AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY re-reviews

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 8:01pm

Matthew Murray says what most people have been saying: the show's lost its bite.

"By the time Barbara Fordham, the oldest, strongest, and hardest of the three daughters in the Weston Family, realizes in the third act of August: Osage County that ?Dissipation is actually much worse than cataclysm,? you?ll understand too well what she?s talking about. At least if you?ve previously seen Tracy Letts?s marathon dissection of clan and country, which continues to run at the Music Box, stumbling - and smiling - considerably more often than it once did.

This isn?t to say that the play, which since its December 2007 opening has received both the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the production, directed by the Tony-winning Anna D. Shapiro, don?t still exercise significant flair - they do - but the nature of their piercing pleasures has drastically changed. Through recasting of some crucial roles, with performers such as Phylicia Rashad and Elizabeth Ashley, and the softening of the remaining original cast members, a play that was a smoky pint of Guinness has morphed into a tumbler of sparkling ginger ale."

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/AugustOsageCounty2009.html

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 8:06pm

I'd argue that Murray's in the minority with his opinion, particularly on Rashad's performance.

Almost every person I've read of or spoken to who has seen the show since she joined the company has raved about how incredible Rashad is and how that dynamic has spread to the rest of the cast.

I'm curious what other critics (particular Brantley of The Times) think.

Updated On: 6/11/09 at 08:06 PM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 8:23pm

Murray is always swimming against the tide.

Everyone I've talked thought Rashad was brilliant. I felt the same way.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 9:26pm

Weirdly enough, John Cullum is the only person in the current cast (excluding Phylicia, who I have yet to see so I can't say) I absolutely cannot stand. And he's the only one Murray seems to be 100% sold on.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 9:32pm

Matthew Murray says what most people have been saying

What do you mean most people? Most people have been saying that Rashad is brilliant in the part and has revitalized the show. I can't wait to see it and I certainly hope that Rashad brings in more money to the show so it can close with a bang.

[logan0215]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 9:38pm

I haven't heard a single negative review so I don't know what "most people" is supposed to mean.

Cullum is a weak link in the chain, but if people can get through the first 15 minutes without leaving then they're in for a real ride.

[yeah]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 9:38pm

Good for Murray! Most people are saying Rashad is brilliant because it's getting to where you're a racist if you disagree with "color blind casting" and take issue with the performer/performance.

I'm not saying she's void of talent; it just doesn't work for me in this show, which was brilliant with Estelle Parsons.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 9:43pm

I haven't seen the show since last summer, but I certainly noticed that most of the fights, arguments, humor seemed very calculated. And I know a number of people who've said the same thing.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 9:46pm

You sense, as you didn't with Dunagan, that Violet's attacks are calculated rather than a side-effect of her cancer medication cocktails.

I think Violet wouldn't be nearly as interesting and complex if her emotional outbursts and continuous attacks were dismissed as simple side effects of her cancer med. If he doesn't even get the play, how can he critic it with any accuracy?

Good for Murray! Most people are saying Rashad is brilliant because it's getting to where you're a racist if you disagree with "color blind casting" and take issue with the performer/performance.

That's a pretty ridiculous statement. Some people just find her to be good. I don't really see why it's so hard to accept that.

Updated On: 6/11/09 at 09:46 PM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 9:50pm

I went in expecting to hate Rashad, because while I loved her in A Raisin in the Sun, I thought she was playing a caricature of herself in Cymbeline and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I was very happy to be proven wrong, and there was no racial or P.C. motivation for my doing so.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 9:52pm

I agree completely, ray.

To even allude to the belief that Violet's behavior is derived strictly from her medication showcases a profound misconception of the piece.

Did he not hear any of the lines in the show about how Violet had a history of volatile tendencies even before her cancer diagnosis? It's something the family has lived with their entire lives and is part of her, not a side effect from her medication.

The fact that Murray uses such an inane statement as a criticism of Rashad's performance shows just how highly his opinion should be regarded.

Updated On: 6/11/09 at 09:52 PM

[stageagent13]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 10:42pm

http://www.theatermania.com/broadway/reviews/06-2009/august-osage-county_19495.html

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 10:49pm

From the theatermania.com review posted above. This sounds more like what I've been hearing and what people on the board have been saying:

Rashad has a different energy than either of her two predecessors in the role on Broadway. Deanna Dunagan, who won a Tony Award for her portrayal, was a high-octane spitfire, barreling down the stairs of set designer Todd Rosenthal's tri-level set. Rashad takes the steps much slower, although she dances just as manically to the Eric Clapton record playing on the stereo. Estelle Parsons -- who succeeded Dunagan and will be starring in the national tour that launches next month -- projected a surface sweetness that made the bilious remarks that came out of her mouth even more shocking. But there are no soft edges to Rashad's Violet. Instead, she exudes a hardness chiseled into her features from years of painful experiences, including the claw hammer story that Violet memorably relates in a pivotal Act Two dinner scene.

(...)

Many of the actors are original cast members who have either been with the show from the start, or have left and come back, which proves to be a plus. In particular, Morton remains as powerful as ever, and Murphy and Mayberry continue to keep their portrayals fresh and emotionally grounded. Of the newer additions, Ashley is absolutely wonderful as the overbearing Mattie Fae. She works well with Boyd and you instantly buy into the fact that they're a long-married couple, used to each other's quirks, but still annoyed by them. Milligan is endearing as the awkward Little Charles, and has great chemistry with Murphy's Ivy.

I particularly found this quote interesting as it shows a contrast from Murray's misreading of the play: "while [Violet] can blame part of this on the numerous pills she pops, she is at her most dangerous in her lucid moments, particularly at the end of the play."

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 10:54pm

Variety is a Very Positive, echoing the belief that the show is at the top of its game:

"In her Broadway roles in recent years, Phylicia Rashad has cornered the market in formidable matriarchs: the strong-willed traditionalist suspicious of change in "A Raisin in the Sun"; the 287-year-old spiritual guide in "Gem of the Ocean"; the scheming ice queen in "Cymbeline"; the self-deluding Big Mama, in deep denial about her marriage and impending widowhood, in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." But no role has taken her further from warm, sensible, no-nonsense Clair Huxtable than Violet Weston, the pill-popping Oklahoma terminator who serves as the motor for a family's disintegration in Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize and Tony winner "August: Osage County."

More than midway through its second year in New York, this epic-scaled, acid-tongued comedy-drama has been showing signs of fatigue at the box office, for which producers hope the nontraditional casting of Rashad will provide some relief. Oprah Winfrey's glowing Twitter assessment after catching a recent performance has already helped pique curiosity. But regardless of how much mileage is still left in the hit Broadway transfer of this Steppenwolf Theater Company production, the show remains crackling entertainment, an edge-of-the-seat roller-coaster ride through the ultimate in family dysfunction that has lost none of its humor or horror.

Some of the substitute casting has brought subtle changes to the production's tone, most notably that of Rashad and Elizabeth Ashley, who is loud-mouthed blowsiness personified as Violet's tactless sister, Mattie Fae..."

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117940455.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

Updated On: 6/11/09 at 10:54 PM

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/11/09 at 11:50pm

When I saw one of Parson's last shows, I was captivated. I hated Cullum, but thank God, he's gone after the first 15mins. As he delivered his monologue I kept thinking "when does this get good." And then, of course, it did, and I was on the edge of my seat. And I actually found myself talking back to the show. So I'd say it's in fine shape.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 6/12/09 at 12:15am

Letts was in a hard position, I think. The Prologue is so significant to the whole play yet I feel it really does start the play in a very slow, almost dull place. I remember the first time I saw the play, I thought the beginning was very boring--even if it does have its funny moments. And I didn't see Cullum either time I saw the play.
All their three Violets have gotten great reviews, yet I didn't hear the same about Johanna Day (many mixed reviews, some great, some not so great). I think either Barbara is the toughest role to play, or it's just not as rich for an actor as Violet--don't really know which one it is. I just know that Amy Morton's shoes are insanely hard to fill and the Tony should have won to her.
I can't wait to see the show again. I might go to NY this summer and see the show for the third time. It sounds like Rashad is fantastic.

[MiracleElixir]

Posted: 6/12/09 at 8:27am

Saw this again (6th time) on Tuesday to check out Rashad.

She's good. Not on the level of Parsons, and CERTAINLY not on the level of Dunagan, but good. She makes Violet a bit more stoned and a bit more vulnerable (decisions I like), but also a bit more outright "funny" and rational/sympathetic in spots where we should be thinking she's going too far (decisions I don't).

Didn't find the show itself to have lost much at all -- the cast was generally very good, though a couple people (such as Frank Wood) were noticeably going through the motions, and Sally Murphy was really, really awful this time around, lazily spitting out lines, just waiting for her turn to speak rather than having any sense of timing, but just SHRIEKING in her high-pitched squeal any time she had to deliver a line with emotion.

Anyway, yeah, Rashad's good and all, but Amy Morton is, once again, the real reason to re-visit this show, if only to see just how ON FIRE she still is. Having seen her in it 4 other times, it's amazing she's still tweaking/altering things about her performance, and still has the capacity to move/surprise me. Really, just makes you wonder all over again how SHE wasn't the one sweeping all the Lead Actress in a Play awards the season before last.
Updated On: 6/12/09 at 08:27 AM

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/12/09 at 10:58am

The NY Post is very positive with ***1/2 out of ****:

"...But Rashad stops short of making Violet sympathetic. She spreads toxicity slowly but surely, like oil leaking out of a fractured tanker -- whereas Dunagan spat out nihilistic poison in pyrotechnic displays. I personally preferred the over-the-top, operatic viciousness of Dunagan's Vi, but Rashad's slurred intimations make a compelling case for the play's depths.

This approach also nicely complicates the relationship between Vi and her eldest daughter, Barbara -- especially because Barbara is played by the sensational Amy Morton, who can simultaneously make you laugh and break your heart.

When Barbara roars up to take control over her mother, it feels almost like overkill against mentally deranged Vi. When she did it against Dunagan, you wanted to stand and cheer.

...

Together, they all make "August" Broadway's most gripping dysfunction junction."




Full Review Updated On: 6/12/09 at 10:58 AM

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 6/12/09 at 11:40am

I hate to ask it, but how is the race factor with Rashad playing out?
I thought that I read from someone on here that a few changes were going to be made to accomodate that.
Does it affect the show any?
And what about Violet's feelings towards Indians?

[adamgreer]

Posted: 6/12/09 at 12:02pm

I didn't notice a single line of dialogue being altered.

Did the NY Times choose not to re-review the piece?

[Morgaine885]

Posted: 6/12/09 at 12:19pm

"Matthew Murray says what most people have been saying: the show's lost its bite."

Who's "most people"? I haven't heard anything but great stuff about Rashad...

Variety's great as well, and I saw this blogger review that was also a rave...

http://www.theatreaficionado.com/2009/06/shes-mean-shes-mess-and-now-shes.html

[MiracleElixir]

Posted: 6/12/09 at 3:14pm

"Murphy; however, needs to be reigned in. Her performance as Ivy has gone so wildly over the top that she switches between two levels: calm deadpan and incoherent high-pitched screeching. Whenever her emotions are vaulted, her voice jumps an octave and lines are lost. It's glaringly inappropriate especially when juxtaposed with the more nuanced work of her scene partners."

Hit the nail right on the head.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 6/12/09 at 3:24pm

That bit on Sally Murphy is nothing new that I've noticed. I've always seen her like this. Quiet and marble-mouthed one minute and screechy and incoherent the next. Nothing new there. I am sad that Marian isn't doing the olive bit anymore in her first scene. It made Karen just that much quirkier.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/12/09 at 3:27pm

The NY Daily News had a blurb on it in today's paper; they gave it a Rave.

[MiracleElixir]

Posted: 6/12/09 at 6:03pm

"That bit on Sally Murphy is nothing new that I've noticed. I've always seen her like this. Quiet and marble-mouthed one minute and screechy and incoherent the next. Nothing new there."

How recently had you seen it? I mean, she always went from quiet/subtle to loud/whiney, but it used to work for the character. It's just gotten bigger and bigger and lazier and lazier -- it was never anywhere NEAR the levels of irritating that it was on Tuesday. Really, unspeakably awful.