Caine Mutiny Reviews

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 6:38pm

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/CaineMutiny.html

Great notices for Zeljko Ivanek. Everything else is mediocre.

"But in the new revival at the Schoenfeld, Queeg takes on a greater responsibility: He must transform a sitcom into theatre.

It's a challenge that could be considered the entertainment equivalent of storming the beach at Normandy. Some actors might rightfully be cowed by an imposing director (four-time Tony winner Jerry Zaks) and superstar castmates who made their names in high-profile 30-minute comedies on NBC (David Schwimmer and Tim Daly), and fall under their superficial spell. Were Queeg played by just about anyone under these circumstances, all bets would be off.

Zeljko Ivanek, however, is not just anyone. A resourceful and highly adaptable theatre actor who excels at playing moderately disturbed authority figures (and did as recently as last season, in The Pillowman), he not only survives the bloodbath of indifference surrounding him, but emerges victorious, as if awaiting the Silver Star for bravery."


Updated On: 5/7/06 at 06:38 PM

[willact4food]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 6:42pm

Dude,
Let Margo do these.

[Popular]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 6:45pm

I can't wait for the photo coverage on this

May they have an excellent opening night!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 6:49pm

Dude,
Let Margo do these.


Why? I mean I love when Margo does them too but someone else can start the review threads for once. I'm sure Margo doesn't mind someone else starting these for once and you shouldn't either. And upon that, Yankeefan posted the review in the same way Margo does (with a sum-up of the review a the beginning). Why should who starts the thread make any difference?
Updated On: 5/7/06 at 06:49 PM

[Lamc16]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 6:51pm

I'm tired of people wanting things on this board being done just so. Why can't Yankeefan post? He has the right just as much as margo.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 6:54pm

I agreed. Margo is a lot of fun, but it's not like the review threads are reserved specifically for her. Let's save the harshness for the shows

[GretchaSketh]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 6:57pm

random...but does anyone know what time the show starts tonight?

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 7:40pm

I believe the show started at 6:30 tonight.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 7:51pm

I cannot believe anyone gives a rat's ass about who starts a review thread. Jeesh, what's next, worrying about the Star Spangled Banner being sun in pig latin?

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 7:55pm

"I agreed. Margo is a lot of fun, but it's not like the review threads are reserved specifically for her."

Margo's a him.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 7:57pm

Broadway.com is Mixed:

http://www.broadway.com/gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=528974

"It's not just the faces familiar from television that make the new Broadway production of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial seem like the kind of above-average fare your remote control might settle on after a bout of channel-surfing. For Herman Wouk's 1954 play, based on the last third of his novel The Caine Mutiny, is pure procedural storytelling. Its question-and-answer rhythm of legal points lost and moral points gained is as rigid and reassuring as a military drumbeat."

Updated On: 5/7/06 at 07:57 PM

[Popular]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 7:58pm

Yankeefan is obviously not bothered enough to reply and willact4food was probably just trying to be funny.

Let's let it go and bring on the reviews! :)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 8:26pm

The AP is Mixed-to-Negative:

"Queeg's self-destruction is fascinating to watch. Ivanek transforms his character from a blustery Navy veteran who easily shrugs off his underlings' accusations that he is mentally incompetent to a pitiable, shaking shell - a man devoured by his inner demons.

At one point, he rambles almost incomprehensibly for minutes as other characters are rapt with horror, frozen on the stage.

Ivanek, a two-time Tony Award nominee last seen on Broadway in "The Pillowman," is easily the best part of an otherwise dry and tedious restaging of Herman Wouk's play at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. The venue, then known as the Plymouth Theatre, was where "Caine Mutiny" first opened on Broadway in 1954.
________________________________________________________________

Schwimmer is the least believable of the lead actors, which is unfortunate given that he has what should be the play's most powerful scene - a showdown after the court-martial with Lt. Thomas Keefer, Maryk's best friend.

But Schwimmer seems out of his element. He appears wooden at times - even for a military man in a court-martial proceeding - and delivers a few lines with the sarcasm of his television persona Ross from "Friends," which seems incongruous.

Schwimmer also doesn't fully convey the depth of his character's conflicted feelings about representing Maryk, whom he views as a scapegoat for Keefer, a pampered elitist. His rage should be boiling over in the final scene; instead, it feels almost perfunctory.
________________________________________________________________

The set - two bare walls, a couple of flags and courtroom furniture - also accentuates the dryness of the proceedings. Were it not for Ivanek's portrayal of a tortured man slowly digging his own grave, the entire show would seem as flat as the pea green paint on the courtroom wall.



http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/14524863.htm

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 9:21pm

I knew they'd have trouble with this show once they decided to cut the musical numbers.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 9:30pm

Theatremania is Mixed-to-Positive:

"For this reason, many of those who attend the current revival may find that Wouk's play feels sketchy in that, for the most part, it presents just the facts of the case. Yes, the author does a certain amount of filling in, as if carefully stuffing pimentos into olives for placement on a buffet table. Still, the impression is that we're in a courtroom where the jury is kept from seeing or hearing evidence that the judge deems immaterial but that would add spice to the proceedings. Then, at the end of his drama, Wouk hurls at us an away-from-court coup de théâtre that has not been properly set up. It's as powerful as a torpedo hitting a destroyer broadside, but whence did it come?

Yet, as directed with slick force by Jerry Zaks on a bare minimum John Lee Beatty set and costumed by William Ivey Long on an easy just-uniforms day, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial isn't without its positive effects at a time when audience members can supply current references of their own: soldiers questioning or not questioning superiors' orders at Abu Ghraib, say, or Ken Lay foisting off on underlings every iota of blame for the Enron collapse. Courtroom dramas are and always have been something of a stunt, and stunts please crowds. The play's core question about who is the victim here, and the larger issue of the proper circumstances in which to countermand authority, are magnetic. Then there's the parade of officers and enlisted men of all ranks and stripes, a cornucopia of highly actable characters.
________________________________________________________________

David Schwimmer makes an entirely reputable Broadway bow, shucking off Ross Geller of Friends as if doffing a sweat shirt after a long run. He still seems to be getting his sea legs -- or, rather, his stage legs -- but his Barney Greenwald is serious and skeptical as demanded. (Director Zaks is smart to have Schwimmer alone on stage when the curtain goes up, as if posing for a portrait, so the actor's fans can get their applause out of the way quickly.) Tim Daly, another TV series vet, is trim and fit in the relatively thankless role of prosecuting attorney Lt. Com. John Challee. When the character's anger mounts, like distant flares coming closer, he get his chance to score as well. Stepping up to the witness box, Joe Sikora is fine as Maryk. Also offering sharply articulated vignettes are Tom Nelis, Brian Reddy, Paul David Story, Ben Fox, Murphy Guyer, and Geoffrey Nauffts as the slippery budding novelist Lt. Thomas Keefer.

Of course, the crucial role here is that of Captain Queeg. Zeljko Ivanek sticks in his thumb and pulls out the plum, presenting a cocky top dog during the Captain's first testimony and coming apart at the well-tailored seams during his second appearance, when the man starts rolling metal balls in his hands to calm his nerves. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is nothing without a superlative Queeg, and this production has one, whatever flaws it and the play itself may exhibit."


http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/8203

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 10:25pm

The Times is Negative:

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/05/08/theater/reviews/08cain.html

Caine Mutiny' Returns to Broadway

By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
Published: May 8, 2006

Attention, please. All New Yorkers eager to experience the edge-of-your-seat suspense and gut-churning excitement commonly associated with two weeks of federal jury duty, please report to the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater, where a new Broadway revival of "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" opened last night. Roll call at 8 p.m.

Kidding aside, it is just possible that a stint weighing a worker's compensation case could offer more thrills than this eye-glazing attempt to resurrect Herman Wouk's 1953 play, adapted from his novel "The Caine Mutiny." Directed with metronome in hand by Jerry Zaks, this workmanlike production gives few clues to the enduring appeal of Mr. Wouk's tale of possible cowardice and possible insubordination, plus a humdinger of a typhoon, some disappearing strawberries and a nut job memorably named Queeg.

Updated On: 5/7/06 at 10:25 PM

[JerseyScoundrel]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 10:52pm

Oh no! I loved the show and hope it does well during its run.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 11:28pm

I liked it very much as well, but these reviews don't seem liable to boost the poor sales it has been getting...

[Lamc16]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 11:29pm

Especially what with a negative *gasp* review *gasp* from The Times *gasp*

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 11:35pm

USA Today gives it Two-and-a-half stars:

"David Schwimmer, the latest screen star to arrive on Broadway, is no dilettante when it comes to theater.

Before finding fame on the sitcom Friends, Schwimmer co-founded Chicago's noted Lookingglass Theatre Company, and his stage credits have since stretched from Chi-town to Williamstown to London. But as the new revival of Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (* * ½ out of four) makes plain, an impressive résumé does not guarantee a brilliant performance.

Neither do good intentions. Schwimmer's bio for Court-Martial, which opened Sunday at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, lists five great-uncles who served in World War II; and the actor clearly brings personal commitment to the role of a Jewish U.S. Navy lawyer presiding over a trial in February 1945, just as Allied forces were putting the kibosh on Hitler's reign of terror.

But Schwimmer's portrayal of Lt. Barney Greenwald, who is called to defend a fellow lieutenant accused of defying his superior during a crisis, has the self-conscious, at times preening quality of a diligent but overeager student.

His tonally repetitive line readings, particularly in the first act, aren't nuanced enough to relay Greenwald's conflicted feelings about representing a young man whose actions and attitude disturb him.

In fairness to Schwimmer, much of the acting in Court-Martial has the flavor of posturing. Under Jerry Zaks' direction, Wouk's dialogue — not the most natural to begin with — is recited, shouted and imbued with a too-knowing wryness, so that the production can acquire the canned, melodramatic feeling of an old movie dragged kicking and screaming onto the stage. (Court-Martial, first presented as a novel, was adapted into a film in 1954.)

The player who fares best under these circumstances is the always-compelling Zeljko Ivanek.

As Captain Queeg, the troubled officer who is deposed at sea, Ivanek delivers a dynamic, textured performance, reinforcing the dual themes of military dysfunction and valor that still make Wouk's play intriguing in spite of its shortcomings."


http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/reviews/2006-05-07-caine_x.htm

[Lamc16]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 11:37pm

I love Zeljko Ivanek.

I just had to say that.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/8/06 at 12:25am

Variety is Negative:

"When he dramatized a part of the plot of his 1951 Pulitzer-winning novel, Herman Wouk had no way of knowing that a half-century later, "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" would seem so disconcertingly schizophrenic. Any drama about unfit leadership is bound to resonate in Bush's America, especially with lines about the leader in question like, "You might say he revises reality in his own mind so that he comes out blameless." But the play then turns self-righteous in a final scene that seems almost like an apologia for Donald Rumsfeld. Having won his case by discrediting the commander's stability, the defense lawyer proceeds to condemn liberal intellectuals who criticize military chiefs without firsthand knowledge of war.

Last season's taut revival of another period piece that confines an all-male ensemble to a courtroom or thereabouts, "Twelve Angry Men," might have made resurrecting Wouk's drama seem a good idea. Back on the same stage where it premiered in 1954, "Caine Mutiny" is still a well-made play with a share of suspense, but in Jerry Zaks' efficient but uninspired production, it rarely crackles. In this uninterestingly designed staging at least, the Navy drama seems stilted, unable to harness its awkward relevance for renewed vigor. Part of the problem is casting.

David Schwimmer diligently channels stiff-backed seriousness and conflicted integrity into Greenwald, but it's a bland, unmodulated performance that saddles the play with an inert center. The actor also fails to evoke the period of a drama set in 1945.

The same goes for Joe Sikora as Maryk, the conscientious exec officer of the run-down minesweeper, the USS Caine; Geoffrey Nauffts as manipulative and cowardly budding novelist Lt. Thomas Keefer; and Tim Daly as the authoritative prosecutor, Lt. Com. John Challee. All four actors get the job done but are unable to bring texture to their characters in a production that's all stiff surfaces.
_______________________________________________________________

Cocky and self-assured when he first appears as a witness for the prosecution, Zeljko Ivanek's Queeg seems to become steadily older and more frail when recalled by Greenwald, trembling visibly as the lawyer's questioning wears him down and exposes the depths of his neuroses.

(The steel marbles that Queeg famously rolls around in one hand when he's under pressure make only a brief appearance.)

It's a fascinating performance, bristling first with arrogance and then with pain, desperation and humiliation. But while Ivanek's meltdown is affecting, the actor's work seems robbed of its deserved impact by the undynamic context."



http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117930433?categoryid=1265&cs=1

Updated On: 5/8/06 at 12:25 AM

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/8/06 at 12:41am

I liked this Production
Zaks showed unusaul restraint
and each actor brought something to the Table
(Didn't like the set)
Zelko was Amazing
Where's your review Margo?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/8/06 at 1:09am

Newark Star-Ledger is Negative:

"Opening yesterday at the Schoenfeld Theatre, a mostly tepid revival of "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" isn't likely to thrill customers seeking the fierce confrontations of last season's "Twelve Angry Men."

Both 1954 judicial dramas performed by all-male ensembles -- "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" on Broadway and "Twelve Angry Men" on television -- they are otherwise quite different in form, content and temperature.

A crowd-pleaser, "Twelve Angry Men" packs raging face-offs among jurors wrangling over a murder case. A study in loyalty and responsibility, "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" unfolds almost entirely as a strictly conducted Navy tribunal.

Viewers cannot expect the plays to spark similar emotions.

That said, the new Broadway production of Herman Wouk's drama tends to be seriously under-powered.
________________________________________________________________

The unpopularity today of Wouk's message aside, this conclusion totally lacks punch because Schwimmer ineffectively voices its points.

Studiously maintaining a low-keyed approach to depicting Greenwald -- one of those crazy-like-a-fox legal types -- the rigid Schwimmer somehow appears more self-consciously actor-ish than spontaneous in manner. For a guy who supposedly had lots of stage experience before his "Friends" TV series, the one-note-y Schwimmer doesn't bring his character to life.

Although Daly looks a bit lackluster as the WASP-y prosecutor, at least he offers a natural performance. A too-young Sikora's Maryk is so colorless as to be practically invisible.

Briskly paced but rather flatly realized by Jerry Zaks, whose staging avoids grandstanding excesses, the play is served better by the rest of the company.

Wagging an accusatory finger that eventually points out his own weaknesses, a glowering Ivanek presents Queeg as a shining tin man whose gradual meltdown in the second act is believable and oddly touching.
_______________________________________________________________

The celebrated original production directed by Charles Laughton was said to be strikingly understated for the most part so that its several outbursts would register with electrifying impact. Apparently striving to achieve a similar balance, Zaks drains the play of honest color. Trying hard not to be a showboat, Schwimmer simply looks monotonous.

No raising "Caine" here: The revival flickers only intermittently at best.




http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ledger/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1147062583288840.xml&coll=1

Updated On: 5/8/06 at 01:09 AM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/8/06 at 2:08am

I attended the opening night performance tonight, after having seen the second preview.

I was amazed to see the same exact show, and the same exact performance. Schwimmer, who I thought might grow into the role nicely, was exactly the same - and upon second viewing, I was pretty much bored out of my mind.

The show hasn't grown at all since the second preview - and I'm not really complaining, just putting it out there for others who saw the show early on.