December 22, 2006

Critics in love with Utopian 'Shipwreck' on Broadway

Part II of Tom Stoppard's "The Coast of Utopia" trilogy, "Shipwreck" opened last night and critics are unabashedly in love.

This second installment, covering the development of Russian intelligentsia from 1846-1852, is eminently less complicated than the first play, "Voyage," as it zeros in on fewer characters, focusing on Alexander Herzen played by Brian F. O'Byrne. Still big on ideas, this one is also about love.

Yet still, at least at Tuesday night's performance, Lincoln Center's sold-out Vivian Beaumont Theater had more than handful of empty seats after intermission and the semi-circle seating made it easy to spot more the front-row sleepers. Though they were wide awake to catch Jennifer Ehle's nude scene as Herzen's wife warming to the concept of free love with German poet George Herwegh, played by David Harbour.

Mostly set in Paris and other European cities free from censorship in Mother Russia, the intellectuals are enmeshed in other people's revolutions, exiled from their own except on a personal stage. Marx is ridiculed for never actually having met someone from the working class, and the aristocratic rebels are sometimes adrift, wondering what their grand ideas fall on deaf ears. "We discovered that history isn't impressed by intellectuals," Herwegh says. "History is more like the weather: You never know what it's going to do."

Billy Crudup, Amy Irving, Ethan Hawke, Richard Easton and Martha Plimpton are also in this immense cast, all directed by Jack O'Brien.

Part III, "Salvage," begins previews January 30. All three parts of "Coast of Utopia" have been extended to May 13, with a handful of all-day marathons scheduled from February into May. Individual tickets are priced from $65 to $100.

The reviews:

Variety - "All head, no heart is a common criticism of Tom Stoppard's work. But the most unexpected and enriching surprise of "Shipwreck," the second part of the playwright's epic trilogy "The Coast of Utopia," 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."

New York Times - "More notable for the velocity than for the depth of his thought, Mr. Stoppard isn’t delivering any intellectual aperçus here that couldn’t be picked up in a good university seminar about 19th-century Russian novelists. It’s the collision of thought with feeling, of tidy intellect with the chaos of life, that generates such blazing theatrical heat."

Associated Press - "The deeds are big. So are the discussions — dense, volatile and utterly theatrical thanks to Jack O'Brien's kinetic direction and a parade of amazing, agile actors who manage to create fascinating, full-bodied characters in the most fluid of circumstances."

Post - "Stoppard is totally a man of the theater. In one fantastic tableau, he anticipates by 14 years Manet's great painting "Dejeuner sur l'herbe," which has Ehle totally but tastefully nude. Then comes Stoppard's stroke: We slowly gather that the characters are co-existing in two completely different scenic contexts talking at cross-purposes, unable even to see one another."

Sun - "As Mr. O'Byrne assumes center stage, several performers from "Voyage" have receded into the background. Richard Easton attacks the tiny role of a convention-bound diplomat with a baffled, uproarious gusto that is a sharp reminder of the depth of Mr. O'Brien's cast."

Daily News - "On "Utopia's" glossy, jet-black stage, under Kenneth Posner's spellbinding lighting, images pop with astounding clarity. It struck me: I'm used to HDTV. O'Brien and company have crafted high-definition theater."

Newark Star-Ledger - "Staged with energy, fluidity and more than 30 actors by Jack O'Brien, "Shipwreck" is not quite as visually spectacular as "Voyage." An exception is the Place de la Concorde in Paris as masterfully stylized in a forced perspective of monumental statuary. This view explodes later -- and literally -- amid roiling clouds of gun smoke during a vivid depiction of Paris in chaotic rebellion."

USA Today - "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. Ehle makes a convincing soul mate and sparring partner, relaying Natalie's fierce emotions and convictions with a stringent intensity."

Newsday - "For starters, Tom Stoppard's outlandishly ambitious trilogy about progressive thought in 19th century Russia has exploded into the least likely triumph of the Broadway season. Before last night's opening of "Shipwreck," the second of its three plays, Lincoln Center Theater already had extended contracts for its massive 44-member cast at least through May 13, and rumors are carrying the three-play repertory and all-day marathons even beyond the Tony Awards in June."

Earlier: Stoppard's 'Coast of Utopia' extends to May 13
Stoppard's Utopian 'Voyage' a huge hit with critics
The high cost of 'Utopia'
NY getting a slightly changed 'Coast of Utopia'

December 22, 2006 08:22 AM in Broadway

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