Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams will return to Broadway this season to star in David Harrower's Olivier Award-winning drama BLACKBIRD. The production, to be directed by Joe Mantello.
BLACKBIRD tells the story of Una and Ray. Fifteen years earlier they had a relationship and haven't set eyes on each other since. Now she's found him again.
Now on Broadway under Joe Mantello's technically immaculate (if overindulgent) direction, Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams play the two deeply troubled lovers (or is it predator and victim?) who meet again, 15 years after their affair (or is it crime?) was abruptly terminated...It was Mantello's directorial choice to go big with the emotions in this first scene, which heightens the drama but also pitches the passion so high that the actors can only take it up... and up... to the edge of hysteria...Both Daniels...and Williams...become more physically invested in the battle and more drawn to one another...But even at this high decibel level, the disturbing substance of the play makes it riveting.
The material is self-evidently dark but the presentation is unrelentingly glum and lifeless..the play feels too severe and clandestine for such a big house...But the reason why audiences are drawn to the drama is because of the two plumb roles that offer a pair of performers the ultimate emotional tussle...Williams and Daniels are more than up to the challenge of going down the play's very dark road...And it just so happens that Daniels and Williams have both been working long enough as actors that we can picture what they would have looked like together. That my mind even went there is a testament to the play's dangerous pull. B
2007 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
2016 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Jeff Daniels |
2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Michelle Williams |
2016 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | David Harrower |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Michelle Williams |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play (Broadway or off-Broadway) | Blackbird |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Jeff Daniels |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Michelle Williams |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Blackbird |
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