Denzel/Iceman

[BWAY Baby2]

Posted: 9/13/17 at 4:59pm

Just got my tickets for Iceman- love Denzel- yet rarely find George C. Wolfe directions to be all that engrossing. Now I am having a bit of buyer's remorse. Do you think I should? Is George C. Wolfe really all that bad? He seems to direct stuff that is very slow and boring- and this play has the possibility of being a snooze fest- though I certainly hope not- I just got row 3 in the center for a Monday night.

[Yankees02]

Posted: 9/13/17 at 5:05pm

I love Denzel as does my father, so that's my main reasoning to go. Someone said it's four hours long though, is that true???

[haterobics]

Posted: 9/13/17 at 5:08pm

Yankees02 said: "Someone said it's four hours long though, is that true???"

At BAM, it ran 4 hours and 45 minutes with three intermissions.

http://www.bam.org/theater/2015/the-iceman-cometh

[JBroadway]

Posted: 9/13/17 at 5:18pm

haterobics said: "At BAM, it ran 4 hours and 45 minutes with three intermissions."

When I saw it, it ran a full 5 hours (maybe a couple minutes under).

Still though, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I don't have any particular love for George C. Wolfe, but I don't think he's a bad director. And anyway, it's in good hands with Denzel, I think.  And sitting in the 3rd row will let you to become absorbed in the play, which will hopefully make the time pass faster. 

 

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 9/13/17 at 5:51pm

It's a very long play - to put it mildly.
Like most talented directors, Wolfe is someone whose work I sometimes love and sometimes don't.
But the most important thing here is - besides the play itself-  is that Washington is an inspired choice for Hickey.  It could turn out to be his greatest stage success ever.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/13/17 at 7:21pm

For me the length of the play is irrelevant.

The Anarchist was what, 75 minutes? And yet those mere 75 minutes were some of the longest minutes I've ever spent inside a theater. 

The last Iceman at BAM with Nathan Lane was nearly 5 hours and yet it flew by. The performances were so engaging and the direction so effective that I could have sat there for another act or two. 

The real worry is that this production won't live up to the splendor of that outing at BAM. Lane, Brian Dennehy and John Douglas Thompson were all so excellent and Natasha Katz' lighting was so amazing that I'm still thinking about years later! Denzel and Co. have a lot to live up to, though I'm inclined to agree with henrik that Denzel is well cast and could end up being a highlight of this season. (I'm still not over Denzel's Walter Lee Tony snub, so it would be nice if Hickey could bring him some well-deserved vindication too.)

 

[SomethingPeculiar]

Posted: 9/13/17 at 7:26pm

It'll be interesting to see who else is cast. Stephen McKinley Henderson has worked with Washington a few times and I think he would be an amazing Larry Slade (the role Brian Dennehey played at BAM).

[Tandrews]

Posted: 9/14/17 at 12:14pm

Looks like 1 PM and 7:30 PM starts to help squeeze this one in before midnight?

[Cesare2]

Posted: 9/14/17 at 2:39pm

It's a very, very long play, and Hickey (who, I assume, Denzel Washington is playing), IIRC, does not arrive until the end of the long first act.  I think there's only one explicitly African-American character in the play. It'll be interesting to see how Wolfe handles this.  4+ hours listening to drunk losers and their pipe dreams, but the ending, IMHO, is worth it.  Check out the OOP DVD with Jason Robards and a very young Robert Redford.

 

[billyelliotfan123]

Posted: 9/14/17 at 2:48pm

Will this be an all African American cast? Anyone think John Douglass Thompson would join? He was a standout in the BAM production and Rudin was attached to that production 

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/14/17 at 3:08pm

billyelliotfan123 said: "Will this be an all African American cast? Anyone think John Douglass Thompson would join? He was a standout in the BAM production and Rudin was attached to that production"

There's no indication that it will be an all African American cast. I would imagine it will probably be multiracial.

[airconway]

Posted: 1/3/18 at 8:02am

I wonder when the cast will get announced. I'm excited for this, can't wait to hear what George C. Wolfe has cooking.

[BWAY Baby2]

Posted: 1/3/18 at 8:29am

THEATER

Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre

242 W 45th St
New York, NY 10036

DURATION

3hrs, 50mins

2 Intermissions

Do you think the duration includes the two intermissions- or are the intermissions additional time added to the 3 hours and 50 minutes?

[newintown]

Posted: 1/3/18 at 10:26am

Am I the only one who thinks that Washington, although very compelling on film, is a wooden bore on stage? I saw him as Richard III decades ago, Brutus, and Walter Younger (the weakest of many I've seen), and he always seems heavy, solemn, and painfully slow.

[BuddyStarr]

Posted: 1/3/18 at 11:12am

I would not pay to see Denzel Washington nor would I go if I got comps.  Still remember the advice he have Wil Smith during the Six Degrees filming.  Not worth my time.

[BWAY Baby2]

Posted: 1/4/18 at 9:46am

Denzel in Fences was stupendous- on stage and on screen. I bet he will give a towering performance in Iceman- and obviously many other people do too. 

[CoercedBull]

Posted: 1/4/18 at 2:41pm

My wife and I have tickets for this the night before we see Angels in America, which means we'll be seeing about 13 hours of theater over the course of about 24 total hours. I couldn't be more excited about it. I'm a fan of Wolfe and Washington and O'Neill and I wholly expect to love this.