One last visit to OSAGE COUNTY

My final visit with the Weston family of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY was a distinctly tragic one. Not because the performances were bad, au contraire. But because this was the very first time, after seeing it twice before here and once on the closed-circuit television at the National Theater in London, that I noticed how tragic the play actually is.

Phylicia Rashad is a magnificent Violet, dead-eyed and slack-jawed, with no discernible trace of any brain power, yet still having all too much. She's not a fireball like Estelle Parsons, nor is she bats*it crazy like Deanna Dunagan. She's a mother, not a monster and you can really tell that Rashad's Violet deeply cares for her children.

Amy Morton, Sally Murphy and Maryann Mayburry have gotten stronger over time, now having done their roles as long as Yul Brenner had played the King of Siam. I haven't seen the same performance from Morton more than once; her desperation really came through tonight more than ever before. Murphy and Mayburry are equally as strong.

Guy Boyd doesn't have the same power as, say, Robert Foxworth, but he's got dynamite chemistry with Elizabeth Ashley, both rotund in their own ways.

Oh - and John Cullum: the best Beverly in any of the casts. Got laughs where I'd never seen them before.

It really is a lovely play, sorry to see it go, can't wait for the film and the inevitable revival in 10 years. Still, it won't be the same as this production. This marvelous production. Glad to see it go out on a high note, with a full house and a wildly vociferous crowd.

Just got back from the show, and echo your sentiments.... The show (as usual) was amazing, and Rashad is absolutely astounding !!! For those that have not seen her.... beg, borrow, and steal to get a ticket for one of the final shows !!!

I'm going tonight (Friday), and I can't wait to revisit it since the first time I saw last year, shortly after it moved to the Music Box.

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I, too, am sad not to get to see Rashad. I was hoping to catch it again this summer.

Let's face it though, the box office had barely been hanging on BEFORE they brought her in...and we had plenty of notice she was comimng in.

I loved August and was thrilled to see it twice, one of those times bringing 100 HS students that were entirely enthralled with the production unlike any I'd ever seen. I was never more proud of my kids then by the discussion and enthusiasm they exhibited during the intermissions and afterwards.

Sorry to see it go....but it did have a great run!

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I'll be there for my third time at Sunday's performance.

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Tracy Letts is my favorite contemporary playwright. I will basically see anything he does at this point.

It is a very tragic play, and what's so brilliant about Lett's writing in this play is that he makes you think it's a comedy and then at the end of it it all hits you at once and it haunts you.

Very well said.

I am very sad to see this go. I wish I could be there on Sunday.

I saw it this past week and I thought it was fabulous. What a wonderful play, and the twists and turns were so unexpected. The crowd was with the show every step and I think everyone was just really enjoying it. I think Rashad brought in a younger, more urban demographic, which is a good thing. I'm glad the play is being exposed to so many young people because it's such a great piece of writing, and such an easy show to latch onto. The production is beautiful down to the suburb detailed set, and the awesome sound design. I still prefer the Barbara before Amy Morton, but I really liked Morton too, she def. grew on me, and "eat the ****ing fish" is my favorite scene of any play.

FindingNamo, I find it VERY hard to believe that you predicted every twist in the text.

And the dictionary definition of rotund is (besides physically round) "(of speech or literary style) indulging in grandiloquent expression." Which makes perfect sense in what yankee was saying.

The comment about Brenner is yankee's way of saying they've been doing the show for a long-ass time.

And his comment about Rashad's Violet not having brain power yet having too much refers to the fact that she is able to get across a character that is both ill and mentally unstable yet somehow is also mentally sharp, which is clear in both Rashad's performance and in Letts' writing. She's a sick woman who clearly has some brain damage but is also way ahead of the curve and says multiple times throughout the show that nothing gets past her and that she knows everything, which she somehow does.

If I'm wrong in any of my answers to these questions, yankee, let me know. But I don't think yankee's thoughts were unclear at all. And there's a way to ask what people mean without coming off as snarky for no reason. But then again what can I expect?

Updated On: 6/27/09 at 02:00 AM

re: RippedMan

Um... there was NO Barbara before Amy Morton. She originated the role at Steppenwolf, on Broadway and on the West End.

You may be thinking of Johanna Day, who while decent, hadn't the ferocity that Barbara needed.

What you have written makes sense.

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