PRIMA FACIE Starring Jodie Comer Coming Spring '23
Posted: 6/9/22 at 9:49am
Well, there's our 2023 Tony winner for lead actress in a play. How thrilling!
Posted: 6/9/22 at 9:52am
I only know Jodie Comer from The Last Duel, but she was absolutely fantastic in it and robbed of an Oscar nomination. Excited to see this!
Posted: 6/9/22 at 9:53am
But honestly, Jodie gives one of the most incredible performances i've ever seen!
Tickets have been like gold-dust here.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 9:58am
She's our frontrunner, for sure, but we have Sharon D. Clarke playing ''Salesman'', that's some competition.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 9:59am
I saw this a couple weeks ago and Jodie is truly giving one of the great performances of the last 10 years! The play itself isn't so hot, but she makes it an extraordinary theatrical event.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 10:00am
I've liked a lot of her screen work, but what do we think her name value will be on Broadway? She strikes me as someone with the name value of Elisabeth Moss circa Heidi Chronicles –– a "prestige" TV/film actress who won'tmove tickets en masse.
London buzz and money raves from US critics will help, but sometimes that just means a good first 5 weeks.
Updated On: 6/9/22 at 10:00 AM
Posted: 6/9/22 at 10:04am
MadsonMelo said: "She's our frontrunner, for sure, but we have Sharon D. Clarke playing ''Salesman'', that's some competition."
Linda Loman is not a lead role. Obviously the production can petition as they like, but Linda Emond and Elizabeth Franz were both nominated in Featured.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 10:07am
Comer gives the definition of a “tour de force” performance - one of the best I’ve ever seen. I’m curious how her name alone will sell this show and if it’ll be an instant sell out sensation like on the West End but I’m begging you to treat it like it will be, and get your tickets IMMEDIATELY.
This is one you’ll forever regret not seeing if you miss it.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 10:13am
Owen, I disagree about the play itself. I thought it was a fascinating text.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 10:17am
Agreed Jordan. A sensational performance in a terrific play and production. I left completely shattered by it.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 12:49pm
n2nbaby said: "I only know Jodie Comer from The Last Duel, but she was absolutely fantastic in it and robbed of an Oscar nomination. Excited to see this!"
If you can, I implore you to watch HELP which she recently starred in. It’s about care workers during the start of the pandemic who had to work in dangerous conditions they were ill-equipped for. Had it been a movie she’d have been a front runner for the Oscar.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 1:26pm
So excited about this. I think she is one of the best young actors working today. She’s always superb.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 1:31pm
Honestly thought she was the lady from Full House? So I'm not sure how her name will sell. I didn't watch Killing Eve, but heard good things. But maybe with raves, and in a smaller house, it could do well.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 1:42pm
MadsonMelo said: "She's our frontrunner, for sure, but we have Sharon D. Clarke playing ''Salesman'', that's some competition."
Linda is really a supporting role, so I doubt that she will be competition if Comer is as good as her reviews.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 1:53pm
ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I've liked a lot of her screen work, but what do we think her name value will be on Broadway? She strikes me as someone with the name value of Elisabeth Moss circa Heidi Chronicles –– a "prestige" TV/film actress who won'tmove tickets en masse.
London buzz and money raves from US critics will help, but sometimes that just means a good first 5 weeks."
Right now Ms. Comer is not even close to the level of name value of Elisabeth Moss (circa 2015 when Heidi Chronicles opened). By 2015 Moss had finished 7 seasons of MAD MEN (and was nominated for an Emmy in 6 of those seasons) plus she had already done Speed the Plow on Broadway. Her name won't sell many tickets --- but the reviews will.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 1:59pm
And I believe Heidi closed early
Posted: 6/9/22 at 3:53pm
JSquared2 said: "ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I've liked a lot of her screen work, but what do we think her name value will be on Broadway? She strikes me as someone with the name value of Elisabeth Moss circa Heidi Chronicles –– a "prestige" TV/film actress who won'tmove tickets en masse.
London buzz and money raves from US critics will help, but sometimes that just means a good first 5 weeks."
Right now Ms. Comer is not even close to the level of name value of Elisabeth Moss (circa 2015 when Heidi Chronicles opened). By 2015 Moss had finished 7 seasons of MAD MEN (and was nominated for an Emmy in 6 of those seasons) plus she had already doneSpeed the Plowon Broadway. Her name won't sell many tickets --- but the reviews will."
I don’t entirely disagree, but she’s an Emmy winner for best leading actress from a very popular cable tv series. She’s not exactly unknown in the States. Her name will sell some tickets— maybe more than Moss did.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 4:47pm
Question for those who have seen it: how much knowledge of British law do you need to have to fully grasp the play?
Posted: 6/9/22 at 4:55pm
RippedMan said: "And I believe Heidi closed early"
Yes, that was the point of my comparison –– Heidi Chronicles got great reviews (NYT Critics Pick) but was a complete financial failure, and I don't know if Comer means significantly more now than Moss did in 2014. She's a good actress but sometimes reviews can only go so far. Plenty of other prestige actors haven't sold on Bway (Saoirse Ronan in The Crucible, Lucas Hedges in Waverly Gallery, Corey Hawkins/Allison Janney in Six Degrees, Laurie Metcalf in nearly every play she's ever done).
We'll find out in a year, I guess!
Updated On: 6/9/22 at 04:55 PM
Posted: 6/9/22 at 4:57pm
VintageSnarker said: "Question for those who have seen it: how much knowledge of British law do you need to have to fully grasp the play?"
None, really. Even though they use different terminology it’s completely understandable what’s being discussed.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 5:17pm
And I feel like a one woman show is a tough sell. (At least to me)
Posted: 6/9/22 at 5:26pm
n2nbaby said: "I only know Jodie Comer from The Last Duel, but she was absolutely fantastic in it and robbed of an Oscar nomination. Excited to see this!"
What about 4 seasons of Killing Eve!?!? A must baby!
Posted: 6/9/22 at 5:31pm
RippedMan said: "And I feel like a one woman show is a tough sell. (At least to me)"
I was initially confused because I mistook this show for the production of The Human Voice that Ruth Wilson was doing and wondered why a one-woman show with mediocre reviews would transfer.
But what I've heard about Comer in this really sounds interesting. And the timing is just about perfect with her at the height of her star power, so I wouldn't be surprised if it does make decent money.
Posted: 6/9/22 at 5:39pm
Peter Marks, Washington Post, went nuts for it just last month. Might be spoiler-ish?
Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer and other stars light up London plays
"In Comer’s case, her breathtaking turn underlined all the strengths of a vibrantly assembled solo act. If you’ve watched her on TV in "Killing Eve," you may think you’ve experienced the full extent of Comer’s talent. But you haven’t, and certainly not before you’ve seen her in “Prima Facie.” Alone onstage for 100 minutes in the West End’s Harold Pinter Theatre (through June 18), Comer unspools the tale of a brash, highflying criminal lawyer who knows precisely how to work the system — until the judicial tables are turned and the system comes crashing down on her. Suzie Miller constructs her monodrama at the intersection of #MeToo and British justice, and though the dramatist appends a superfluous moral to the story, the proceedings amount to a virtuosic, blow-by-blow account of a process stacked against female victims.
There’s balletic and interpretive precision in Comer’s embodiment of Tessa, a courtroom killer of far different intent than her nonpareil television hit woman, Villanelle. It’s the essence of bravura, the kind of consummate conquest of the stage we theater freaks seek, night after night. ...
... an announcement of an American engagement of Comer in “Prima Facie” would be most joyful tidings. You marvel at the physical exertion, anguishing emotion and narrative detail Comer has to master, as self-possessed Tessa moves from discrediting victims’ testimonies to being a victim herself. Director Justin Martin has helped Comer hone the evening to its sharpest possible intensity — a feat that offers audiences a luminous encounter with a star made for the stage."
