Broadway Blogs - After Miss Julie Reviews and More...

The Roundabout Theater Company presents Patrick Marber's After Miss Julie, directed by Mark Brokaw. Sienna Miller (Factory Girl) and Jonny Lee Miller (Trainspotting) make their Broadway debuts in this provocative American premiere. Patrick Marber's new version of August Strindberg's drama about class and sex transposes Miss Julie to the English countryside on the eve of the Labour Party's landslidevictory in the summer of 1945.

David Rooney, Variety: "That's some handsome country kitchen Allen Moyer has designed for "After Miss Julie," with its chunky farm table, its sideboard stacked with Wedgewood and its oven range fringed by hanging copper pots and hissing steam. Pity there's so little cooking in Mark Brokaw's enervated production. Like Strindberg's play, Patrick Marber's blunt postwar-English update of the 1888 drama about class and sex requires an actress capable of negotiating wild swings and reversals. But Sienna Miller is out of her depth in the title role, making her dance of power and death an unaffecting tragedy."

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: While Mr. Miller and Ms. Miller are undeniably attractive people, their Julie and John don't seem terribly attractive to each other, a serious problem. There is one early moment of real erotic tension, when Julie extends her leg and asks John to kiss her shoe. Ms. Miller looks smug at first, then saucy, then distinctly uncomfortable and finally a bit frightened, as Julie wonders what she has let herself in for. Mr. Miller snatches at that pretty foot like a ravenous fish going after a hooked worm. Unfortunately, he - and we - are destined to stay hungry for the rest of the night."

Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press: "The Roundabout Theatre Company production, which opened Thursday at its American Airlines Theatre, demonstrates that Marber's updating and transplanting of the Scandinavian drama to post-World War II England works, for the most part, just fine."

Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal: "The action unfolds on the fateful night that the Brits voted Winston Churchill out of office and opted for the promise of socialism, which tells you just about everything you need to know about "After Miss Julie," whose real subject is contemporary class warfare in England. (It's not true that all contemporary English plays are about class warfare-it just seems that way.) Mr. Marber claims that "After Miss Julie" is "in its way, truer" than the original play on which it's based, but all he's done for "Miss Julie" is tart it up with politics and vulgarize it beyond recognition."

Jeff Labrecque, Entertainment Weekly: "Though the two characters have a well of self-loathing in common, the actors' chemistry is surprisingly stagnant. When the audience is finally willing to accept that John is merely the instrument for Julie's self-destruction, the play inconveniently asserts the lovers' long-suppressed pining for each other, which only underlines the performers' shortcomings. The two lovers trade verbal blows, while deciding whether to run away to New York City. 'The Americans are charmed by us,' says poor, bland John. 'They die for the accent.' I wish it were so. C"

More Reviews to Come...

No, that steady rumble you may hear and feel beneath your feet as you walk along 50th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues these evenings is not the A train making its way to Columbus Circle. It's the sound of laughing audiences having a swell time in the underground sextet of auditoriums called New World Stages. The former movie multiplex turned Off-Broadway house seems to experiencing a happy renaissance, with its long-running anchor production, Altar Boyz, having been joined by laughter-inducing hits like The Toxic Avenger, Naked Boys Singing, My First Time and The Gazillion Bubble Show (which I haven't seen but I'm sure brings out many giggles from the youngsters). The hilarious Love Child, which previously ran at 59E59 will be moving in shortly, but first the welcome mat (and perhaps a red carpet) has been set for the center's new crown jewel as the Tony-winning Avenue Q completes its successful Broadway run and returns to its Off-Broadway roots.

The show that asks the musical question, "What if the generation of American kids who grew up learning life's little lessons by watching television shows like Sesame Street and The Electric Company had the same kind of program that used puppets, catchy songs and friendly humans to help them learn the big lessons they need to know after graduating college and entering the real world?," started as the brainchild of composer/lyricists Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez. When their hilariously educational tunes like, "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist," "If You Were Gay (That Would Be Okay)" and the who-are-the-losers-in-your-neighborbood? anthem, "It Sucks To Be Me" were combined with Jeff Whitty's very funny and surprisingly touching book, Rick Lyon's personality-laden puppets and Jason Moore's crafty direction that enhanced the material's satirical edge while keeping the characters loveable, a truly original Broadway hit was born.

I haven't seen Avenue Q since shortly after its Broadway opening but if my memory serves well, aside from a some slight staging changes and perhaps one or two book revisions, everything looks the same, right down to Anna Louizos' slumscape set that hides surprises in secret compartments. (Okay, one aspect that changed with the times is that when one character sings of a "mixed tape" of songs another has recorded for her, she's not longer hold a cassette tape, but a CD. However a couple of reliable sources have clued me in that the term "mixed tape" is still used in such cases.)

The new Off-Broadway cast is a talented and likeable ensemble made up of Q vets from Broadway and national tours. Seth Rettberg is all wide-eyed enthusiasm manipulating Princeton, the 22-year-old college graduate ready to take on the world armed with nothing but a B.A. in English. Anika Larsen, whose rich, expressive belt has livened up many a Gotham musical, tones it down to a sweeter level as Kate Monster, Princeton's puppet love interest, but gets to show off her sassy vocals as over-sexed nightclub entertainer known as Lucy The Slut.

Rettberg also scores as the closeted gay Republican investment banker Rod, who is nervous about not being able to keep the door shut much longer as he grows more and more attracted to his roommate, Nicky (a merrily goofy Cullen R. Titmas who doubles as the porn-obsessed Trekkie Monster.) While Maggie Lakis doesn't have any large roles to play (she's an adorable half of The Bad Idea Bears), she's most visible while being a second hand to help manipulate puppets voiced by others, doing a charming job of silently expressing whatever is being said.

On the human side, Nicholas Kohn (as the genial, underachieving wannabe stand-up comic, Brian), Sala Iwamatsu (as his demanding fiancé named Christmas Eve) and Danielle K. Thomas (who sings with a raucous R&B swagger as former child star Gary Coleman) all make very funny contributions to this sharp and breezy mounting of a gem of a show.

Photos by Carol Rosegg: Top: Maggie Lakis, Cullen R. Titmas and Seth Rettberg; Bottom: Anika Larsen