ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA COMEDY MUSIC TV CELEBRITY KIDS MOVIEFONE Michael Giltz Freelance writer and raconteur Posted: March 25, 2011 02:40 AM BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index 0 31 0 0Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyTheater: "Arcadia" Revival Delights Read More: Arcadia , Billy Crudup , Lia Williams , Raul Esparza , Tom Stoppard , Entertainment News ARCADIA *** 1/2 out of **** ETHEL BARRYMORE THEATRE What a marvelous play! That's my first reaction after seeing the new revival of Tom Stoppard 's Arcadia on Broadway.</p><p> I loved the original production in 1995 and was eager to see it again.</p><p> Why did we have to wait 16years? And where are the regular revivals of TheInvention Of Love? I can understand the hesitation in tackling the epic Coast Of Utopia .</p><p> But it shouldn't be just The Real Thing that gets revived again and again, as the sparkling Jumpers proved a few years ago.</p><p> Time and reputation can play tricks on you.</p><p> So many people tell you how heady and intellectual Stoppard is that you forget how delightful and entertaining hisshows are.</p><p> Like all great artists, whatever theories or ideas are embedded in the work, it all comes easilyto life because at heart Stoppard cares about characters, not concepts.</p><p> Here we have some of his best.</p><p> The entire show is set in a stately home.</p><p> In 1809, we enjoy the shenanigans of Septimus (an excellent Tom Riley).</p><p> He's the tutor of the astonishingly brilliant Thomasina(the also..oh, they're almost all very good, in this case, it's Bel Powley).</p><p> But Septimus is also wooing LadyCroom (Margaret Colin) while diddling with the unseen wife of the hapless poet Ezra Chater (DavidTurner).</p><p> In the present, the home is peopled with the scholar Hannah (Lia Williams), who is researching a book on the history of the home's garden, a notable item in the history of such things.</p><p> The rather flashy andover-eager to publish scholar Bernard (Billy Crudup) also rushes in, hungry for fame and ready to jump MOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOST 1 of 2 WATCH: Two New Yorkers Take A Taxi To Los Angeles 9/11 Responders Warned They Will Be Screened For Terrorism Ties (EXCLUSIVE) Poll Shows One Potential Presidential Hopeful InFOLLOW USBIG NEWS: Celebrities | Britney Spears | LeAnn Rimes | Lindsay Lohan | Smarter Ideas | More...</p><p> PHOTOS: The Funniest People Not On TwitterMiranda Kerr & Orlando Bloom Step Out To 'The The Funniest Someecards For Easter 2011Weekly Roundup of eBay Vintage Clothing Finds News Web Like 276K April 24, 2011 | Log In | Sign Up Get Alerts SHARE THIS STORY Submit this story Get Entertainment Alerts Sign UpPHOTO GALLERIES Like 2K Like 20K FRONT PAGEPOLITICS BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA TECH COMEDY SPORTS STYLE WORLD FOOD LIVING IMPACT EDU LOCALon any evidence that Lord Byron stayed at the home and killed poor Ezra.</p><p> Bernard dallies with the silly daughter of the home's owners (Grace Gummer, the only one who captures the self-satisfied, slightlychildish air of the nobility) while Hannah is desired by Chloe's brother Valentine (Raul Esparza, movingas always), who is working on his own academic work using the information in the estate's centuries ofrecords on hunting.</p><p> Here's Esparza talking about the show in an interview with Show People .</p><p> There you have it.</p><p> Romantic entanglements pinging off the romance of ideas and insights.</p><p> Young Thomasina is a frightfully clever child, though clever doesn't really capture it.</p><p> She's a genius really, justcoming into her own, though in the present we learn that she died in a tragic fire right around her 17thbirthday.</p><p> The great pleasure of the play is watching Septimus juggle the adult women in his life whileslowly falling in love with the mind and heart of Thomasina as she comes of age.</p><p> Thomasina, we can see,has loved him from the start, though she will go on and on about Lord Byron.</p><p> Equally delightful is the exchange of ideas.</p><p> Lady Croom is distraught over the radical changes being done to her grounds by the designer Noakes (Byron Jennings), all in the name of the latest craze in landscape, the "picturesque." In the present, one of the comedic high points occurs when Bernard reads aloud hispaper touting his "discovery" of new info on Byron, with Hannah and Valentine dropping in caustic jibesat every turn.</p><p> Academic standards, the political and social symbolism of a hedge, Fermat's Last Theorem-- it's all in there.</p><p> Never fear.</p><p> The original Playbill had three essays (about gardens, Byron and Fermat)that helped ease any nerves.</p><p> They're useful to read if you're seeing the show ( you can get a PDF here ), but not necessary.</p><p> You'll follow perfectly well what's going on; the essays just let you get your footingright away.</p><p> Crudup is especially fine.</p><p> I think Victor Garber captured the more scheming, manipulative side of academia (at least in my shaky memory of his marvelous work in 1995).</p><p> But Crudup emphasizes thecharm of Bernard.</p><p> He may be sloppy on dotting his "i's" and crossing his "t's" but he just wants to get onthe telly.</p><p> Whatever magic Crudup has that isn't always captured on film clearly comes to life on the stage;our gain.</p><p> Williams as his foil Hannah is his equal and a real find to those of us in America not familiarwith her work.</p><p> So is Riley and Powley and all the other members of the original UK revival that made thejourney to New York.</p><p> Caveats? The British accents of the American cast are shaky at best.</p><p> Gummer has the least interesting role and does little with it, despite her success in capturing the spoiled but not rude nature of the pampered.</p><p> The mute Gus (Noah Robbins, quite good in his modern role) is saddled with a rather jarring, noisy shirt in his first scene that distracts.</p><p> The music cue towards the very end (our characters in the pastare somehow hearing modern music from the present while waiting for a waltz) is somehow not quiteright.</p><p> And that's it.</p><p> The set and lighting are subtle and true, the direction by David Leveaux spot-on.</p><p> And above all you Striking Distance Of Obama Popeater: Brad and Angelina's Strict Nanny Requirements Shelterpop: Unplugging Appliances: Do I REALLY Have to Do This? What To Do About Smelly Feet Noam Chomsky Is the World Too Big to Fail? The Contours of Global Order AOL Real Estate: Prince William and Kate to Live in Royal Mansion TV Squad: Maria Menounos Relives Her Paparazzi 'Wardrobe Malfunction' on 'Lopez' (VIDEO) DON'T MISS HUFFPOST BLOGGERS 1 of 5 Sam Waterston Saving Easter Island’s Marine Ecosystems David O.</p><p> Russell FDR Said it All in 1936 -- Who Will Follow in His Steps Today? More Celebrity News at People.com Like 1K Like 1K Like 1K Like 670 Like 3K Like 56 Like 52 Lindsay Lohan Is 'Angry' About Jail Sentence READ MORE Antoine Dodson Arrested READ MORE Stefano Langone RevealsHis Relationship Status READ MORE Royal Wedding Guest List remember the play, the talent of Stoppard .</p><p> You remember the way characters from different eras are suddenly on stage at the same time, bouncing off and circling around each other like subatomic particles.</p><p> And that waltz at the end, where it somehow, magically comes together -- the art, the math, the love, theinnocence, the past and the present.</p><p> Let's hope we don't have to wait 16 years to see Arcadia again.</p><p> THE 2010-2011 THEATER SEASON (ratings on a four star system) Angels in America revival at Signature *** out of ****Arcadia with Billy Crudup *** 1/2Between Worlds/Entre Mundos * 1/2 Beautiful Burnout at St.</p><p> Ann's Warehouse ** Blood From A Stone ** 1/2 The Broadway Musicals Of 1921 at Town Hall *** Devil Boys From Beyond ** The Diary Of A Madman with Geoffrey Rush at BAM ***Double Falsehood ** The Dream Of The Burning Boy ** 1/2 Driving Miss Daisy ** Elf * Elling ** A Free Man Of Color ** 1/2 Gatz *** Ghetto Klown *** Good People with Frances McDormand ** The Grand Manner ** The Great Game *** Gruesome Playground Injuries *** The Hallway Trilogy: Nursing ** The Hallway Trilogy: Paraffin ***The Hallway Trilogy: Rose *** The Importance Of Being Earnest ** 1/2 The Interminable Suicide Of Gregory Church *** 1/2 John Gabriel Borkman * 1/2 La Bete ** 1/2 Les Miserables *** Lombardi ** Macbeth with John Douglas Thompson ** The Merchant Of Venice *** 1/2 Middletown *** The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore * Mistakes Were Made ** 1/2 Nixon In China *** 1/2 The New York Idea ** The Nightingale and Other Short Fables at BAM *** Other Desert Cities ** Our Town with Helen Hunt *** The Pee-wee Herman Show *** The Road To Qatar * Room *** The Scottsboro Boys **** Small Craft Warnings zero stars Three Sisters (w Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard) *** 1/2Timon Of Athens at Public with Richard Thomas *** The Whipping Man ** Wings ** Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown ** AT THE NEW YORK MUSICAL FESTIVAL Blood Ties *** Fellowship * 1/2Fingers and Toes ** 1/2 TOP VIDEO PICKS 1 of 10 Lindsay Lohan Back in the Slammer Beckhams In, Obamas Outat Royal Wedding Olsen's Wacky Fur Outfit MOST DISCUSSED RIGHT NOW 1 of 2 HOT ON FACEBOOK 1 of 3 HOT ON TWITTER 1 of 2 More Celebrity News at Popeater.comRevealed: Who's Going? 'Bed Intruder' Star Antoine Dodson Arrested Paul Reiser's New Show Yanked After Two Weeks Jerry Seinfeld, Donald Trump Rip Each Other In Heated Political War Of Words Is Kate Beckinsale The Next Sharon Stone? Viral Star Antoine Dodson ARRESTED Like 5K What Happened To Bradley Cooper?! Like 321 mayhemstudios RT @sbeasla : What happens when you tickle a little penguin? http://j.mp/dEZjCM via @huffingtonpost twsuccess Antoine Dodson Arrested For Marijuana Possession http://huff.to/edLaIo Lindsay Lohan Quickly Released From Jail After...</p><p> Antoine Dodson Arrested For Marijuana Possession 'The Hangover 2' Trailers: New TV Spots... 'The Office' Season Finale: Jim Carrey Joining...Frog Kiss *** 1/2 The Great Unknown ** 1/2Nighttime Traffic **Our Country *PopArt *Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical ** 1/2Show Choir **Tess: The New Musical ** Trav'lin' *** Without You *** 1/2 ***** Thanks for reading.</p><p> Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinionmakers as guests.</p><p> It's available free on iTunes.</p><p> Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.</p><p> Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.</p><p> Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews .</p><p> Note: Michael Giltz was provided with tickets to the show with the understanding that he would be writing a review.</p><p> Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz More in Entertainment...</p><p> Buy a link here Sponsored Links Mom Is 55, Looks 30...</p><p> Her clever $5 wrinkle therapy angers Botox Doctors.</p><p> Find Out How! 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