I saw JC in previews a couple of weeks ago & didn't want to comment as it hadn't opened yet and thought it prudent to give the show a chance to fine-tune problems etc. before opening.
That said, plus the fact that I haven't seen any reviews yet for the opening, I found the performance less than memorable. A laugh and high five to the poster who commented on the house music before curtain...it sounded like bad Chinese opera. The play was OK, but Washington was not inhabiting the role of Brutus...at least not yet. He had stage presence and, I thought, the ability to read Shakespeare (from his wonderful performance as Don Pedro in the film version of Much Ado), but here he resorted to film-style posturing--nodding and shaking his head over and over, sawing his arms--rather than actually delivering the lines. Antony was also disappointing...almost wished Denzel would have played Antony and someone else Brutus. Casca and Caesar were hysterical, Cassius very good, if not particularly memorable.
All in all, I'd call it a fine, but not great production of Julius Caesar. The special effects were hokey...lots of loud guns and a few falling rocks on one side of the stage, then (predictably) the other. And why the preoccupation with swords and daggers when you've modernized the production with guns? If you are going to kill yourself and you have a gun, why ask your servant to hold a sword while you fall awkwardly on it? Just to make him earn his paycheck? The modernization here was really ham-handed.
Not that I don't love a Shakespeare production that brings current events to light in its staging, but I'd rate this one a B- in terms of overall performance and appeal.
P.S. The box-office clerk remarked hoity-toitily about the show being sold out every night, and therefore not available at TKTS, but the performance I saw had LOTS of open seats...particularly in the orchestra.
Updated On: 4/4/05 at 11:19 PM
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