The Father

I never doubted for one second that Langella would shine.  In its American debut at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Father, by Florian Zeller is a master class in acting and story telling.  Frank Langella (Andre) is aging and it's not pretty.  He's losing his mind - or has he already lost it?  His daughter, Anne (Katheryn Erbe) stands by his side watching his decline, painfully enduring what it brings.

There is brilliance in Mr. Langella's performance, but perhaps more importantly there is brilliance in Doug Hughes' direction of Mr. Zeller's work.  The vignette blackouts, the shocking strobe light, the stark lights up on the next, often conflicting scene - all effects that heighten the impact of the material.

What Mr. Zeller does so brilliantly is bring the audience into the world of confusion and uncertainty of Andre by repeatedly swapping actors for the same character - to which the audience in addition to Mr. Langella must react and process.  He juxtaposes dialogue that is similar but with entirely different outcomes.  He repeats segments of dialogue between the same characters but offers different emotion and conclusion.  The jolting effect to the audience is what a man in Mr. Langella's condition must experience in his condition.

Mr. Langella does most of the heavy lifting here, and his performance is transcendent. This is one play you won't soon forget - even tho the play itself is all about forgetting.

Spirit Control

At first glance, one might think "Another cheerleader play"?  Alas, Spirit refers to an airfield in St. Louis and Control refers to the air-traffic control tower.  Now that we have that all cleared up - let's get this review off the ground.  Two hours - perfect length.  Jeremy Sisto - seems to nail the "wildly intense" and slightly disturbed" character with aplomb (Billy in HBO's Six Feet Under, Michael in Broadway's Festen, Det. Lupo in NBC's Law & Order).  Another bulls-eye here with Adam Wyatt.  Kudos, also, to a stand out performance by a young (and damn cute) up-and-coming performer - Arron Michael Davies (Tommy Wyatt). 

The play moves along somewhat predictably if you even breifly investigated what you were going to see - - something about an air traffic controller, a plane crash, and some dramatic circumstances that follow.   Sisto nails the first scene in the control tower magnificently.  What follows, however, is not so straightforward.  What I realized as the play progressed is that Maxine is not real.  Maxine, albeit a real human being on stage, (with real dialogue and comprehensible circumstances surrounding her) is just his twisted mind trying to grapple with the aftermath of his actions and the crash. 

Playwright, Beau Willimon, in my opinion has written a tremendous opus that asks us to explore how the subconscious can tear us, our families, and our lives apart if we we allow it.  However, he has, early on, thrown in so much that is believable, real, and tangible into the Maxine character (Mia Barron) that I think (correction, i know, based on my conversation with many confused patrons leaving the theatre - self included) that it didn't quite hit its mark.  By the time we got to the third and final scene - I assumed most people would have figured out (or at least suspected) what Maxine represented.  It could have ended without the curve-ball of one of the characters actually taking a multi-media dream sequence/aside (to Wyatt, however, not the audience directly) and explaining what we already should have known.  It was a crazy sequence that threw too much confusing, theoretical, and ultimately speculative information at the audience.  On a separate note, I also wondered why we were repeatedly told Wyatt had two sons, but then were only introduced to one of them, Tommy, on several occasions.  As the old saying goes "If you introduce a gun (or two, in this case) in Act I, you'd better use it (both, in this case) in Act II. 

I, for one, would rather have left the theatre asking some probing questions rather than asking "Did he really need to do that"?

A Man for All Seasons

Frank Langella holds court at the American Airlines Theatre in Roundabout's revival of A Man for All Seasons.  A history lesson of the best kind  - powerful, enlightening, and educational.   A top notch supporting cast and crew make this a tour de force evening in the theatre.

Doug Hughes provides impeccable direction in the interpretation of Robert Bolt's 1961 Tony Award winning play regarding the historical significance of  Sir Thomas More - a well respected Lord Chancellor of England.   At its core, the story deals with personal faith, moral authority, and the meaning of silence in the course of public affairs.  

Sir Thomas More simply refused to join the Church of England after it's break from the Catholic Church in Rome and refused to speak and provide his opinion on the King's (Henry VIII) actions regarding his divorce from Catherine of Aragon and remarriage to Anne Boleyn.  His actions of silence were deemed a capital offense as he appeared to challenge the King's conduct in "the great matter" of the divorce and remarriage.   For not speaking, he was executed.  

Langella is likely to pick up a Tony nod, if not his 4th actual one for this near flawless performance.  Scenes intensely dramatic are peppered with humor.  Monologues of great importance roll effortlessly off his tongue.  Very human.  Almost real.  Totally Mesmerizing.