To Kill a Mockingbird and The Ferryman

[Jarethan]

Posted: 5/25/19 at 2:22am

The other two shows i saw this week, The Ferryman for the second time.  I included them both in a new subject because I have given a lot of thought to this, and I am convinced that they are 2 of the 5 top play performances I have seen in 55 years of theatregoing...and they were both in one season.  I actually went through old playbills to see if I forgot something, and I don't think I have (I have my playbills organized by plays / musicals, and the best in either of those categories, so it was pretty easy, if anal-retentive).  I would have to say that the 5 productions I felt were superior to all others (actually I had to settle on 7) were:

-- A  Moon for the Misbegotten (1973) with Dewhurst and Robards.

-- The Cherry Orchard at Lincoln Center in 1997, with Irene Worth leading an incredible cast.

-- Nicholas Nickleby (I think it was 1981, the same season as Nine and Dreamgirls), with the original cast.

-- Long Day's Journey into Night with Redgrave, Dennehy, Hoffman, and Leonard in 2003, I think

-- A Streetcar Named Desire with Cate Blanchette at the Kennedy center about a decade ago

-- The Ferryman

-- To Kill a Mockingbird.

 

Two from one season translates to me into a great season for new plays.  The Ferryman was as great as I remembered with the original cast, and if the current cast was notes good as the original, as has been suggested in some posts, you couldn't tell by me.

To Kill a Mockingbird was the surprise a way.  I really expected like it, as I have read the book 5 - 6 times;I have always liked, not loved, the movie.  I thought it was amagnificent evening and think it is a theatre crime that it was not nominated for best play.  Fine if people want to punish Rudin for some sin, but what about Sorkin.  He did a great job throughout, starting with casting adults as the children.  IMO the best scene in the play was a Sorkin original, when Calpunia tells Atticus why she has been angry with him.  

The performances from every single member of the cast were as good as they could possibly have been, with special praise for LaTanya Richardson Jackson, who was robbed of a Tony nomination; Frederick Weller, who found a new way to play Bob Ewell, Erin Wilhelmi who was astonishing as Mayella Ewell, Gideon Glick as Dill.

Special praise for Jeff Daniels and Celia Keenan-Bolger.  Daniels was successful in playing Atticus as differently from Gregory Peck as possible; his final scene was perfection.  

I could not say I have ever been a fan of Keenan-Bolger, although I have seen her number of times in some fine performances.  Nothing prepared me for her performance, which I think was the single best performance I have seen on Broadway this season.  I have to acknowledge that I have only seen 20 new shows this season, all at Broadway houses, but I have seen all the well reviewed shows, with the exception of Burn This and Constitution.  So it is not too hyperbolic of me to say that to me she gave the performance of the season (and that includes Cranston, Elaine May, McTeer, Donnelly, Pope, et al).  She was Scout; after about a minute, I forgot she was not a child.  She was the soul of the production and absolutely carried the evening.

I am sure she will win the Tony, but I wonder if it should have been for lead performance.