The Father
One hour and 30 minutes, with no intermission
The Father - 2016 Broadway History , Info & More
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (Broadway)
261 W. 47th St. New York, NY 10036
The Father is the acclaimed new play by Florian Zeller, in a translation by two-time Tony winner Christopher Hampton, directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes.
The Father offers a fascinating look inside the mind of Andre (Frank Langella), a retired dancer living with his adult daughter Anne and her husband. Or is he a retired engineer receiving a visit from Anne who has moved away with her boyfriend? Why do strangers keep turning up in his room? And where has he left his watch?
The Father - 2016 - Broadway Cast
PREVIEW The Father - 2016 - Broadway
Photos
Videos
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR The Father
‘The Father’ review: Frank Langella gives powerhouse performance
8 / 10
..The audience can never be sure what's going on, where we are or who everyone is in 'The Father,' a jarring and intense French drama by Florian Zeller (translated into English by Christopher Hampton) that is told from the perspective of an 80-year-old man suffering from severe dementia...Doug Hughes' focused production is built around an all-out, highly emotional performance from Langella that brings to mind King Lear's extreme fall from security into chaos...a dramatically effective and culturally important one that forces the audience to see the world through the eyes of someone with dementia and identify with him. It should be mandatory viewing for anyone who knows a person with dementia.
Arts and Entertainment Frank Langella in the disappointingly prosaic ‘The Father’
7 / 10
'The Father' - not of course, to be mistaken for the unnerving August Strindberg play of the same title - lumbers on in this vein for an hour and a half. The turbulent turns in Andre's powers of perception may strike one as unpredictable, but Zeller and Hampton's machinations do not. Langella is a bit too robust for a man so ravaged by mental deterioration. Still, he's in his element here, conveying with Lear-like levels of outrage and hurt Andre's refusal, or inability, to comprehend what is happening to him. As a demonstration of how Alzheimer's runs its course, Hughes's production has some merit: It might be serve as a useful training tool for medical schools. As illness-of-the-week plays go, however, 'The Father' is mundane. Much finer works, such as Margaret Edson's 'Wit,' about a professor dying of ovarian cancer, have crossed this company's path in the past.
The Father History
Other Productions of The Father
| 1912 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1928 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1949 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1962 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1981 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1996 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 2016 | Broadway |
Manhattan Theatre Club Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 2016 | Off-Broadway |
Theatre for a New Audience Repertory Off-Broadway |
The Father - 2016 Broadway Awards and Nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Frank Langella |
| 2016 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | Florian Zeller |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Frank Langella |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | Florian Zeller |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Frank Langella |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Florian Zeller |
Videos