B'way/Off-Bway Reviews: The Picture of Dorian Gray; Othello; The Jonathan Larson Project

Sarah Snook in The Picture of
Dorian Gray.
Credit: Marc Brenner

In a dazzling feat of technology and acting pyrotechnics, Sarah Snook of Succession fame  plays 26 characters and brings Oscar Wilde’s 1891 classic of gothic horror The Picture of Dorian Gray to vital life in the 21st Century. Adapter-director Kip Williams employs a small army of black-clad camera operators and a flotilla of flying video screens to create a modern update on this shattering morality tale. Not surprisingly, our era of shallow Instagram posts and click-bait is a perfect fit for Wilde’s story of the titular libertine whose portrait ages while he remains young and beautiful.

Williams’ ingenious staging combines live action with multiple video reflections emphasizing Wilde’s theme of deceptive pretty surfaces concealing inner corruption. The intricate video design is by David Bergman. When we first enter the Music Box Theater, we are greeted by a gigantic screen and an empty stage. Snook is first discovered way upstage being filmed. The actual actress is dwarfed by her cinematic reproduction. As she switches roles, she employs simple props like a paintbrush to denote the artist Basil Hallward and a cigarette for the hedonistic Lord Harry Wotton to puff. She is then fitted with a blonde wig in order to become the self-absorbed Dorian Gray and then something miraculous happens. Various versions of Snook as different characters appear on the screens and she interacts with herself, creating the illusion of a stage full of actors. This reinforces the theme of surface versus soul. 

Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Credit: Marc Brenner

As the evening progresses, the screens multiply, flying in and out of the action, creating a ballet of reality conflicting with reproduction. The action sometimes spills backstage and into the bowels of the theater, recreating a low dive. At one point, an entire dinner party is simulated as five Snooks dine with the genuine article (it’s hard to tell which is the real one.) Marg Howell’s sumptuous Victorian-era costumes come in handy here in distinctly differentiating the characters, and a special shout-out to hair and make-up supervisor Nick Eynaud. Snook’s acting is magnificent in conjuring up the spectrum of British society from the upper crust to the lower dregs. She’s especially moving in depicting Dorian’s conflict over his narcissistic indulgence and eventual guilt. She’s also hilariously inept as the actress Sybil Vane, Dorian’s love object, purposefully acting badly as Juliet.

Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Credit: Marc Brenner

Sybil is one of the few female roles and Snook’s easy leaping back and forth over the gender line emphasizes the queer sensibility of Wilde’s original. Lord Harry is obviously sexually attracted to Dorian and acting on the love that dare not speak its name is most likely among the many “sins” that Dorian commits during his pursuit of pleasure at all costs. 

Modern technology is also more directly interjected into this 19th century tale, but the contemporary flourishes do not feel forced. It seems like the most natural thing in the world for Lord Harry and his Billie Burke-like aunt to whip out their I-phones to text their snide witticisms on London society and for the stagehands to inject them with Botox as they sip tea. In one bravura sequence, Snook as Dorian alters his/her appearance through filters on an I-phone which is projected on one of the giant screens. Dorian literally changes before our very eyes. All these clicks and tweaks are executed by Snook while delivering Wilde’s scintillating prose, seemingly without taking a breathe. A mini-tour de force within a larger one.

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal 
in Othello.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

While Sarah Snook is believably performing two dozen characters, Denzel Washington is giving a showy, actor-ly accounting of the title role in Shakespeare’s Othello at the Barrymore while his above-the-title co-star Jake Gyllenhaal focuses on the inner workings of Othello’s nemesis Iago and shows us more of the character than the actor. Kenny Leon’s high-profile production is making the headlines because of its exorbitant ticket prices (the top ducat is nearly $1,000). The big query on many theatergoers’ minds is: is the revival really worth that much? That’s an individual question of taste and priority, but my take is this is a decent enough production which grips the audience and imparts the Bard’s intense depiction of jealousy. It’s not spectacular but it’s a satisfying evening.

B'way Update: Washington and Gyllenhaal to Star in Othello

Denzel Washington

Get ready for the highest-profile star casting in several years, if not decades. Oscar and Tony winner Denzel Washington (Training Day, Fences) and Tony and Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Sea Wall/A Life, Brokeback Mountain) will co-star in a revival of Shakespeare's Othello, set to open in Spring 2025. To add to the marquee value, the play will be directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun) who will also be staging a new production of Our Town during the same 2024-25 season. Leon directed Washington in The Iceman Cometh, Raisin, and Fences. Further casting is to be announced.

This will be the 22nd production of Othello on Broadway. The most recent was in 1982 with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer. The most famous was probably in 1943 with Paul Robeson, Jose Ferrer and Uta Hagen. Recent Off-Broadway productions have starred Raul Julia and Christopher Walken, David Oyelowo and Daniel Craig, John Ortiz and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier have played the jealousy-ridden Moor on screen.

Theater Memories Part 13: Shakespeare The Histories

David Tenant as Richard II
Credit: Keith Pattison

To complete my Shakespeare recollections, here are all the history plays I can remember seeing (again this is only stage versions, there are too many film and TV productions to list):

Richard II: David Tenant (one of my all-time favorite Doctor Whos) RSC at BAM in rep with both parts of Henry IV and Henry V; Steven Skybell (Theater for a New Audience); Peter MacNichol (Delacorte).

Henry IV, Parts I and II: Alex Hassell (RSC at BAM, the same series as the David Tenant Richard II, Anthony Sher was a brilliant Falstaff); a really weird production directed by JoAnne Akalitis at the Public; a one-evening adaptation at the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln Center with Kevin Kline as Falstaff, Michael Hayden as Prince Hal, Richard Easton as King Henry IV, Ethan Hawke as Hotspur, with Dana Ivey, Audra MacDonald and Dakin Matthews (who did the adaptation); Shakespeare and Company, Lenox, Mass.

Henry V: Twice at the Delacorte with Kevin Kline and then Andre Braugher; Alex Hassell in the RSC/BAM four-part production; Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, set during World War I. Act One had the soldiers in a trench rehearsing for a performance of Henry V, then Act Two, they are all in the hospital, wounded, and the nurses take part.

Big Broadway Turnover for 2017-18

Summer is drawing to a close and that means a rush of announcements for the fall Broadway season. But with the incoming tide of new shows, there is also a group of outgoing productions unable to survive the tidal pull of audience indifference. Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 will shutter at the Imperial on Sept. 3 and Groundhog Day will burrow into the ground forever on Sept. 15. The case could be made that both shows did not get a fair shake. After three successful runs Off-Broadway, Comet soared onto the Main Stem with pop superstar Josh Groban in the lead and received 12 Tony nominations--the most for any show during the 2016-17 season. But once Groban left tickets sales plummeted. A casting controversy erupted when the producers clumsily

Mandy Patinkin; Okieriete Onaodowan

announced Mandy Patinkin would take over the lead role from Okieriete Onaodowan (Groban had already vacated the show at that point.) Several actors of color protested on social media stating the African-American Onaodowan was being let go in favor of the white Patinkin who quickly withdrew. The producers could have handled the situation better. Not long after the controversy erupted, the closing notice was posted. Comet probably would have closed not long after Patinkin's limited engagement anyway and the producers should have realized that Onaodowan was not a strong enough name to bring in new customers. The fact that he was in the original company of Hamilton was not a big drawing card. Was Patinkin suddenly available and only for a short time? Could he have played certain performances and alternated with Onaodowan? Who knows. But it's a pity this innovative, exciting show will close. 

Oscars So Diverse: Predictions

Will Hidden Figures upset LaLa Land at the Oscars?

This year's Oscars did not dominate the national zeitgeist as much as usual. Perhaps it's the Trump circus overshadowing every other event of normal obsession such as the Super Bowl and the Westminster Dog Show. Anyway, I predict the speeches will be more political than usual with many denunciations of the President's fascist regime. The awards will be a repudiation of his racist rhetoric and a reaction to last year's lack of diverse nominees with #OscarsSoDiverse replacing #OscarsSoWhite.

Best Picture
Prediction: Hidden Figures
LaLa Land has racked up a massive 14 nominations, sharing the record for the most ever with the magnificent All About Eve and the bloated Titanic. Normally, that would mean a lock for Best Picture, but there has been serious backlash against the nostalgic musical. While the film is basically a lighthearted tribute to the Golden Age of cinematic tuners such as Singin' in the Rain, An American in Paris and The Bandwagon, many have seen it as a celebration of white culture at the expense of African-Americans. I just read a bizarre LA Weekly column comparing director Damien Chazelle to Leni Riefenstahl for creating a propaganda film by casting white Ryan Gosling as the savior of pure jazz while black characters are shunted to the sidelines. This is a more than a bit extreme but the anti-Trump sentiment might be enough for the majority of voters to pass over the feel-good musical and hand the top prize to Hidden Figures, an Oscar-bait candidate if ever there was one. There is the traditional underdog fighting the power (three real-life African-American female mathematicians battling sexism and racism in 1960s NASA) and an uplifting final triumph, plus it's a great way to say "Screw You, Racist Prez!" Of course Hollywood may want to fete LaLa as a narcissistic hurrah for itself, but I think politics will be stronger than self-love this time.

Is Denzel Washington Younger Enough?

We knew Denzel Washington was toying with the idea of starring in a revival of A Raisin in the Sun, but it looks more definite now. While promoting his new movie 2 Guns, he's told reporters the Lorraine Hansberry drama will begin Broadway previews by March. Washington at 58 is nearly twice as old as the lead character Walter Lee Younger originally played by Sidney Poitier. The  role was last played by Sean ("P Diddy") Colms on Broadway in 2004 and in a TV movie adaptation in 2008. Phylicia Rashad and Audra MacDonald won Tony Awards for that production. Washington can probably pull the age difference off. He won a Tony in 2010 for the revival of August Wilson's Fences, the age discrepancy worked in the opposite direction then. He seemed too young and not angry enough for Troy Maxson, the retired baseball player forced to haul garbage for a living. He's been thinking about directing Fences as a movie. There have been no official press statement about Raisin, so it's still in the maybe stage.