Ivanov (The SOB Review) - Wyndham's Theatre, London, United Kingdom**** (out of ****)My recent experience of taking in the boring Broadway revival of
Anton Chekhov's
The Seagull notwithstanding, I was dreading seeing another of the playwright's works so soon after landing in London.
After all, I had very little sleep on the flight across the pond, and the idea of taking in any matinee one day after gave me tremendous pause. How on earth was I going to stay awake?
Fortunately, the
Michael Grandage-helmed revival of Chekhov's
Ivanov was so vibrant and alive with pleasure, brimming with dark humor throughout, that I found myself completely rapt with attention. With excellent new adaptation from
Tom Stoppard,
Ivanov soars higher than any seagull dares fly.
I'll go even further to say that boredom was never this much fun. Entertaining and enlightening, literally and figuratively (nicely underscored by
Paule Constable's gorgeous lighting design), this play about the bored upper classes drew requisite comic relief for its allusions to our current financial doom and gloom.
Even better,
Ivanov captures ballast from one of the year's best ensembles on either side of the Atlantic. Yes, today's contemporary Laurence Olivier
Kenneth Branagh was absolutely brilliant in the title role, but this actor's actor clearly knows how to graciously share a stage. Chief among them is the breathtaking
Gina McKee as
Ivanov 's long-suffering, gravely ill wife Anna Petrovna. McKee turns in one of the year's most heartfelt performances, radiating enough warmth to melt the icy bitterness from any Russian town, past or present.
With uniformly scintillating performances from a sterling cast that doesn't take itself too seriously, there's no doubt why
Donmar Warehouse's superb
Ivanov is the West End's must-see sensation this fall.
Eat your heart out
Ben Brantley -- this is the real deal. I can only hope this revival receives a Broadway transfer.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Anton Chekov, Gina McKee, Ivanov, Kenneth Branagh, London, Michael Grandage, Paule Constable, Play, Revival, The Seagull, The SOB Review, Tom Stoppard
Ivanov AfternoonWhile today's
big theatrical event (for me) is reserved for this evening, this afternoon will find me taking in one of London's hottest tickets.
At the behest of
Modern Fabulousity, I snared tickets to see
Kenneth Branagh perform in the title role of a new revival for
Anton Chekhov's
Ivanov. Helmed by
Michael Grandage, this "new version" of the classic play is supplied by none other than the estimable
Tom Stoppard. This
Donmar Warehouse production is also being performed as the launch of the theatre company's year-long residency at Wyndham's Theatre.
While described by many London critics as a "must see," the assessment mattering most to me was from the real arbiters of West End taste: the West End Whingers. I was relieved to
read in their review:
Although Act 1 was distinctly un-gripping, Act 2 was better and good enough to get the Whingers back after the interval. It got grippier and grippier and by Act 4 the Whingers were having a whale of a time.
If not a whale of a time, I'm hoping my decision to reel in some tickets at least proves to be time well spent.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).Labels: Anton Chekov, Donmar Warehouse, Ivanov, Kenneth Branagh, London, Michael Grandage, Modern Fabulousity, Play, Revival, Tom Stoppard, West End Whingers
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
Was Utopia's Last Chapter Nirvana For Critics? Rounding out a trilogy that began last fall with
Voyage, the final chapter of
Tom Stoppard's epic
The Coast Of Utopia has finally landed with
Salvage opening at
Lincoln Center. Both
Voyage and
Shipwreck garnered glowing reviews. Most critics seemed to find the final act somewhat anticlimactic, but still praised the overall landmark effort.
Proclaiming it a "dazzling and wonderfully satisfying trilogy" in his four-star review is
Clive Barnes of
New York Post: "Looking back at Stoppard's wordy yet exhilarating dramatic tapestry, I'm amazed at how thrillingly this Lincoln Center company -- helped by
Jack O'Brien's alertly balanced staging -- has brought it off. (
Brían F.) O'Byrne, whose sensitive development of Herzen's character covers the entire span of
Voyage,
Shipwreck and
Salvage, fascinatingly provides the fulcrum of the trilogy. But it's unfair to single him out, since (
Ethan) Hawke has never been better than here as Bakunin, a cadging, shining-eyed monster of opportunistic anarchy."
Less enthusiastic about the concluding chapter is
Variety's
David Rooney: "Traveling with the drama's cast of exiles and emigres through to the conclusion is exhilarating, edifying and at times a little enervating. But even if the final chapter,
Salvage, is the weakest of the three plays, the overall achievement remains undiminished....Unlike the first two plays, the elegance and erudition of Stoppard's writing are undermined at times by the challenge of cramming so much information into a dramaturgical package, with characters often recapitulating events purely for the audience's benefit. All that aside, there's still more dazzling stagecraft in any one of these three Lincoln Center Theater productions than most companies can muster in several seasons."
Newsday's
Linda Winer appears to concur: "
Salvage...isn't remarkable for the one or two boggling visual moments that were the talk of its predecessors. The production...is as masterly as ever, again beginning with the sight of the aging Alexander Herzen in a turning chair that hovers high above the silken ravages of the sea. But this one's moodier, at times hallucinatory, as Stoppard hones in on Herzen, finally the main character among the many....Ethan Hawke, perhaps the biggest surprise of the trilogy, can show the lifelong arch of Bakunin, the overbearing, eager young aristocrat who becomes the equally overbearing anarchist.
Jennifer Ehle, so radiantly complex as Herzen's wife in
Shipwrecked, now plays the equally complicated but unyielding German governess."
Deeming the production "an ungodly mess"
and "heavenly spectacle,"
Ben Brantley of
The New York Times starts his review by focusing more on the trilogy itself: "Despite its status as the season’s ultimate snob ticket, a concert of clever historical name-dropping orchestrated to give middle-brow audiences the illusion of a brow lift,
The Coast of Utopia is as hot-blooded and teary-eyed as your average afternoon soap opera. I wouldn’t call it a major work of art. In literary terms I wouldn’t even rank it with Mr. Stoppard’s best....But as directed by Jack O’Brien and acted and designed by a stellar team of artisans,
Utopia is a major work of theatrical craftsmanship."
The Associated Press'
Michael Kuchwara also weighs in: "Rueful resignation isn't as dramatically exciting, so the Lincoln Center Theater production of
Salvage doesn't have the innate theatricality that propelled
Voyage and
Shipwreck, the first two-thirds of Stoppard's mammoth work. Yet that doesn't stop director Jack O'Brien and his amazing company of actors from breathing urgency into the demanding, sometimes dense conversations of these squabbling European firebrands in exile in Victorian England.... [T]he thoughtful and commanding Brian F. O'Byrne...is the rock who anchors much of the trilogy through its most meandering moments."
Is it a wonder that the marathon performances of the entire trilogy that begin this Saturday are one of New York City's hottest tickets?
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Cleaning Up: Salvage Operation Begins Tonight On Broadway (February 18, 2007)
Did Critics See Ship Wreck Or Hit? (December 22, 2006)
Unstoppable: Stoddard's Shipwreck Coasts Into Opening Night (December 21, 2006)
Did Critics Enjoy Voyage's Ride? (November 28, 2006)
Coast Of Utopia Begins Broadway Voyage This Evening (November 27, 2006)
Labels: Critics' Capsule, Play, Salvage, Shipwreck, The Coast Of Utopia, Tom Stoppard, Voyage
Cleaning Up: Salvage Operation Begins Tonight On Broadway
Given the overwhelming critical acclaim for the first two portions, tonight's opening has become very eagerly anticipated. We'll learn tomorrow whether New York critics believe this Salvage operation measures up to the rest of the journey.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:
Labels: Broadway, Opening Night, Play, Salvage, Shipwreck, The Coast Of Utopia, Tom Stoppard, Voyage
Did Critics See Ship Wreck Or Hit?Last evening,
Shipwreck -- the second installment of
Tom Stoppard's epic trilogy
The Coast Of Utopia -- opened at
Lincoln Center. After the first "act" opened to
mostly enthusiastic reviews, how did this one fare?
Ever effusive in his praise,
The New York Times'
Ben Brantley positively beams: "The sumptuous Lincoln Center production of
Shipwreck, the second part of Mr. Stoppard’s absorbing
Coast of Utopia trilogy about Russian idealists errant in the 19th century, is filled with coups de théâtre....[T]he most stunning moment of all arrives when Mr. Stoppard simply pulls the plug on the dense talk that has been buzzing from the stage of the
Vivian Beaumont Theater...and asks us to experience a world hitherto defined, above all, by words through the perspective of a deaf child."
Also providing laurels is
David Rooney of
Variety: "[T]he most unexpected and enriching surprise of
Shipwreck...is that its intellectual vigor is equaled, perhaps even surpassed by its enormous emotional vitality.
Jack O'Brien's mesmerizing production of part one,
Voyage, was a dazzling theatrical achievement. In this Euro-trotting second chapter, the political and personal passions of the play's dreamy-eyed 19th-century Russian revolutionaries ripen with age and experience, making it arguably even better."
Newsday's
Linda Winer apparenly concurs: "Jack O'Brien's astonishing, visually stupendous production has further tightened its grip with ever more engrossing tales of the privileged young Russian thinkers who began the sweep of massive social change....We are relieved to find both continuity and new splendors in the masterly creative team -- in sets by
Bob Crowley and
Scott Pask, costumes by
Catherine Zuber and lights by
Kenneth Posner."
Calling themoments in
Shipwreck "quite extraordinary," the Associated Press'
Michael Kuchwara agrees in his glowing review: "[M]ore often than not, it has heart and a deep emotional underpinning. Near the end of
Shipwreck, there is a speech by Herzen of such aching beauty that if you are not moved to tears, you must be made of stone."
Offering up a three-and-a-half star review,
USA Today's
Elysa Gardner notes: "Stoppard's piquant, probing dialogue allows Herzen to expound wittily, and movingly, on intellectual matters and matters of the heart, which are by no means mutually exclusive here. (
Jennifer) Ehle makes a convincing soul mate and sparring partner, relaying Natalie's fierce emotions and convictions with a stringent intensity. Other members of Coast's luminous cast get less stage time but shine whenever they're on....Jack O'Brien's robust direction and Bob Crowley and Scott Pask's stunning set design serve everyone well. True, Stoppard's script would sound glorious if recited by students in a dingy classroom, but to see such style and substance merge with spectacle is a rare treat, on Broadway or anywhere."
The Coast Of Utopia has already found it necessary to extend its marathon season beyond its initial sold-out status. These reviews will no doubt make the remaining allotment of tickets extremely difficult to come by. Could another extension be in its future?
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Did Critics Enjoy Voyage's Ride? (November 28, 2006)
Coast Of Utopia Begins Broadway Voyage This Evening (November 27, 2006)
Labels: Broadway, Critics' Capsule, Play, Shipwreck, The Coast Of Utopia, Tom Stoppard
Unstoppable: Stoppard's Shipwreck Coasts Into Opening NightTonight marks the opening of
Shipwreck -- the second of three chapters from Tom Stoppard's
The Coast Of Utopia -- at Broadway's
Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont. Directed by
Jack O'Brien, the full trilogy will be realized in early 2007 through
Salvage.
While the entire eight-hour marathons have just extended to May 13 after initially selling out,
Shipwreck is scheduled to clock-in at a mere three hours.
Lincoln Center describes
Shipwreck as centering:
...on the visionary Russian leader Alexander Herzen and his fellow revolutionaries who find inspiration as well as frustration in exile in Paris and London. As the revolution of 1848 unfolds outside Herzen’s door and the tides of political and social upheaval swell, Herzen's circle, and his family, are profoundly affected.
The first installment was roundly met with a chorus of critical approval. Will that momentum continue? Find out shortly as I capsulize the reviews.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Did Critics Enjoy Voyage's Ride? (November 28, 2006)
Coast Of Utopia Begins Broadway Voyage This Evening (November 27, 2006)
Labels: Broadway, Opening Night, Play, The Coast Of Utopia, Tom Stoppard
Did Critics Enjoy Voyage's Ride?Last evening,
Voyage -- the first leg of
Tom Stoppard's epic trilogy
The Coast Of Utopia -- opened at
Lincoln Center. The first "act" opened to mostly enthusiastic reviews.
Calling the first installment "exhilarating,"
Ben Brantley of
The New York Times says that: "
Voyage pulses with the dizzying, spring-green arrogance and anxiety of a new generation moving as fast as it can as it tries to forge a future that erases the past....
Voyage is paced and defined by the quicksilver changes of mood and conviction that come from being young in a time of flux -- by the feeling that everything and nothing is possible."
Going four for four stars in proclaiming
Voyage "thrilling,"
New York Post's
Clive Barnes praises: "[F]orget what you may have heard about the plays: There is no required reading list, only a willingness to accept art as wondrously disordered as life. Stoppard has hit upon an enthralling, little-known story and deftly welded it into a soap opera for the thinking classes....[E]normous praise is due to (
Billy) Crudup's mousy-looking but valiant sketch of the great Russian critic Belinsky; (
Brían F.) O'Byrne's centered revolutionary, Herzen; and the shining-faced (
Jennifer) Ehle as the doomed, Chekovian-like Bakunin sister, Liubov."
David Rooney of
Variety notes that despite the running time, the play is anything but arduous: "
Jack O'Brien has swept away all sense of trepidation, providing thrilling assurance that this brawny, brainy dissertation could not be in more capable hands. There's more talk than drama spread across Stoppard's extended canvas, which certainly requires concentration. But regardless of one's interest in 19th century Russian history, the novelistic play is a spry, witty and thoroughly intriguing account of men and ideas."
Proclaiming the production both "tantalizing" and "passionate," the Associated Press'
Michael Kuchwara also provides a positive review: "You'll need to put on your thinking cap for this Lincoln Center Theater production. But don't be intimidated by the parade of big yet mostly unfamiliar (unless you're an expert on 19th-century Russian intellectuals) names and the even bigger ideas that Stoppard presents. In a work so large, it takes a while to get your bearings -- particularly when a dozen or so major characters are introduced in a swirl of activity. The evening's hero is apparent from the outset. It is director Jack O'Brien who marshals a cast of more than 30 actors with the skill of a general commanding the troops."
While conceding that the work is "brainy and complex," New York
Daily News'
Joe Dziemianowicz is less enthusiastic: "
Voyage is certainly packed -- with characters, big ideas, stunning visuals and, alas, vast stretches that can be tedious and emotionally frigid....Not all of it is scintillating. Nor do we come to care about the characters, even as they die or are exiled. That's a problem.
Voyage ultimately feels less like a cohesive story than a series of snapshots. But the snapshots are impressive."
If these reviews are a harbinger of critiques to come,
The Coast Of Utopia may very well need to extend its marathon season beyond its current sold-out status.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Coast Of Utopia Begins Broadway Voyage This Evening (November 27, 2006)
Labels: Broadway, Critics' Capsule, Play, The Coast Of Utopia, Tom Stoppard, Voyage
The Real Thing (The SOB Review) – McGuire Proscenium Stage, Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN
**** (out of ****)
With some of the sharpest, wittiest writing among plays of the past quarter century,
The Real Thing is the real deal.
Tom Stoppard’s excellent London-based comedy on the meaning of true love is both eminently smart and deliciously accessible under
Joe Dowling’s expert direction, as well as through its superb ensemble, including
Jay Goede (Henry),
Kathryn Meisle (Annie),
Sally Wingert (Charlotte),
Lee Mark Nelson (Max),
Jonas Goslow (Billy), Elizabeth Stahlmann (Debbie) and Mike Rasmussen (Brodie). Its content is every bit as fresh today as it likely was when it first appeared during its critically-acclaimed Broadway run from 1984 through 1985.
As the play begins, all is not what we think it is, thanks to a clever plot devise employed by Stoddard. Indeed, this decidedly false start is further exaggerated by fabulously faux scenic details by
John Arnone in place of authentic items. But when the real story begins, the detail becomes rich with complexity all around as two married couples -- Henry with Charlotte and Annie with Max -- confront infidelity, detached love and jealousy. In this case, Henry and Annie break-up with their spouses to explore their love together, only to have it tested by additional players outside their relationship.
Goede is in top form and exceptionally convincing as Henry, the “old sod” playwright who doesn’t readily show his emotions or affections. Yet when he does -- with the absolutely poetic language Stoppard speaks through Henry -- his dialogue is as romantic as it gets. Goede is breathtaking to watch, and this is the best I’ve seen him since he toured in
Cabaret with
Norbert Leo Butz back in 2000. Meisle, who previously was recognized with a Tony nomination for her turn in
Tartuffe in 2003, is every bit Goede’s equal and displays raw emotions through her luminescent, expressive eyes. It’s not hard to grasp why so many men are smitten with her Annie.
Nelson and Wingert are spot-on wonderful, both as a perceived couple in the first scene, as well as the jilted spouses throughout the rest of the play. Stahlmann is a delight as Henry and Charlotte’s daughter Debbie, who tells it like it is and presents Henry with a paradigm shift on his thinking. Goslow as Annie’s crush-cum-suitor is both silly and sweet, while Rasmussen as the stray soldier Brodie blends just the right mix of anger with ignorance to make his plight understandable.
As the first regular production in the Guthrie Theater’s McGuire Proscenium Stage,
The Real Thing is a joy to behold and is a great harbinger of
things to come. This production runs through September 24.
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Labels: Guthrie, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Play, Revival, The Real Thing, The SOB Review, Tom Stoppard
Guthrie's The Real Thing Attracts Real TalentWhen Tom Stoppard's
The Real Thing opens on the all-new Guthrie Theatre's McGuire Proscenium Stage on August 11, it will be directed by Joe Dowling and include some exceptional acting talent including Jay Goede, Kathryn Meisle, Lee Mark Nelson and Guthrie favorite Sally Wingert. The Guthrie is located in Minneapolis, MN.
While I'm most familiar with Wingert, who has a wonderful knack for portraying uniquely idiosyncratic characters in countless Guthrie productions, Meisle possesses a sterling Broadway pedigree that includes her Tony-nominated work in
Tartuffe as well as two shows on the Great White Way last season:
The Constant Wife and
A Touch of the Poet. Goede also has been seen many times in both New York and Minneapolis; I caught him in the tour of
Cabaret in 2000 and later in
A Year With Frog and Toad. He has also appeared in both Broadway installments of
Angels in America.
When
The Real Thing first debuted on Broadway back in 1985, it won a slew of Tony Awards, including for Best Play, Best Direction of a Play (Mike Nichols), Best Actor in a Play (Jeremy Irons), Best Actress in a Play (Glenn Close) and Best Featured Actress in a Play (Christine Baranski). And then during its Broadway revival in 2000, it continued its winning ways by receiving Tonys for Best Revival of A Play, Best Actor in a Play (Stephen Dillane) and Best Actress in a Play (Jennifer Ehle).
A critical favorite, will
The Real Thing remain the real deal in Minneapolis?
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Labels: First Word On New Show, Guthrie, Jay Goede, Kathryn Meisle, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Play, Revival, The Real Thing, Tom Stoppard
