Anybody catch the new cast of GOD OF CARNAGE tonight?- Page 2

[Here_I_Go_Again]

Posted: 3/11/10 at 9:02pm

i found Lucy to be VERY week in the show and as the part.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 3/11/10 at 11:23pm

Saw the new cast tonight...overall, they're very, very good, and the play, while incredibly shallow, is still a hoot.

Before I discuss the cast...a brief rant on an audience member with a cell phone. Phone started ringing very close to us early on in the play. I initially thought it was the onstage phone that rings, but realized after a moment it was too early in the show for that to be happening. It was a woman two rows behind us, who was actually laughing out loud while her phone continued to ring. She got shushed repeatedly, by myself and others around us, and said, "Just calm down!" while she continued to dig around. After she found the phone, she announced, "This is kind of funny!" and the older woman behind turned around and whispered, "It's really not." So she finds the phone, and then announces again, "It's going to take a minute to shut off." Annoyingly, the usher did not arrive on the scene until after she had finally gotten the thing shut off. I was actually really surprised the cast was able to keep going because it was quite loud. As a result, I completely missed the portion of the play about Nipples the hamster.

Anyway, the cast...I thought one couple improved on their predecessors, and the other, while very good, did not. For the record, I've seen the original cast and this cast. I never saw cast 2.

Dylan Baker just about steals the show right now as Alan. He's so smarmy and full of himself most times, and reminds me of EXACTLY the type of person who would be on their blackberry 18 hours a day. I'd say he's about perfect in the role- he gets every laugh, and his character, while an ass, is right most of the time.

Lucy Liu makes an impressive debut as Annette, and her drunk speech near the end of the play is a hoot. I loved her seeming emotional detachment from what was going one- she seemed more interested in her husband than the situation at hand, which is an interesting take on it. She also has some killer expressions and is very deadpan- which works extremely well.

I loved Jeff Daniels when he played Alan, but was a bit disappointed with his Michael. He's very good, but does nothing to erase the memory of James Gandolfini from my mind, whom I thought was fantastic. Daniels is fabulous when he's pretending to be the white collar liberal, but has a lot less success when his blue collar nature is revealed. He also lacks the domineering presence that Gandolfini possessed.

Janet McTeer's accent comes and goes, but that didn't bother me, really. In fact, I thought it really worked. Veronica is a woman who loves pretending to be a member of a social strata she's not really in, and I could totally see a woman like her putting on a fake accent. She doesn't attack the physical comedy with the same reckless abandon that Marcia Gay Harden did, but gets the laughs nonetheless. I didn't get the sense that she was the least bit concerned about everything breaking down around her the way I did with Harden. By the play's end, McTeer doesn't seem beaten down or broken, and you feel like she's ready to go another round if need be.

In all, still an incredibly funny, entertaining 90 minutes. Nothing life-changing, but great fun. The new cast is definitely worth a revisit if you enjoyed it before.



Updated On: 3/11/10 at 11:23 PM

[bjh2114]

Posted: 3/11/10 at 11:26pm

"She doesn't attack the physical comedy with the same reckless abandon that Marcia Gay Harden did, but gets the laughs nonetheless"

Really? I thought she was about 10 times more physical than Marcia...

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/11/10 at 11:26pm

"Just calm down!"

Adam, no joke but I SWEAR this same woman did the same thing last week at BEHANDING. She kept saying "Just calm down!" and "Shhh! Back at you!"

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/12/10 at 5:32pm

I saw them last night too. I enjoyed them very much. It's still not one of my favorite plays, but it's a quick and fun evening.
Once again Jeff Daniels nearly stole the show for me. I loved his Alan, and I adored his Michael last night. I think he is a stronger actor than Gandolfini, and I liked his (Daniels) performance better. Gandolfini basically played the role as Tony Soprano.
McTeer (wavering accent and all) was excellent. But she didn't "WOW" me like Harden did.
Liu is a great Annette. She is making a strong debut. I had a problem with her projection at times. I don't think she was projecting as much as the other actors. But she is giving a great performance on the same level as Hope Davis.
It was definitely worth a return trip!

[alightinthedark23]

Posted: 3/12/10 at 6:31pm

I saw the show last night too. It was my first time seeing it and I enjoyed myself. It certainly is insane to say the least. I really enjoyed it. It was a fun night. I thought all four actors were good. Daniels really stood out for me. I loved his performance.

Like AdamGreer mentioned, the cellphone going off was beyond annoying. At first I thought it was apart of the show but then the phone went off again. She then laughed a hyena and thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

[AC126748]

Posted: 3/12/10 at 11:05pm

I'm just back from tonight's performance. Yes, I am an unabashed McTeer devotee, so I guess I went in predisposed to her performance. That said, I preferred her to Harden. She seemed genuinely in the moment, whereas Harden to me seemed pretty manufactured. And she is the most physical Veronica I've seen yet; when she pinned Michael to the couch, I was sure that she was going to draw blood. Liu was great in my opinion; again, I got a very "in the moment" vibe. Her craziness at the end was perfect. Jeff Daniels is much more comfortable as Michael than he was as Alan, and Baker was just great. They are obviously having a ball.

That said, seeing the play with a fresh new cast made me realize how thin and unsatisfying it is. I doubt I'll return, unless they get somebody really great in the next cast.

[Tom-497]

Posted: 3/12/10 at 11:54pm

I just returned from tonight's performance. I thought it was very good. In fact, with all three casts, I've found the show worth seeing.

Still, for me, Gandolfini and Harden were easily the strongest Michael and Veronica. They were the only pair that made me feel they had really been in love at some point and still had moments of genuine fondness for each other. To me, McTeer and Daniels were having a hard time conveying anything other than mutual contempt in the relationship.

Plus, I liked that Harden really did punch Gandolfini repeatedly in the back when her character attacked his. In contrast, tonight in the mezzanine, I could see that McTeer was just hitting the pillow next to Daniels' head. So, I'd agree with the earlier comment about Harden's more effective physicality in the role.

In any case, although I doubt the original Broadway cast will ever be beat for overall effectiveness, tonight was definitely worth braving the unpleasant weather and paying the price of a TDF ticket.

[blaxx]

Posted: 3/13/10 at 12:06am

i found Lucy to be VERY week in the show and as the part.

I actually found her monthly. Yearly, even.

[MiracleElixir]

Posted: 3/13/10 at 5:00pm

They're great, and an improvement over cast # 2, but nothing beats the original four in their prime. For those who said they thought Gandolfini, Harden, Davis and Daniels were weak, maybe they just saw them on an off day, or maybe it's just not their cup of tea, but I was gobsmacked by the original cast working in tandem.

Frankly, I don't really understand how one could say anything negative about Harden's performance, ColortheHours, but you like what you like, I guess. McTeer's great in the role (she originated it, after all) and she's one of my favorite actresses, but I found she captured very little of the sadness/patheticism (is that a word? I doubt it) that Harden got across the handful of times I got to see her.

Daniels was wonderful as Michael, but I think I prefer his Alan. Still, probably the cast MVP, along with McTeer.

Liu was mostly great, though she had moments where she was definitely reaching a bit, or fell a bit short. Some of her delivery/"acting!" moments felt a smidge forced.

Baker was just okay in my opinion (and I ADORE him in "Happiness" -- well, as much as one can adore a pedophile). Not that he wasn't convincing -- he was -- he just chose to play Alan in, in my opinion, the least interesting, one-note way an actor possibly could. He was just one-note smug and condescending, and just kept hammering away at that one note. Daniels (and even Smits, who I thought was pretty bad in the role) had a few different levels going on with the character, and got across the mix of desperation, and simultaneous self-absorption and self-loathing. Baker just felt a little like a cartoon character.

Overall, this cast is definitely reason enough to see the play again, it just kind of blows my mind how anyone could think this is the "Best Cast" unless you have a sincerely grandiose hard-on for one or more of the actors.

Updated On: 3/13/10 at 05:00 PM

[blaxx]

Posted: 3/16/10 at 10:28pm

How long is this new cast contracted for?

[Testing1232]

Posted: 3/17/10 at 5:56pm

Saw it last night--- Lucy was the weakest link, but I think thats only because the other 3 actors were amazing !!!

Absolutely loved it !!

[Ryan4]

Posted: 3/21/10 at 8:44pm

I'm more frequently a reader than a poster on these boards, but I went back to see "God of Carnage" with this new cast today and wanted to encourage anyone who is thinking about seeing this show again (or for the first time) to do so.

I saw it with the original cast last year, and while I enjoyed that group, I think this one is better. While completely selling the comedy, they also access the nastiness, bitterness and sadness in each of these relationships and consequently, the play feels like a much deeper, more substantial experience than it did the first time. For example, there is something about listening to Janet McTeer howl that her husband is resigned to a second-rate life or watching Lucy Liu send tulips flying across the stage that is as heartbreaking as it is hilarious, this time around.

Jeff Daniels makes a completely successful transformation from Alan to Michael. While Gandolfini was physically perfect for that role, Daniels really sells the bits when the character cuts loose and rejects decorum. Perhaps because Daniels does not need to worry about comparison to Tony Soprano, he allows himself to truly become the neanderthal he professes himself to be.

Dylan Baker made me believe the role was written for him. He is so good at being smarmy and obnoxious and self-possessed, that when all of those defenses eventually fail him, he literally looks just like a lost little boy crumpled on the floor.

Because there's a more noticeable age difference between Lucy Liu and Baker (and the reference to her being his second wife, missed that the first time) there's an aspect of her being sort of a trophy for him. Liu's (completely believable) liberation therefore seems primarily sexual in nature. It makes her berating her husband's attachment to his gadgets as un-masculine more pointedly nasty. I thought this interpretation had more depth than Davis's.

Janet McTeer, who was a force of nature in Mary Stuart, is once again a force of nature. A towering 6'1", it's no shock that when she roars, everyone cowers (her sustained glare, for what felt like minutes, at Daniels when he won't offer her a drink got one of the biggest laughs). It's therefore maybe even more of an achievement that she was able to access the wounded heart beneath Veronica's rage so acutely. There is never for a moment a sense that she's playing anything merely for the laughs, but that it all comes from a deep well of frustration and disappointment that has been simmering in her marriage for a long, long, time. (What a treat for NY audiences to get to see both of these fantastic McTeer performances in the last year).

It's unusual for me to find that any show gets better with subsequent viewings. This one truly did. The chemistry in this cast finds greater depth in the text, which is extremely rare of a replacement cast. Don't miss this one!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/21/10 at 9:07pm

I saw the show yesterday and completely agree with Ryan. Dylan Baker was even better than Jeff Daniels was originally in that role, as if it were written for him. But if you're going to go for anything, go to see McTeer, tear up that stage. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone at this point that anything she does is going to be superb.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 3/21/10 at 9:11pm

They're great, and an improvement over cast # 2, but nothing beats the original four in their prime.

Agreed.

[Kev]

Posted: 3/21/10 at 11:01pm

As other have said, the current couples in GOC are worth an hour and a half of your time.

Baker is perfection, Liu gets stronger as the show progresses, Daniels makes an effortless transition to a new character, and McTeer is best in her ferocious moments.

And the play itself, while predictable, holds up superbly with this current cast.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 3/23/10 at 4:23pm

Slant Magazine review

[broadwayjim42]

Posted: 3/29/10 at 11:46am

I saw the show on the 18th and while I thought the cast was excellent, I was really disappointed by the play itself...enough so that I wished upon reflection I'd picked something else.

I realize the gradual escalation of emotions is the point of the title, but I found the secret upon secret and growing hysteria more annoying as it went along.

No faulting the cast, though...Baker has a master's degree in smarmy characters so he was a perfect fit, it was nice to see Daniels break loose, Liu definitely had her moments and McTeer, while often on the verge of going over the top, kept it just on this side of reality.