September 30, 2009
Mixed reviews of 'A Steady Rain' laud Craig, Jackman
Hollywood hotties Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig today reap praise from Broadway critics for their portrayals of troubled Chicago cops in “A Steady Rain,” but the play itself left many reviewers cold.
The two-man police drama written by Keith Huff unfolds as each cop takes turns explaining his version of tragic events. The two perform monologues throughout, with little interaction with each other.
Just hours before Tuesday’s opening night performance, producers announced “A Steady Rain” grossed $1,167,954 for the week ending Sept. 20, setting an all-time Broadway record for a non-musical production. (The previous high, $1,061,688, was set in 2005 with Billy Crystal’s “700 Sundays.”)
“A Steady Rain” plays through Dec. 6 at the Schoenfeld Theatre, located at 236 W. 45th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $66.50 to $140 with premium seats $226.50 to $376.50
Student rush seats are $31.50.
“A Steady Rain” on Broadway reviews:
New York Times - “Big names, little show.”
Variety - “But playwright Keith Huff recharges those familiar elements by approaching events usually outlined in action terms with the probing eye of a forensics investigator and psych profiler combined. Pair that with John Crowley’s taut production, not to mention actors with the charisma and command of Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, and you get riveting theater. “
NY1 - “”A Steady Rain” is at best a modest drama for Broadway that not even the strength of Wolverine and James Bond could turn into must-see theater. But Jackman and Craig in their first dramatic roles on the Great White Way have certainly earned their stripes, deserving a more worthy vehicle for their superstar talents.”
Daily News - “Craig impresses even more as an ex-drunk sporting a ’70s porn-star mustache, sad eyes and nervousness that masks a covetous, calculating side.”
Post - “In the end, it all circles back to the middling writing.”
Newsday - “Huff, a longtime Chicago playwright, has clearly hit the dreamboat jackpot for his Broadway debut. This is a tight, mean story about a petty, mean world, unflinchingly staged (with surprisingly good Chicago accents) by British director John Crowley (“The Pillowman”) on a bare stage that, every so often, is shadowed by the scary/sad outline of tenements.”
Associated Press - “And while both men, particularly Craig, acquit themselves well, they can’t turn the 90-minute evening into anything more than a chance to see two big-time movie stars emoting up close in a pulpy, plot-heavy entertainment.”
Hollywood Reporter - “It all comes across like an elongated pitch meeting for an over caffeinated buddy-cop movie that might be directed by Sidney Lumet or Martin Scorsese. That the play works to the extent it does is a testament to the actors.”
Chicago Tribune - “James Bond would throw a martini in the face of such a hinterland loser, but Craig shows up for his Broadway debut in a shapeless suit, sporting a tasteless mustache, a crude comb-over, a flawless Chicago accent, a psychologically battered visage and a remarkable weariness to his soul.”
USA Today - “Huff’s briskly absorbing script has its clichés and contrivances, but Denny and Joey are drawn with such earthy wit and non-patronizing compassion that Rain never rings false or superficial. It’s hard to imagine a better vehicle for two actors who clearly don’t need larger-than-life characters to deliver grand performances.”
Bloomberg - “Not unlike Hugh Vanstone’s lighting, which, as scripted, indicates changes of time and locale by dimming or intensifying, my lukewarm involvement came and went.”
Financial Times - “Directed impeccably by John Crowley, matinee idol Jackman conveys a street-hardened profane copper’s swagger. But it is Craig, with a moustache suggesting both Victorian grenadier and 1970s porn star, who is the more touching excavator of pain.”
Washington Post - “What Jackman and Craig describe might come across as more entertaining or shocking if it did not feel as if it were a compressed version of the narratives of a dozen TV shows, from “Homicide: Life on the Street” to “The Wire,” that have tried to get at the moral ambiguity of police work.”
Update: See more reviews at Critic-O-Meter.
Picture credit: Official publicity photos by Greg Williams for The Hartman Group.
September 30, 2009 7:01 AM in Broadway, Midtown
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