Pretty dire overall -- a flabby play about annoying characters, I found it impossible to be even remotely interested at all. They'll just put anything on that stage, it seems.
Mileage will vary, I guess. But if you do decide to subject yourself to this thing, be sure to get seats as close to the center as you can. Avoid the side sections -- Jerry Zaks' habit of lining his characters up in a straight line across the stage makes for way too many uncomfortable mo
I'd say that the comments about Dixon stealing the show are more in reference to the fact that he was just blatantly obviously the best thing about the entire enterprise, not so much about name-recognition. Legend was painfully, amateurishly bad, grammar-school level bad.
Not for the first time in depictions of this story did I sit there wondering why anybody would go to the trouble of arresting, prosecuting, putting on trial and eventually crucifying this little Jesus twit.&
I sat through this the other night and found it certainly very well performed, and very nicely produced, and just not at all interesting. With its self-pitying simp of a main character and its, shall we say, very familar storyline, it's like some combination of Dear Evan Hansen and The Talented Mr. Ripley. But it has more to do with the schlocky snivelling of DEH than the tasty sharpness of TMR.
I guess there weren't any little known (qualified, capable, talented) American actors who could have played Higgins. Sad that they just had to go with yet another Brit.
Oh, wait. He was on DOWNTON ABBEY. That explains everything -- that vile program's infection continues to spread...
Age is relative, and they never specify Pierre's age, and there's the Old Man stuff, but I don't think it can be denied that the character of Pierre Bezukhov is closer to 30 than 70.
It was bad enough that the snivelling afterschool special called DEAR EVAN HANSEN won all those incredibly undeserved awards -- we had to suffer through Kevin Spacey's attempts at humor, with his Johnny Carson and Bill Clinton impressions (ever cutting edge, that Spacey). And his teasing "coming out/closet" jokes seemed really grossly inappropriate in a show where more than one same-sex spouse was acknowledged and thanked by people with the guts to live out and proud, guts
"Directed by Rob Marshall" tells you everything you need to know about why NINE is an unspeakable disaster. The name "Anthony Minghella" appearing among the screenwriters tells you even more -- guaranteeing a bogus solemnity that is completely out of place in an adaptation of Fellini's 8 1/2.
