THE FARNSWORTH INVENTION Reviews- Page 2

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 12:01am

Were there 120 speaking characters? Or 120 characters mentioned?

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 12:10am

what the f88k is "euphonius charm"
I'm sorry, is Brantley really trying to kill any playwright's chance at all?

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 5:15am

I think Jon Robin Baitz's recent analysis of Brantley/Isherwood in The Huffington Post sort of threw Brantley especially for a loop.

Baitz had some very true majorly diminishing criticism to make of Brantley's writing.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 9:07am

Boy, I didn't see the Times as "mixed." That's a pan, though admittedly a gentle one, devoid of the usual vitriol Brantley spoons out when he feels he's been lectured to.

Interesting to me: The same technique Sorkin employs was more successful (to my thinking) in the Dan Sullivan take on Hare's STUFF HAPPENS. But there, we had recent history, players we were willing to see short-handed (Bush, Condi Rice, Powell), and frankly a feeling of higher stakes. Why does the invention of the television just seem too--rarified? Musty, even? It's almost as if it should've been a counterpoint story to somethiing contemporary.

I'm reminded of those historical plays of twenty years ago that all wanted to be AMADEUS, ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN or GREAT WHITE HOPE. (sidebar: I remember rooting for one, Sackler's GOODBYE, FIDEL--a fascinating flop with Kathey Bates, Jane Alexander -- and Gale Sondergard!) When it works, it's wonderful theatre. But we have to feel those personal stakes, either in the event's impact on us or on those portrayed. Otherwise, we don't make the emotional investment.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 10:34am

These dont look too good. I think Farnsworth's life just got considerably shorter.

DAILY NEWS

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2007/12/04/2007-12-04_tale_of_tv_in_farnsworth_invention_goes_.html

NY POST

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12042007/entertainment/theater/back_to_bway_with_made_for_tv_tale_502570.htm

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 10:39am

NY Post gives it Two-and-a-half Stars:

"Presumably the original idea was for a movie or TV script, but this play - Sorkin's first to be produced here since his modestly successful courtroom drama of a Marine coverup in "A Few Good Men" - may be a toe-testing tryout for an eventual screenplay.

Sorkin's take on the Farnsworth/Sarnoff standoff would be better suited to a screen, either big or small. Even now, while crackling with crisp dialogue, "The Farnsworth Invention" often has the air of a clumsy stage adaptation of, say, "Citizen Kane........

.......No doubt Shakespeare faced in "Richard III" the same problems as Sorkin here. But I know Shakespeare, and Sorkin is no Shakespeare. He's not even an Orson Welles.

To his considerable credit, director Des McAnuff - who brilliantly staged such broad-spanned musicals as "Jersey Boys" and "The Who's Tommy" - manages to keep the central story line intact as Sorkin wanders along the wilder shores of biography.

He's helped by the smartly minimalist stage design of Klara Zieglerova, and the general performance of his Protean cast, particularly Simpson as the innocent genius, a Jimmy-Stewartishly rumpled Farnsworth, and the smoothly opportunistic and charmingly ruthless Azaria as the nicely tailored Sarnoff.

It all makes for a decent night out in the theater - especially if you can imagine you're watching a movie."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12042007/entertainment/theater/back_to_bway_with_made_for_tv_tale_502570.htm




The Daily News is Mixed-to-Negative:

"Why is "Farnsworth" disappointing and ho-hum enough to make you want to change channels?

Sorkin's framework - Sarnoff and Farnsworth co-narrate the story - automatically adds a layer of distance. And though the play is informative, it's seldom deeply involving. Scenes play out like brief vignettes from a History Channel biopic (the story was originally intended for the big screen) without stirring emotions. No wonder music accompanies several scenes, as in a film, to tug the heart."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2007/12/04/2007-12-04_tale_of_tv_in_farnsworth_invention_goes_.html




Newsday is Positive:

"The Farnsworth Invention" - which finally opened at the Music Box Theatre last night after the prolonged delays of the Broadway strike - is vintage Sorkin and crackling prime-time theater.

Breezy and shrewd, smart-alecky and idealistic, the quick-moving drama presents two sides to the still-contentious story behind the invention of television. Sorkin is positively gooey-eyed about the scientific and entrepreneurial buccaneers in America between the world wars. As the creator of "West Wing," arguably the best expository political fiction on popular TV, he manages to relate both to the purity of the little guy and the corrupting happenstance of big-foot corporate power.

http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/tuesday/partii/ny-secsingdec04,0,217696.story



Reuters is Mixed:

"Aaron Sorkin's "The Farnsworth Invention," about the bitter conflicts surrounding the invention of television, contains both the flaws and the virtues that have been so long evident in his work for the same medium. Intelligent and featuring plenty of witty dialogue, it also suffers from occasional smugness and a tendency toward clunky dramaturgy that detracts from its overall impact. Superbly acted in this ambitious production, it certainly merits respect if not adulation.....

.....This complicated tale is rendered in highly theatrical fashion, with the two leading characters offering their subjective perspectives, which at one point includes a meeting between the two that was entirely invented by the playwright. Ultimately, the audience is given leeway to make their own judgment.

While there is much fascinating material here, it is not always rendered with sufficient clarity. And while the play is quite enthralling when dealing with the contrasting early quests of the two dogged men, it tends to become bogged down in dense minutiae when depicting the highly technical and legal aspects of their battle.

Director Des McAnuff -- working with an abstract set that must encompass a wide variety of locations, including even Radio City Music Hall -- has provided a fast-paced production that ably compensates for the occasional informational excess."

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2007-12-04T101437Z_01_N04398624_RTRIDST_0_ENTERTAINMENT-STAGE-FARNSWORTH-COL.XML




NY Sun is Mixed:

"With this reductive but nonetheless diverting behind-the-scenes chronicle of TV's earliest days, Mr. Sorkin ("The West Wing," "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip") has brought over some unfortunate habits from the left coast, including a tendency to create dramatic parallels where none exist and a weakness for soupy background music. But he has also imported his shrewd ear for plotting and his unmistakable flair for well-crafted paragraphs caroming off the halls of power. And he has found in Des McAnuff the rare director capable of turning all those painstakingly assembled anecdotes into a breezy parable, one about two men with huge dreams and the invention that proved bigger and more rapacious than even they could imagine......

.....Aided in no small part by Mr. McAnuff's liquid staging, the author once again makes multisyllabic wonkery comprehensible, even enjoyable. Mr. Sorkin also proves a dab hand at slipping pertinent and even crucial plot points into the narrative unobtrusively. But several scenes — a "Eureka" moment for Farnsworth, a portentous confrontation between Sarnoff and his disapproving wife, a contrived finale that plunks undeserved warmth onto what is ultimately a very sad story — smack of authorial interference."

http://www.nysun.com/article/67430




The Philadelphia Inquirer is Mixed:

"The problem with The Farnsworth Invention, the new and engrossing play that opened on Broadway last night, is not theater. As for theatricality, this story about a battle between RCA and the man who invented television is a magnetizing gem, moving about the stage almost as if it were dance.
The problem with The Farnsworth Invention is fact. Playwright Aaron Sorkin's take on the gargantuan, and real, patent battle between the visionary chief of RCA, David Sarnoff, and the boy wonder Philo T. Farnsworth is a great tale. But here, it's a tale. Even the producers sense trouble ahead; they sent critics a statement about the playwright's extensive research (which he obviously did) and his resulting artistic decision-making.

Sorkin, a facile writer who gave us such plays and films as A Few Good Men and The American President - and for TV, The West Wing - has written "a memory play from the minds of the two most interesting, yet least objective sources - adversaries Philo Farnsworth and David Sarnoff," the producers say. "These characters acknowledge their own unreliability throughout the course of the play."......

..... I'm sorry to report all this - I had a great time at the theater. Afterward, I thought about the way The Farnsworth Invention manipulated the facts and, in the end, its audience. I felt defrauded.........

...... If the play were about the power of public relations and not focused on patents, it would work both on stage and in reality. And, true, you're likely to be impressed by its wit, the great style with which Des McAnuff directs it, and the top-quality performances. The stagecraft is unassailable. But sometimes at the theater, all the magic that stagecraft creates is not enough."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/howard_shapiro/20071204_Something_is_wrong_with_the_picture.html




The Newark Star-Ledger is Positive:

"Delayed by the Broadway strike, "The Farnsworth Invention" opened yesterday at the Music Box Theatre, marking the welcome return of playwright Aaron Sorkin to the New York stage.

Sorkin's first (and last) Broadway show was "A Few Good Men" at this very theater in 1989, after which time the writer headed to Hollywood to develop among other endeavors his award-winning "The West Wing."

Considering where his career has been mostly spent, it's appropriate that Sorkin now delivers a winning stage saga about the invention of television itself. In so doing, Sorkin demonstrates his mastery of fluent dramatic structure, his ability to depict characters vividly and, perhaps best, his slick way with dialogue."

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ledger/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-1/1196747182108820.xml&coll=1




The Journal News is Positive:

"The Farnsworth Invention" pits two kinds of genius against one another, to crackling dramatic effect........The play is directed by the gifted and clever Des McAnuff, who staged "Jersey Boys."

Sorkin has been absent from Broadway since he wrote "A Few Good Men" 16 years ago. His most recent TV venture, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" was last season's highest-profile failure. There are some glaring anachronisms in his script: In 1921, a character answers an apology with the very 2007 cliche, "Not a problem."

But these are minor complaints in a well-paced Broadway drama, which at times comes close to being a real heart-stopping thriller.

http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071204/ENTERTAINMENT/712040308

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 8:15pm

Eh, looks like mostly mixed reviews.

Looks like they are what most people expected...