Corrections or additions?
This review by Simon Saltzman was prepared for the August 18, 2004
issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Broadway Review: ‘After The Fall’
After The Fall" may not one of Arthur Miller’s greatest plays, but it
is provocative. More importantly, the worthy revival by the Roundabout
Theater Company at the American Airlines Theater, under Michael
Mayer’s splendid direction, suddenly appears to examine the
exploratory nature of one of America’s most lauded playwrights,
perhaps more precisely and concisely that it did 40 years ago – or
even 20 years ago. The original 1964 production starred Jason Robards
Jr. as Quentin, the Miller character. In a 1984 revival, the role was
played by Frank Langella.
Apparently shortened and tweaked by the playwright in the revival and
again for this production, under Mayer’s guidance, the play remains
both invigoratingly direct and relentlessly verbose. It is also lifted
off the runway to a large part through the genius of set designer
Richard Hoover’s abstracted replication of Saarinen’s TWA lounge at
Idlewild Airport, its silvery grey-on-grey tones conveying the open
and active place of platforms and walkways for those travelers
entering and exiting Quentin’s subconscious way station.
After a rough start, which is mostly notable for the number of
psychologically damaging women (curiously remindful of the women who
affect Fellini’s alter-ego Guido in "Nine") who weave in and out of
Quentin’s mind as emotional catalysts, the play is absolutely
compelling when it more substantially settles into the emotionally
wrenching details about Miller’s own stormy, frustrating marriage to
film star Marilyn Monroe.
The Monroe character is no longer a blonde. As played by Carla Gugino,
in her Broadway debut, Maggie is a red-headed singer stunningly
characteristic of the disturbed woman who would lure Miller into
marriage. Gugino plays Maggie with a vulnerability propelled by
ferocity that virtually challenges this otherwise autobiographical
self purge for dramatic supremacy.
Of course, this imbalance could also be due to Peter Krause’s largely
introspective and conservative performance, as Quentin, now a lawyer.
Although Krause, best known as Nate Fisher in the HBO series "Six Feet
Under," (and also making his Broadway debut) doesn’t wow us with a
wide variety of emotional swings, he nevertheless sustains the complex
character by revealing to us the sheer strength of Miller’s
impregnable, or is it indomitable, ego in a series of unquestionably
self-serving soliloquies.
However, the incendiary and physically violent scene in which the
emotionally needy, but unquestionably nutty, Maggie provokes Quentin
to the breaking point is a stunner and as dramatically unnerving as
anything you are likely to see on the stage this season. It also
provides the opportunity for Krause to shed his character’s sedate and
self-contained intellectual detachment and to respond more
instinctively and explosively to Maggie’s hysteria.
The secondary, but never inconsequential, characters – parents, first
wife, cohorts – are, in the main, irrefutable irritants to Quentin.
But luckily these irritants are given idiosyncratic life and dimension
by a terrific supporting cast. Although the authenticity of her German
accent comes and goes, Vivienne Benesche is otherwise fine as Holga,
the archeologist with a troubled past who has rekindled Quentin’s
romantic feelings. It is while waiting for Holga to see if this time
will be different that Quentin’s hallucinations take over.
In subtle ways, Jessica Hecht distills all the vinegar from Quentin’s
insecure first wife, Louise. Candy Buckley is chilling as the "mother
from hell." Other performances of note are given by Mark Nelson and
Jonathan Walker, as friends caught up in the infamous government witch
hunt for communists. As expected, Donald Holder’s lighting has its own
flashes of inspiration, as does Michael Krass’s costumes, which know
when to make eye-opening changes from the ordinary.
Although self consciously steeped in memories, flashbacks, and streams
of consciousness, "After the Fall" maintains a deliberately "me,
myself, and I" ideology that, were it not truly about Miller, an
artist worthy of self portrait, would be the height of indulgent
pomposity. Turning inward has not been an unusual path for playwrights
from Shakespeare to Ibsen to O’Neill to Williams.
While Miller’s focus on social and political issues in such plays as
"All My Sons," "Death of a Salesman," and "The Crucible" are employed
as conventionally crafted plays, one has to respect a great dramatist
who explores new forms and ways to express his own intellectual and
emotional growth.
It doesn’t take us long, however, to realize how carefully and
insightfully Mayer has captured the essence of this difficult, if
indisputably flawed, play and made it memorable.
– Simon Saltzman
American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street. For tickets ($46.25
to $86.25), Call 212-719-1300.
an Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street. For tickets ($46.25
to $86.25), Call 212-719-1300.
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