmalion's limited run closes tomorrow).
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: August Osage County, Best Of Lists, Broadway, Grease, Pygmalion, The Farnsworth Invention, Time
Sorkin "No Tracy Letts"After last week's rapid-fire round robin of five Broadway openings -- four of which were placed on fast forward to make up for lost time in the wake of the stagehands strike --
Tracy Letts'
August: Osage County is clearly the major winner.
According to New York Post's Michael Riedel, the 3+ hour play on dysfunction took in a whopping $600,000 in advance ticket sales the day after the
near unanimity of critical praise, and it's had a daily advance take of around $200,000 per day ever since.
Riedel notes that coming out on the short end of the stick is
Aaron Sorkin's prefab play
The Farnsworth Invention, which
received the least favorable reviews of any show opening last week. To quote Riedel, Sorkin (pictured left) is "no Tracy Letts" (pictured right). Since opening, the show has earned an advance of about $50,000 per day. Riedel says that castmembers have already been advised that unless business picks up, the show will shutter.
Yet you'd never know that the shows were in different leagues from looking at last week's
box office totals. Capacity was about the same, with
August at 51.9% versus
Farnsworth at 50.8%.
August earned $327,133, while its next door neighbor to the east took in $267,480. Tables were slightly turned in the per ticket average with
Farnworth outshining
August $65.54 to $54.81.
Expect that last figure to flip next week.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for August: Osage County tickets.Click here for The Farnsworth Invention tickets.Related Stories:More Than One Critic Letts August Esteem Show (December 5, 2007)
Did Critics Enjoy Sorkin's Invention? (December 4, 2007)
The Farnsworth Invention (The SOB Review) (December 4, 2007)
August: Osage County (The SOB Review) (August 19, 2007)
Labels: Aaron Sorkin, August Osage County, Box Office, Broadway, Michael Riedel, Play, The Farnsworth Invention, Tracy Letts
Did Critics Enjoy Sorkin's Invention?Last evening,
Aaron Sorkin's first play on the Great White Way in nearly twenty years opened at Broadway's
Music Box Theatre. Directed by
Des McAnuff,
The Farnsworth Invention pits
Hank Azaria against
Jimmi Simpson in the supposedly true story on the race to invent television. Critics were lukewarm at best.
Calling this "vintage Sorkin and crackling prime-time theater,"
Linda Winer of
Newsday offers about the most glowing review I could find: "Breezy and shrewd, smart-alecky and idealistic, the quick-moving drama presents two sides to the still-contentious story behind the invention of television....For all the double and triple casting, nobody is generic. Sorkin can pile more details than the mind can process about the mechanic versus the electronic TV. But he makes sure we get it. He also can set the stage for the Great Depression and the moonwalk with a few miraculously brief bursts of information."
Noting how "Sorkin has gotten some -- possibly a lot -- of his facts wrong,"
New York Post's
Clive Barnes still offers two and a half stars: "Sorkin's take on the Farnsworth/Sarnoff standoff would be better suited to a screen, either big or small. Even now, while crackling with crisp dialogue,
The Farnsworth Invention often has the air of a clumsy stage adaptation of, say,
'Citizen Kane.' Its very busyness detracts from it as a stage play -- plus the fact that all but two of its 19 actors play multiple roles....(McAnuff)'s helped by the smartly minimalist stage design of
Klara Zieglerova, and the general performance of his Protean cast, particularly Simpson as the innocent genius, a
Jimmy-Stewartishly rumpled Farnsworth, and the smoothly opportunistic and charmingly ruthless Azaria as the nicely tailored Sarnoff."
Eric Grode of
The New York Sun offers this middling review: "Mr. Sorkin...has brought over some unfortunate habits from the left coast, including a tendency to create dramatic parallels where none exist and a weakness for soupy background music. But he has also imported his shrewd ear for plotting and his unmistakable flair for well-crafted paragraphs caroming off the halls of power. And he has found in Des McAnuff the rare director capable of turning all those painstakingly assembled anecdotes into a breezy parable, one about two men with huge dreams and the invention that proved bigger and more rapacious than even they could imagine."
Calling it an "information-crammed, surface-skimming biodrama,"
Ben Brantley of
The New York Times is dismissive: "you’re likely to leave
The Farnsworth Invention feeling that you have just watched an animated
Wikipedia entry, fleshed out with the sort of anecdotal scenes that figure in 're-enactments' on
E! channel documentaries and true-crime shows. This two-hour play is a fast-moving sequence of reflex-stimulating information- and emotion-bites. It never pauses long enough to find depth in any of them. Mr. Sorkin clearly had higher intentions."
Referring to "Sorkin's ingratiating approach" and "manicured dialogue,"
David Rooney of
Variety is quite critical: "
Farnsworth never fully moves beyond its stream of overexplained factoids. What's worse is that it's morally questionable....Sorkin wants to have it both ways. He depicts Sarnoff as single-minded in his focus on personal glory and corporate profit to the exclusion of all other concerns. But then after crushing Farnsworth and consigning the true inventor of television to obscurity (in lengthy legal proceedings reduced to a single perfunctory scene), Sarnoff gets to imagine the rapprochement between the two men and acknowledge the underdog's achievement. He also gets to show tearful remorse and big-picture perspective in a manipulative closing speech."
Discounting the show that "seemed to have everything going for it,"
Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's
Daily News is also negative: "So why is
Farnsworth disappointing and ho-hum enough to make you want to change channels? Sorkin's framework -- Sarnoff and Farnsworth co-narrate the story -- automatically adds a layer of distance. And though the play is informative, it's seldom deeply involving....Both stars give fine performances, but their characters often don't rise much above one dimension....Dramatic license is one thing. But a play about the invention of television that fails to blaze in living color is another."
Frankly, as much as I enjoyed the first act, I felt very cheated by the second, which clearly should have been labeled "The Sorkin Invention."
Newsday's Linda Winer is right to point out that there are plenty of people questioning Sorkin's conceit in adding a contrived confrontation between Farnsworth and Sarnoff when it admittedly never happened. She's also right to question where all the outrage was when
Frost/Nixon used a similarly fictitious 11 o'clock device to propel its story (she clearly wasn't reading my
review in which I said, "[S]uch flagrant abuse of the facts borders on an abrogation of artistic license.").
You can view my full SOB Review for
The Farnsworth Invention by clicking
here.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:The Farnsworth Invention (The SOB Review) (December 4, 2007)
Don't Touch That Dial: Farnsworth Invention Opens (December 3, 2007)
All Of Great White Way Gleams Tonight (November 29, 2007)
Strike Fallout, Part Two? Opening Nights In Question (November 12, 2007)
Television Comes To Broadway (June 21, 2007)
Labels: Aaron Sorkin, Broadway, Critics' Capsule, Des McAnuff, Hank Azaria, Jimmi Simpson, La Jolla Playhouse, Play, The Farnsworth Invention
The Farnsworth Invention (The SOB Review) - Music Box Theatre, New York, NY** (out of ****)With nary a boob tube in sight, it's astonishing that the backstory on the invention of television is playing out on the unlikeliest of all living art forms: the stage.
But against
Klara Zieglerova's unimaginitive set, which, let's be honest, inexplicably looks more like a retread of her dual-level
Jersey Boys design gussied up like a retro Japanese steakhouse -- I'm not kidding! --
Des McAnuff wisely keeps all channel surfers at bay by focusing their attention on his two outstanding principle actors in
Aaron Sorkin's second Broadway play
The Farnsworth Invention.
The two exceptional actors --
Hank Azaria as the irascibly boorish
David Sarnoff, legendary founder of
NBC, and
Jimmi Simpson as the boyish man who went down in history as the asterisk, the titular
Philo T. Farnsworth -- complement each other perfectly with enough
yin and yang to feel more like you're caught in a quick moving giant
yo-yo of one-upsmanship: one moment one of them is up in the race to "invent" television, the next moment he's down and vice versa.
There's a particularly captivating moment during the First Act when the initial promise of a televised live picture crystalizes that's positively electrifying. It hints at just how great this show could have been. The irony is that McAnuff never allows his audience to see that picture. By deliberately keeping the one single prototype to be found in all of
The Farnsworth Invention turned away from us, we're never truly allowed in. Faster than you can say "photon," the magic Sorkin had succeeded in building gets zapped away.
Making matters worse, in the Second Act, Sorkin resorts to sheer melodrama bordering on pure fiction. It's a pity Sorkin chooses to veer so far from reality in the climactic dust-up between Farnsworth and Sarnoff. It's an exposive scene to be sure, but the moment is ruined by an 11 o'clock admission that what we were to believe constitutes a first attempt at reality TV is instead as bogus as a Jerry Springer episode. Just like with Springer, we feel had. Only here, we didn't see it coming.
Even more frustrating is Sorkin's feeble attempt at a misty-eyed finale. Given what a certifiable SOB Sarnoff is made out to be throughout the proceedings, how can anyone believe he'd shed anything but crocodile tears for Farnsworth. Apparently Sorkin does what he does "best" for television -- he signs off with a hackneyed, melodramatic conclusion.
Maybe that works for a made-for-TV movie, but on a Broadway stage, we just need a better picture with finer tuning.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Don't Touch That Dial: Farnsworth Invention Opens (December 3, 2007)
All Of Great White Way Gleams Tonight (November 29, 2007)
Strike Fallout, Part Two? Opening Nights In Question (November 12, 2007)
Television Comes To Broadway (June 21, 2007)
Labels: Aaron Sorkin, Broadway, Des McAnuff, Hank Azaria, Jimmi Simpson, Play, The Farnsworth Invention, The SOB Review
Don't Touch That Dial: Farnsworth Invention OpensNearly three weeks after it was originally scheduled to open,
Aaron Sorkin's
The Farnsworth Invention finally gets its opening night this evening at Broadway's
Music Box Theatre.
The November 12 opening night was the first casualty of sorts during the recent stagehands strike.
The drama stars
Hank Azaria and
Jimmi Simpson as the legendary David Sarnoff and Philo T. Farnsworth, respectively, who raced to build the first functioning television.
The
Des McAnuff-helmed play enjoyed its world premiere last summer at the
La Jolla Playhouse, just north of San Diego. McAnuff had been the playhouse's artistic director until
Christopher Ashley took over later this year.
Find out tomorrow whether critics enjoyed tuning in when I present my critics' capsule. I'll also be providing my own SOB Review then.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:All Of Great White Way Gleams Tonight (November 29, 2007)
Strike Fallout, Part Two? Opening Nights In Question (November 12, 2007)
Television Comes To Broadway (June 21, 2007)
Labels: Aaron Sorkin, Broadway, Des McAnuff, Hank Azaria, Jimmi Simpson, La Jolla Playhouse, Opening Night, Play, The Farnsworth Invention
Cold Opening Possible For August: Osage County?The scheduled opening nights for Broadway's
The Farnsworth Invention (
Music Box Theatre) and
The Seafarer (
Booth Theatre) were
jettisoned this week due to the stagehands strike.
But
Variety reported on Wednesday that there still may be hope for Tuesday's scheduled opening for
Tracy Letts'
August: Osage County if Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (I.A.T.S.E.) can hammer out some sort of settlement or an interim agreement with
The League of American Theatres and Producers by Sunday evening.
The
two sides are slated to finally meet again on Saturday morning at 10 a.m., this time at an undisclosed location.
Gordon Cox reports:
Jeffrey Richards, producer of Chicago transfer August: Osage County, said that if the labor dispute were resolved by Sunday night, he would contemplate opening August cold on its originally skedded date, Nov. 20.
Over at Broadway World, in a Michael J. Roberts interview posted Wednesday,
August cast member
Francis Guinan states rather hopefully:
We have all pretty much decided to wait-out the strike for now. We are fairly hopeful that it will not continue for much longer. In fact, we are still hoping that we can keep our official opening night of Tuesday, November 20.
Now wouldn't that be something? An opening night that the press would be compelled to attend for a change.
David Merrick couldn't have hoped for more.
Let's hope that both sides of the labor dispute come prepared on Saturday to negotiate in good faith so the hardworking stagehands may once again turn on
all the lights that make up the Great White Way.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Finally, Back To The Table (November 14, 2007)
Add August To The List? (November 14, 2007)
Strike Fallout, Part Two? Opening Nights In Question (November 12, 2007)
Labels: August Osage County, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, League of American Theatres and Producers, Local One, Lockout, Stagehands, Strike, The Farnsworth Invention, The Seafarer
Add August To The List?According to NY1,
Tracy Letts'
August: Osage County may join
Aaron Sorkin's
The Farnsworth Invention and
Conor McPherson's
The Seafarer in needing to
reschedule opening nights due to the ongoing Broadway stagehands strike.
Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (I.A.T.S.E.) has been striking against
The League of American Theatres and Producers since Saturday.
Yesterday,
the announcement came that
The Farnsworth Invention's opening, originally slated for this evening at the
Music Box Theatre, would be indefinitely postponed. I understand that the announced postponement for the opening of
The Seafarer is imminent since it was scheduled to open tomorrow evening at the
Booth Theatre, directly across the street from the Music Box.
UPDATE (November 14, 12:45 pm): All theatres currently being struck by Local One will be dark on Thursday, including the Booth, home to The Seafarer.And talk about a cluster
you-know-what for shows that may not open as planned. Right next door to the Music Box is the
Imperial Theatre, where
August: Osage County is currently scheduled to open on Tuesday.
The primary reason why opening nights are being postponed, of course, is because there is no end in sight for the strike. After all, if the theatres remain dark, they have no choice.
But another reason is that most critics attend preview performances, and if there are no preview performances to attend, well heaven forbid a critic would actually have to attend an opening night performance itself to review a show.
Here is a list of the only Broadway shows not impacted by the strike. These shows remain open and will perform this afternoon and evening:
Cymbeline at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre (in previews at Lincoln Center, no review posted)
Mary Poppins at the New Amsterdam Theatre (click here for The SOB Review)
Mauritius at the Biltmore Theatre (click here for The SOB Review)
Pygmalion at the American Airlines TheatreStudio 54 (click here for The SOB Review)
The Ritz at Studio 54 (click here for The SOB Review)
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Circle In The Square Theatre (Click here for The SOB Review of the Chicago production)
Xanadu at the Helen Hayes Theatre (click here for The SOB Review)
Young Frankenstein at the Hilton Theatre (click here for The SOB Preview from Seattle.
There's also an enormously wide selection of
Off-Broadway and
Off-Off-Broadway shows from which to select, as well as the 75th
Radio City Christmas Spectacular and cabaret acts ranging from the sublime Broadway legend
Chita Rivera at
Feinstein's at the Regency to the ridiculously hard-working men and women at
Don't Tell Mama.
Now, if only The League would get Local One back to the bargaining table.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: August Osage County, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, League of American Theatres and Producers, Local One, Lockout, Stagehands, Strike, The Farnsworth Invention, The Seafarer
Strike Fallout, Part Two? Opening Nights In QuestionYesterday,
I reported how
Duran Duran: Red Carpet Massacre shifted from the
Ethel Barrymore Theatre to the Theatre District's Roseland Ballroom for the remainder of its limited New York City engagement minus, of course, the stage elements.
That transfer became the first casualty of sorts of the stagehands strike.
Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (I.A.T.S.E.) initiated its strike yesterday against
The League of American Theatres and Producers, which includes the Barrymore Theatre.
Today, it looks like the next domino to fall may be previously scheduled opening nights for two high profile plays --
Aaron Sorkin's
The Farnsworth Invention at the
Music Box Theatre (scheduled to open on November 14) and
Conor McPherson's
The Seafarer (scheduled to open on November 15) directly across the street at the
Booth Theatre.
According to
Playbill:
[P]roducers of those shows are contemplating rescheduling the official opening nights.
"If the strike continues," a spokesperson for both shows told Playbill.com, "the openings will be changed." If those dates are revised, the producers are asking critics to hold their reviews until the new opening dates.
UPDATE (November 13, 3:42 pm EST): The opening night for The Farnsworth Invention has been postponed indefinitely.Stay tuned for the latest developments related to the strike.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Strike Day Three: The "F" Word (November 12, 2007)
Union Of The Snake? Duran Duran Moves Remainder Of Broadway Gig To Roseland (November 11, 2007)
Strike: Day Two (November 11, 2007)
STRIKE! (November 9, 2007)
A Broadway Stagehands Strike Appears Imminent (November 9, 2007)
Roll Up Your Sleeves And Get To Work! (November 7, 2007)
Now That The Union Has Spoken... (October 22, 2007)
It's Unanimous! (October 20, 2007)
D-Day Indeed (October 21, 2007)
$5 Million Per Day (October 19, 2007)
Nederlanders: On Their Own Again? (October 18, 2007)
The Broadway Theatres Not Impacted By Labor Dispute (October 17, 2007)
Bloomberg Appears Ready To Step Into Fray (October 16, 2007)
If You're Holding Tix For Broadway This Week, You're Safe (October 15, 2007)
Stagehands To Vote On Strike...October 21 (October 12, 2007)
The Shows Must Go On...At Least Over Weekend (October 12, 2007)
Still No Lockout (October 12, 2007)
No Lockout Tonight (October 11, 2007)
Lockout Likely (October 10, 2007)
Is This The One For One? (October 9, 2007)
Stagehands' Union Concedes Key Point (October 5, 2007)
Stagehands Talks To Continue This Afternoon (October 5, 2007)
No Monday Lockout (September 29, 2007)
Before The Holidays Strike? (September 25, 2007)
Thanks, Mel! (July 6, 2007)
Labels: Duran Duran, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, League of American Theatres and Producers, Local One, Lockout, Stagehands, Strike, The Farnsworth Invention, The Seafarer
Television Comes To BroadwayEarlier this year,
Aaron Sorkin's new play
The Farnsworth Invention played to sold-out crowds at the Left Coast's
La Jolla Playhouse. I even attempted to find tickets for myself, but had to settle for the
Altar Boyz during my San Diego visit (don't worry,
Altar Boyz fans,
I enjoyed the show).
Perhaps now I'll have my chance to catch Sorkin's work as it's finally been confirmed for Broadway. According to the casting notice, previews are to begin October 15, with opening night scheduled for November 18.
The
Des McAnuff-helmed play is Sorkin's theatrical dramatization of the race to develop that little technological breakthrough you may have heard of called television. No word yet on whether
Steven Spielberg will be involved
as previously reported.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories: Labels: Aaron Sorkin, Broadway, Des McAnuff, First Word On New Show, La Jolla Playhouse, Play, The Farnsworth Invention
