JOURNEY'S END is a must-see- Page 2

[mallardo]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 2:33am

Yes, it's great theatre but don't give Hugh Dancy the Tony just yet. Wait until you see Frank Langella as Nixon - THAT is one of thr great performances of our time.

[folkyboy]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 9:24am

right, i felt so strongly about Dancy's performance too. but i have to remind myself of all the other shows that are going to be coming out soon.

i think it IS an open run, marshmallow

[shesamarshmallow]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 10:40am

Awesome. I hope to catch it this summer, then...

[Calvin]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 12:22pm

I don't think it's an open run, as the posters say "limited engagement." Playbill has it listed as closing July 1.

[folkyboy]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 12:33pm

oh really? my bad. sorry.

[shesamarshmallow]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 12:39pm

Well, I'll be there in June anyway. Thanks for the info!

[Calvin]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 12:46pm

You won't be disappointed shesamarshmallow.

Oh, and my earlier post looks snotty now that I review it, but I didn't intend it that way.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 2:17pm

Great article on JOURNEY'S END in today's Times:

"AFTER seeing the first 1929 production of the great World War I drama “Journey’s End,” the journalist J. B. Priestly called it “the strongest pleas for peace I know.” A reviewer for The Daily Mirror in London called it “a much better argument against war than sentimental propaganda plays,” and the novelist Hugh Walpole said it “managed to hit the hardest blow in its swollen stomach that war has yet had.”

More than 75 years later a revival of the play, by R. C. Sherriff, is opening on Broadway against the backdrop of disillusion with the war in Iraq, and the play’s antiwar reputation remains strong. The British equivalent of CliffsNotes, the Methuen study guide, baldly asserts that “Journey’s End” is “a message-carrying play with a definite purpose in mind: to make people ponder the stupidity and horrors of war.” So it may come as a surprise that the playwright insisted that his work was nothing of the kind.

Mr. Sherriff, who maintained this view to the end of his life, thought he was celebrating the men with whom he had fought. At the moment of his success — “Journey’s End” made him independently rich — he insisted: “I have not written this play as a piece of propaganda. And certainly not as propaganda for peace.”

Nevertheless his producer, Maurice Browne, a pacifist and conscientious objector who spent World War I in America, took the opposite view. Mr. Browne’s enthusiasm for the play baffled Mr. Sherriff, who wrote, 40 years on, that he had thought Mr. Browne “would have had a violent revulsion against a war play in which not a word is spoken against the war, in which no word of condemnation was uttered by any of its characters.” Yet over the years Mr. Browne’s interpretation has generally prevailed. Which one has the better case?

Little known in the United States, “Journey’s End” has always been popular in Britain, where it is still widely read and performed in schools. But it had a hard time getting that first staging. Then George Bernard Shaw praised the manuscript in a letter, and Mr. Sherriff relayed this opinion to his first producers, who arranged for a two-night run in the West End, in December 1928. Mr. Browne, tipped off by a friend who had seen it, immediately raised the money for more performances, which turned out to total 593, the longest run the West End had then seen.

The show was praised for its extraordinary realism, which fascinated both soldiers who had served on the Western Front and also civilians who had not. That first production starred a 21-year-old Laurence Olivier as Captain Stanhope. The action spanned four days while British soldiers, holding a section of trench line, await an offensive that seems likely to kill every one of them. Within the year “Journey’s End” — Mr. Sherriff’s seventh play but his first to be produced — was being performed in 25 languages. It ran for nearly 500 performances on Broadway. The latest revival is directed by David Grindley, who was responsible for a well-received British production in 2004.

Like Mr. Sherriff, Mr. Grindley does not think that the play is an attack on war, and he is struck by its realism and ambiguities. “Every single character in the play accepts that the war is necessary,” he said recently by telephone during a break in rehearsals, “and that Great Britain is resisting German aggression.” But in London Mr. Grindley’s view was overshadowed by critics who were dazzled by his production. The Daily Telegraph, for example, praised that show as “powerfully capturing the waste and futility of the conflict.”

Why is the interpretation of “Journey’s End” by many modern audiences so different from its author’s? .............."

Click here for the rest of the article

[Calvin]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 2:30pm

Fascinating read. Thanks, Margo.

As I said, I didn't find the play particularly anti-war myself, although I certainly see how that interpretation will come about with the baggage we as audience members will be carrying.

eta: Not to mention the polarizing climate of "you're either with us or against us" -- some people have to be able to put everything into a little sorting box.
Updated On: 2/12/07 at 02:30 PM

[Danielm]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 2:59pm

I'm glad people are appreciating it. I saw it in London and was devastated for days. I will have to try to see it when I get to New York--but I'll be better prepared with kleenex.

[Piercemn]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 7:57pm

Yes, Victoria Hamilton played Catherine and she was every bit as brilliant as Dame Diana. The set was a giant can with holes that opened and became the solarium of the decaying house of Sebastian and Violet.

Hamilton's monologue was chilling and the whole production was extraordinary. That and Journey's End made one amazing day of Theatre!

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/12/07 at 10:57pm

...Now i'm off to buy the play from Amazon.com...I'm sort of suprised the play didn't book a smaller theater if the set and everything is so small.

[NJgirl]

Posted: 2/14/07 at 2:57pm

Thanks for posting that discount code!

What's the seating like at the Belasco since I know there's been a debate about the lighting, etc.
I'm being offered seat F6....thoughts? or should I take the gamble thru TDF? They are basically the same price...

[jaystarr]

Posted: 2/14/07 at 3:18pm

Thanks for the discount code > I am excited be. I will see "Journey's End" on Sunday 2/18 with Orchestra seats a a very very good price. Cant wait to get down to NYC this Sunday from Boston.. I am sure its worth the daytrip -J*

[folkyboy]

Posted: 2/14/07 at 3:34pm

yeah i think anywhere in the Orchestrai is fine. the mezz can be tricky (i'm guessing) if you have bad eyes. they aren't seating anyone in the balcony right now

[whatever2]

Posted: 2/14/07 at 3:56pm

> they aren't seating anyone in the balcony right now

really? i have front row balc tix for 2/21 ... will they move me downstairs?

[folkyboy]

Posted: 2/14/07 at 4:00pm

more than likely, whatever2. unless it gets wicked popular and then they start seating balcony. but i know when i went last Saturday evening they moved all the balcony people downstairs to the mezz

[whatever2]

Posted: 2/14/07 at 4:06pm

thx.

"wicked popular" isnt going to happen before next wed nite. (unfortunately.)

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 10:20am

I revisited this show last night. The first time I saw it I sat in the mezzanine, and this time I was in the front row of the orchestra. It is riveting as ever. Hugh Dancy gives one of the most precision stage performances I have ever witnessed. If you have not seen this show yet, get a ticket. Being in the audience last night, I felt like I was a part of something vitally important. This play is so poignant and draws on the sameness in humanity between men in war almost a century ago and those we are sending off to war today. Don't miss this one. Sit in the orchestra if you can.

Updated On: 3/15/07 at 10:20 AM

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 10:24am

I agree that this show is a must-see. I loved it when I saw it in previews. A coworker saw it yesterday afternoon with a customer (on my recommendation) and they both LOVED it. He was raving to me about it this morning...I'm glad that it is getting such a positive response from the (few) people going to see it. Hopefully after the NYT article, business will start to pick up.

[Pippin]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 11:10am

This show should be seen by many more people. I saw it about 2 weeks ago and was profoundly moved. Hopefully it will last awhile longer. Don't hesitate with this one. You won't regret it.

[SCBWannabe]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 12:05pm

I agree with all of the praise being heaped onto this show. It was a great piece and the acting is top notch, especially Hugh Dancy.

[kissmycookie]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 12:40pm

It's a seamless show, having been able to catch it last Sunday (where the orchestra was pretty packed). And a perfect ensemble of actors on stage.

[AnnaLouise1986]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 12:43pm

I'm seeing it in about 2 weeks...two weeks from this Saturday. Front row orchestra. I'm a bit worried it's going to be a neck strain. Was it for you, Foster?

By the way, Hugh Dancy was on Martha Stewart yesterday and he said the play is "open ended."

[Esparzafan]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 12:59pm

AnnaLouise, front row should be fine. I was in the second row on the aisle a few weeks back and the folks in front of me didn't seem to have an issues.
Enjoy! It's an incredible show.