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MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2019
THEATER: Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge
Grapple With Death and Life
SEA WALL/A LIFE ** 1/2 out of ****
HUDSON THEATRE
What's not to love? Two very talented actors tackle solo monologues in
an evening of theater that offers love, death, laugh, perhaps a tear or
two and some serious star power. Transferring from The Public, thiswork of theater keeps its intimacy mostly intact and amps up thehumor just a tad to fill the wider space. Honestly, you'd always choose
to see great actors perform in as small a space as possible unless a
show needed to be big. But that doesn't change the fact that Tom
Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal certainly make the Hudson Theatre(one of Broadway's tinier spaces) feel intimate.
Simon Stephens (
The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time )
wrote the probing, philosophical work Sea Wall for his friend Andrew
Scott in 2017. Scott, already popular from Sherlock , turned it into a
barn-burning showcase that became a sensation in London on its own.
Scott has gone on to a well-deserved meteoric rise as the "hot priest"in the TV series Fleabag .
Now that monologue is paired with Nick Payne's A Life to create a full
evening. Payne ( Constellations ) has been championed by Gyllenhaal
who appears here in that work alongside Sturridge, who has theunenviable task of following Scott. Both works are haunted by deathbut they are very different. In this production directed by Carrie
Cracknell, Sea Wall is more ambitious but less successful while
A Life
aims lower but hits its mark more readily. The chance to see two fine
actors up close makes it all worthwhile.MICHAEL GILTZ AT WORK
Michael Giltz is a freelance writer
based in NYC and can be reached atmgiltz@pipeline.com
FAVORITE LINKS
Americablog
Five O'Clock Lightning baseball blogDeep Pop -- Lori Lakin's Blog
The Back Page -- Jason Page on ESPN
Radio
Cine-Blog -- George Robinson's Blog
Documents On Art & Cinema - Daryl
Chin's Blog
Brucie G's Wondrous Blog Of
Adventure and Mystery -- Bruce
Greenspan's Blog
BLOG ARCHIVE
▼ 2019 (50)
► September (3)
▼ August (7)
Sturridge is a very talented actor (nominated for Tonys and Baftas)
who has been wasted on the forgettable TV show Sweetbitter and a
string of movies that haven't quite brought him to the next level. Yet.Here he tackles the tale of Alex, a new father describing a holiday with
his wife, daughter and prickly father-in-law. Alex keeps veering into
musings about life and fate...and when someone is angry about theidea that everything has a purpose or happens for a reason, you justknow some tragedy is going to unfold.
Sturridge is very appealing but the transitions back and forth from the
specific and concrete to more rarified ideas prove awkward. Whetherit's the writing or Sturridge not hitting his stride yet, the seams areshowing. That doesn't keep the awful darkness at its heart from havinga painful impact. Sturridge does manage the tricky task of revealing
awful grief without wallowing in it. These pieces are not misery porn,
as some suggest. They're too open-hearted and wise for that.
Gyllenhaal's piece immediately lightens the tone, with its more
amiable story of Abe, a soon-to-be father overwhelmed as he and his
wife prepare for the birth of their first child. A Life also flashes back to
the death of Abe's own dad years ago and their loving relationship.The laughs come easier here, with Gyllenhaal such a magnetic charmerwe're always on his side, even when Abe makes a potentially tragic
mistake. He's such a smart performer, with Gyllenhaal's choices in
theater and film proving impeccable. His commitment to the work, toexploring a monologue and helping make this evening of theaterhappen shows a dedication to the theater that's inspiring.
Several minor details don't help. One of the few props on the bare
stage is a piano. Gyllenhaal sits at it for a while before the show beginsand then noodles on it at the very end. One anecdote from hismonologue involves the song "Imagine" by John Lennon and YokoOno. At the finale, he hints at that melody and then moves off,
crooning a wordless tune. It doesn't quite work, so perhaps actually
playing (but not singing) "Imagine" would be better? That's followed
by a visual flourish that brings both actors on stage at the same timebut physically isolated from one another, staring off into oppositedirections. Behind them a video projection of an apartment building isBROADWAY DIRECT: Fall
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THEATER: Jake Gyllenhaal and
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BOOKS: "Travel Light, Move
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► July (7)
► June (3)
► May (9)
► April (10)
► March (5)
► February (1)
► January (5)
► 2018 (38)
► 2017 (6)
► 2016 (2)
► 2015 (20)
► 2014 (2)
► 2013 (5)
► 2012 (17)
► 2011 (15)
► 2010 (10)
► 2009 (43)
► 2008 (86)
► 2007 (781)
► 2006 (2412)
► 2005 (5)
seen, window upon window peeking into other lives. It suggests that
these are just two stories of many, that we all have tales of love and
death and happiness and sorrow.
But we knew that. After watching two actors bring us in close with
their talent, it was an uninteresting and banal bit of fireworks wholly
out of whack with the nicely modest performances that came before.Why bother? Neither moment (the music or the projection) matteredmuch, but they tilted the evening just a bit towards 2 1/2 stars instead
of the more generous 3 stars it was headed for.
THEATER OF 2019
Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2
Kiss Me, Kate ***
Ain't No Mo' *** 1/2
Ain't Too Proud **
The Cradle Will Rock * 1/2
Mrs. Murray's Menagerie *** 1/2
Oklahoma! (on Broadway) ** 1/2
Socrates **
The Pain Of My Belligerence *
Burn This **
Hadestown *** 1/2
All My Sons * 1/2
Tootsie ** 1/2
Ink ***
Beetlejuice **
Estado Vegetal ***
Hans Christian Andersen * 1/2
Cirque du Soleil: Luzia ***
BLKS ** 1/2
Moulin Rouge ** 1/2
Bat Out Of Hell **
Unchilding **
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book
lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the
way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new
releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal
recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz
Sandbox , a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on
entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as
guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called
Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.
POSTED BY MICHAEL GILTZ AT 12:30 AM
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MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2019
THEATER: Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge
Grapple With Death and Life
SEA WALL/A LIFE ** 1/2 out of ****
HUDSON THEATRE
What's not to love? Two very talented actors tackle solo monologues in
an evening of theater that offers love, death, laugh, perhaps a tear or
two and some serious star power. Transferring from The Public, thiswork of theater keeps its intimacy mostly intact and amps up thehumor just a tad to fill the wider space. Honestly, you'd always choose
to see great actors perform in as small a space as possible unless a
show needed to be big. But that doesn't change the fact that Tom
Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal certainly make the Hudson Theatre(one of Broadway's tinier spaces) feel intimate.
Simon Stephens (
The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time )
wrote the probing, philosophical work Sea Wall for his friend Andrew
Scott in 2017. Scott, already popular from Sherlock , turned it into a
barn-burning showcase that became a sensation in London on its own.
Scott has gone on to a well-deserved meteoric rise as the "hot priest"in the TV series Fleabag .
Now that monologue is paired with Nick Payne's A Life to create a full
evening. Payne ( Constellations ) has been championed by Gyllenhaal
who appears here in that work alongside Sturridge, who has theunenviable task of following Scott. Both works are haunted by deathbut they are very different. In this production directed by Carrie
Cracknell, Sea Wall is more ambitious but less successful while
A Life
aims lower but hits its mark more readily. The chance to see two fine
actors up close makes it all worthwhile.MICHAEL GILTZ AT WORK
Michael Giltz is a freelance writer
based in NYC and can be reached atmgiltz@pipeline.com
FAVORITE LINKS
Americablog
Five O'Clock Lightning baseball blogDeep Pop -- Lori Lakin's Blog
The Back Page -- Jason Page on ESPN
Radio
Cine-Blog -- George Robinson's Blog
Documents On Art & Cinema - Daryl
Chin's Blog
Brucie G's Wondrous Blog Of
Adventure and Mystery -- Bruce
Greenspan's Blog
BLOG ARCHIVE
▼ 2019 (50)
► September (3)
▼ August (7)
Sturridge is a very talented actor (nominated for Tonys and Baftas)
who has been wasted on the forgettable TV show Sweetbitter and a
string of movies that haven't quite brought him to the next level. Yet.Here he tackles the tale of Alex, a new father describing a holiday with
his wife, daughter and prickly father-in-law. Alex keeps veering into
musings about life and fate...and when someone is angry about theidea that everything has a purpose or happens for a reason, you justknow some tragedy is going to unfold.
Sturridge is very appealing but the transitions back and forth from the
specific and concrete to more rarified ideas prove awkward. Whetherit's the writing or Sturridge not hitting his stride yet, the seams areshowing. That doesn't keep the awful darkness at its heart from havinga painful impact. Sturridge does manage the tricky task of revealing
awful grief without wallowing in it. These pieces are not misery porn,
as some suggest. They're too open-hearted and wise for that.
Gyllenhaal's piece immediately lightens the tone, with its more
amiable story of Abe, a soon-to-be father overwhelmed as he and his
wife prepare for the birth of their first child. A Life also flashes back to
the death of Abe's own dad years ago and their loving relationship.The laughs come easier here, with Gyllenhaal such a magnetic charmerwe're always on his side, even when Abe makes a potentially tragic
mistake. He's such a smart performer, with Gyllenhaal's choices in
theater and film proving impeccable. His commitment to the work, toexploring a monologue and helping make this evening of theaterhappen shows a dedication to the theater that's inspiring.
Several minor details don't help. One of the few props on the bare
stage is a piano. Gyllenhaal sits at it for a while before the show beginsand then noodles on it at the very end. One anecdote from hismonologue involves the song "Imagine" by John Lennon and YokoOno. At the finale, he hints at that melody and then moves off,
crooning a wordless tune. It doesn't quite work, so perhaps actually
playing (but not singing) "Imagine" would be better? That's followed
by a visual flourish that brings both actors on stage at the same timebut physically isolated from one another, staring off into oppositedirections. Behind them a video projection of an apartment building isBROADWAY DIRECT: Fall
Book Roundup For Theater
Lov...
SHOWBIZ SANDBOX #459:
Jay-Z and NFL Play Fans For...
THEATER: Jake Gyllenhaal and
Tom Sturridge Grapple...
SHOWBIZ SANDBOX #458:
Music Industry BattlesPlagu...
THEATER: "Unchilding" Gets
Shakily On Its Feet
THEATER: more! More!!
MORE!!! -- "Moulin Rouge"an...
BOOKS: "Travel Light, Move
Fast" review
► July (7)
► June (3)
► May (9)
► April (10)
► March (5)
► February (1)
► January (5)
► 2018 (38)
► 2017 (6)
► 2016 (2)
► 2015 (20)
► 2014 (2)
► 2013 (5)
► 2012 (17)
► 2011 (15)
► 2010 (10)
► 2009 (43)
► 2008 (86)
► 2007 (781)
► 2006 (2412)
► 2005 (5)
seen, window upon window peeking into other lives. It suggests that
these are just two stories of many, that we all have tales of love and
death and happiness and sorrow.
But we knew that. After watching two actors bring us in close with
their talent, it was an uninteresting and banal bit of fireworks wholly
out of whack with the nicely modest performances that came before.Why bother? Neither moment (the music or the projection) matteredmuch, but they tilted the evening just a bit towards 2 1/2 stars instead
of the more generous 3 stars it was headed for.
THEATER OF 2019
Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2
Kiss Me, Kate ***
Ain't No Mo' *** 1/2
Ain't Too Proud **
The Cradle Will Rock * 1/2
Mrs. Murray's Menagerie *** 1/2
Oklahoma! (on Broadway) ** 1/2
Socrates **
The Pain Of My Belligerence *
Burn This **
Hadestown *** 1/2
All My Sons * 1/2
Tootsie ** 1/2
Ink ***
Beetlejuice **
Estado Vegetal ***
Hans Christian Andersen * 1/2
Cirque du Soleil: Luzia ***
BLKS ** 1/2
Moulin Rouge ** 1/2
Bat Out Of Hell **
Unchilding **
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book
lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the
way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new
releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal
recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz
Sandbox , a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on
entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as
guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called
Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.
POSTED BY MICHAEL GILTZ AT 12:30 AM
NO COMMENTS:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)Newer Post Older Post Home