Broadway's Great Ensembles

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 11:56am

From Isherwood in tomorrow's Sunday Times Arts & Leisure:

"Much has been written about the wondrous abundance of straight plays on Broadway this fall, and three cheers for that comeback. But plays don’t perform themselves, and the most inspiring story of the season may be the return to the center spotlight of that undersung asset, the actor.

Undersung? Well, I’m not talking about stars, those increasingly ubiquitous beings whose every visit to a Starbucks leaves eddies of paparazzi photos in its wake. I’m talking about hard-working, little-heralded stage performers who ply their trade without personal publicists and who may not possess the youth or glamour increasingly prized in the theater as in the movies.

Actors like Jim Norton, who has been bringing detailed truth and understated pathos to the plays of the Irish writer Conor McPherson for years and is appearing in Mr. McPherson’s “Seafarer” at the Booth. Actors like Amy Morton, a stalwart veteran of the Steppenwolf Theater Company whose fiercely felt turn as an abandoned wife and abused daughter is integral to the power of Tracy Letts’s “August: Osage County” at the Imperial. Actors like David Pittu, whose name is known to few but who is a key ingredient in the improbable appeal of the “new” Mark Twain play “Is He Dead?” at the Lyceum.

Individually these performers and the many others appearing alongside them are doing first-rate work. But great ensemble acting always adds up to more than the sum of its parts. It transports and transforms, and it illuminates the vital importance of collaboration in the complicated art of making theater.

The material these great acting teams are performing is varied in tone and quality. Harold Pinter’s “Homecoming,” at the Cort, is from the canon of well-thumbed 20th-century masterworks. Mr. Letts’s “August” is a pop classic in the making. “The Seafarer” is a flawed work from a writer of immense talent. The Twain play, meanwhile, is an out-and-out stinker, and not just because the plot turns on a hunk of Limburger cheese. But all these plays benefit from acting that illuminates their strengths and in some cases masks or even obliterates any immediate awareness of the writing’s limitations."


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[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 2:21pm

Unfortunately Broadway has never been about ensemble acting. It always takes a great ensemble show to point out what we are missing. If you've seen "Grapes of Wrath" or "Nicholas Nickelby" you have seen what a great ensemble can do. It's time Broadway had another great ensemble show.

[midnightshow]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 2:49pm

I personally think the ensemble of Legally Blonde absolutely deserved their award. One of the most energetic and entertaining ensembles I've seen in a show. Poppins and Spring Awakening have tight ensembles, too...

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 3:01pm

What about Coast of Utopia? Whatever your feelings about the play per se (I didn't like it), you can't get around the enormous effort expended by cast, crew, director and anyone else involved.

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 3:50pm

The Coast of Utopia has had one of the best ensemble casts in recent memory.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 4:05pm

I'm hoping for a very strong ensemble when Billy Elliot comes here. The London one, from what I hear, is outstanding.

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 6:04pm

It's talking about ensemble casts, not the chorus of a musical.

Updated On: 12/29/07 at 06:04 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/29/07 at 6:09pm

There is a show here in Chicago "The Sparrow." It won rave reviews and has run for a year in various venues. It's ensemble was absolutely the greatest I've ever seen. All but a couple cast members played multiple roles- primarily High School students and their parents. The energy never flagged for a second and each character was absolutely delineated- even if that chatacter never spoke. It was an astounding achievement. It is no wonder that the show won a "Jefferson" award for best performance by an ensemble.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 12/30/07 at 11:21pm

I second the mention of COAST OF UTOPIA as an ensemble worthy of the name great, especially on marathon days.