October 8, 2008

'Man for All Seasons' opens with stellar Langella

Everybody loves Frank, judging by the reviews of “A Man for All Seasons,” which opened last night on Broadway, starring Frank Langella as the man of morals, Thomas More.

However, the production itself is deemed somewhat lacking, with the New York Times even declaring it “a bit of a bore.”

“A Man for All Seasons” plays through December 7 at American Airlines Theatre, located at 227 West 42 St., map.

Tickets are priced from $66.50 to $111.50.

The reviews:

Variety - “The play is a star vehicle disguised as ensemble drama. Gill shows affecting depth of character; Plunkett is wrenching in her big scene in which Alice’s bitterness gives way to pain; Page brings dimpled smugness and fits of pique to the king; and Grenier makes an entertaining villain out of smarmy toad Cromwell. But these characters are all hampered by Bolt’s self-important conception of More as an immovable pillar of virtue and moral fortitude.”

Post - ” While its theme of individual conscience clashing with the demands of the state remains all too relevant, the drama is a somewhat static, talky affair that is only intermittently compelling. Fortunately, Langella is so mesmerizing in the lead role that he single-handedly overcomes the evening’s more tedious passages.”

New York Times - “And Mr. Bolt’s script — which clearly and intelligently outlines Henry VIII’s epochal war with the Roman Catholic Church over matters marital — neglects to include several essential ingredients for a compelling dramatic hero. Like conflict, doubt, vacillation and change.”

amNewYork - “But to be frank, Doug Hughes’ straightforward production is as dull and lifeless as it is altogether unnecessary.”

Daily News - “Langella gives a characteristically intelligent and sensitive performance, but while we see More’s plight, we don’t feel it - largely a result of Bolt’s script. Only during a final, emotional jail scene with his wife (Maryann Plunkett) and daughter (Hannah Cabell) does the price of More’s steadfast honor register.”

USA Today - “Just as he refused to reduce the disgraced president to a villainous caricature, Langella plays More not as a saint (though he was canonized four centuries after his death), but rather as a complex, witty, stubborn and tender man whom we believe when he tells us that he doesn’t wish to be a martyr.”

Hollywood Reporter - “But the production that surrounds Langella is not up to the star’s charismatic performance.”

Associated Press - “Now, in the play‘s first Broadway revival, Frank Langella has assumed the mantle of Sir Thomas More, and it‘s a natural fit. With a strong, even mesmerizing physical presence, Langella slips easily into costume drama.”

Newsday - “His More, for all his self-destructive conscience, is excellent company, just the sort of elegantly intelligent force who believes that “God made man to serve him wittily.” By wit, he means alertness, not humor, and Langella - in court favor and as a doomed prisoner - suggests the plush yet wary presence of someone stroking a cat.”

Bloomberg - “The Broadway revival that opened last night stars Frank Langella in a bravura performance that glorifies Langella as much as More. The Roundabout Theatre Company production, though wayward, is at least good enough for one season.”

Newark Star-Ledger - “
Langella grandly brings to life Sir Thomas More, a statesman whose refusal to betray his principles infuriates King Henry VIII. An upright Lord Chancellor, the scholarly More runs afoul of Henry’s plans to divorce his barren queen and wed Anne Boleyn. As the country breaks with the Catholic church, More refuses to swim with the tide and resigns his office.”

Hartford Courant - “The acting of Langella, who won a best-actor Tony for last season’s “Frost/Nixon” (coming as a film in December), offers new proof of the powers of this stage veteran. Mostly low-key, his performance flares into angry bellows at times. These rock the theater.”

Philadelphia Inquirer - “Frank Langella’s shift from Richard Nixon (he won a 2007 Tony for Frost/Nixon) to Thomas More, the man Samuel Johnson called “the person of greatest virtue these islands ever produced” is quite a demonstration of theatrical as well as moral range. Robert Bolt’s 1960 A Man for All Seasons is a play about virtue; the problem - met handsomely in this Broadway revival directed by Doug Hughes - is how to portray such a virtuous person without making him seem self-righteous, how to make us admire his decision to die rather than to compromise his conscience.”

Washington Post - “In an effort to chase away what he considered the cobwebs in Robert Bolt’s literate if stately script, director Doug Hughes (“Doubt: A Parable”) received permission from the writer’s estate to do some streamlining. Principally, he cut a character, the Common Man, who, while essaying several smaller parts, provided commentary by directly addressing the audience, a device Hughes deemed overused. “

Image source: Roundabout Theatre

October 8, 2008 8:24 AM in Broadway, Midtown

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