Three thoughts kept recurring to me while watching this:
1) The use of video is alternately fascinating and distracting
2) Technical rehearsals for this must have been a bitch and a half
3) Man, Cranston is waaaaaaaayy better than everyone else in this
Chayefsky’s screenplay for the film is one of my all-time favorites, so it was at times a little disheartening to see what’s been done with it here. The primary issue to me was that, in the film, the relationship between Max and Diana was essential to providing some sense of humanity so that cynicism didn’t overwhelm the points being made. Here (I assume deliberately) any sense of humanity has been tossed and cynicism runs rampant. The Max and Diana thread feels like a device and is not at all convincing, which is why I think Tatiana Maslany and Tony Goldwyn didn’t really work for me. Maslany got better as the show went on, I thought, but every word out of Goldman’s mouth felt declamatory. (Also, I’m no fashion expert, but everyone else’s clothes seemed at least vaguely period while Max looked ready to walk down a Hugo Boss runway right now.)
The onstage seating/dining element didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would, though I don’t think it added anything either. And during one of Maslany’s big scenes set in the dining area, I got the distinct feeling the audience members seated there would have liked to be elsewhere. The video projections are neat at first and then frequently become distracting as there are often feeds of vintage commercials on them that pull focus from the scenes being played simultaneously (it’s a game of, “I remember that one!”). It made me tired just to watch the complex blocking and think about how exhausting it must have been to rehearse all this. (A note on seating: I was in the fourth row of the mezzanine, center section, and can recommend the view from this vantage point.)
Ultimately, this production’s raison d’etre is Bryan Cranston as Howard Beale. He in no way disappoints. His is a grand performance that transcends all the presentational hoopla surrounding it. He completely makes the famous “mad as hell” scene his own, even with a camera right in his face relaying his image (in repeating diminishing perspective, no less) on a giant screen behind him. It’s a flawless three minutes in which every beat and gesture is just right, and he brings the same exactness to everything. So while overall the production is a little disappointing, it’s definitely worth going just to see Cranston work. I do also want to mention that while the script was more than a little iffy to me in spots, the final monologue artfully and effectively captures Chayefsky’s overall points.
Just remembering you've had an "and"
When you're back to "or"
Makes the "or" mean more than it did before
