Has anyone seen Mourning Becomes Electra yet? — Page 2

I managed to make it through the first act, and fled at the break. I was not alone. I had the bad luck to get a front row seat. People behind me were saying loudly, "We're in the second row, we can't leave. Cookies, anyone? We've got three hours to go!" They were saying this LOUDLY, as if they wanted the cast to hear it.

No, I'm not making that up. I almost said, "Look, I'm in the front row, and I'm splitting."

One of the worst 90 minutes I've ever spent in a theatre. Anson Mount hasn't really mastered his lines yet. Lilli Taylor could probably make an effective Christine at some point, but a lot more rehearsal is going to be needed. And Jena Malone is a disaster, a completely one note performance, a study in bratty petulance that goes nowhere fast, and is all wrong: she's just plain in over her head. The actor playing Ezra Mannon was pretty embarassing: his death scene is like something out of THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN. His fingers and toes were visibly twitching long after he is supposed to be stone dead. Folks, either tell the guy to keep still, or play the scene under a blanket.

Ms. Taylor got in a couple of good moments, but she doesn't seem to realize that she's playing the matron of a great family, the leading family in her New England town. She walks around with no grace or dignity at all, smoking cigarettes and leaving no doubt in anyone's mind that she's capable of humping the daylights out of some sailor who may or may not be distantly related.

The play creaks, there's no doubt about it, and they didn't find any way to make it work.

Of course I only saw the first of the three parts. They may have hit bold new highs of genius in the rest of the play(s).

That said, I'd say to save your money. I went with a friend who is the soul of generosity and patience when it comes to theatre. He said, "I work too hard, I'm too damn busy to sit through three more hours of this crap," which trust me is like Mother Teresa getting fed up and taking out some assholes with an ouzi.

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Updated On: 2/4/09 at 10:38 PM

What a fun, fun evening of horrific, hysterical theater. Lili Taylor is horribly miscast and Scott Elliot has certainly makes her look bad. The Greek chorus had trouble keeping straight faces the night I saw it because the audience was trying to keep it together, but gosh, was just so solemn. Once Taylor demonstrated that she knew all the Kama Sutra positions (riotous, in a green dress, to boot -- downstage, upstage, on a table), no one could take the evening seriously. Poor Mark Blum has to lay still in a coffin in full view what bad acting goes on above him. The the poor newcomer who plays Orrin -- his feeling up his genitals with his head in his mother's lap -- too obvious but over the top at the same time. Jena Malone is actually the only actress who comes off with any dignity. The actors also carry on in the aisles which give it quite the interactive feeling -- poor dears having to keep it together while half the audience leaves and the other half enjoy this spectacle of bad, misguided direction. A wonderful play here, but this production is just a long Carol Burnett sketch. By all means, if you can get a cheap seat, GO, GO, GO and have a good time. You can leave after the second act and still a gratifying evening of theater.

A Master Class in how not to direct O'Neill.

Lol, Anson Mount? The guy from that Britney Spears movie?

That's him alright.

I didn't know anything about Anson Mount prior to yesterday evening's performance. I thought he was fine, and I also liked the production as a whole. It does have some problems, but Mount wasn't one of them.