A Behanding In Spokane
1 hour and 30 minutes, with no intermission
A Behanding In Spokane - 2010 Broadway History , Info & More
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (Broadway)
236 West 45th St. New York, NY
The title is just the starting point; take a man searching for his missing hand (Christopher Walken), two con artists out to make a few hundred bucks (Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan), and an overly curious hotel clerk (Sam Rockwell), and the rest is up for grabs. A Behanding in Spokane is Academy Award-winner Martin McDonagh's hilariously black comedy, a world premiere which marks McDonagh's first American-set play.
A Behanding In Spokane - 2010 - Broadway Cast
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A Behanding In Spokane
8 / 10
There is something delightfully, wickedly off about all four characters in Behanding, including Rockwell's Mervyn. 'I always used to hope they'd have one of those shooting massacres at my high school, didn't you?” he says at one point. 'They'd come in, y'know, as they do, dressed like soldiers, just to be different, and then I'd, y'know, do something brave and save everybody. Well, not everybody, else it wouldn't be a high school massacre, but maybe after they got, say, twelve?' And as McDonagh & Co. build the suspense toward what seems to be an inevitably explosive finale, we're forced to ponder why we too seem to be drawn to stories of extreme violence. How much does our collective curiosity about the extreme and the macabre fuel society's nuttiest members to act out their (and our) most out-there fantasies?
Underhanded
1 / 10
I don’t know a single self-respecting black actor who wouldn’t feel shame and fury while sitting through Martin McDonagh’s new play, “A Behanding in Spokane” (directed by John Crowley, at the Gerald Schoenfeld). Nor do I know one who would have the luxury of turning the show down, once the inevitable tours and revivals get under way. The play is engineered for success, and McDonagh’s stereotypical view of black maleness is a significant part of that engineering. Still, one wonders how compromised the thirty-one-year-old Anthony Mackie must feel, playing Toby, a black prole whose misadventures are central to this four-character show. Mackie recently attracted notice for his portrayal of a bomb-squad sergeant in Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq war movie “The Hurt Locker.” But even in that role he was drawing on a paradigm—Lou Gossett, Jr.,’s 1982 portrayal of a drill sergeant in “An Officer and a Gentleman.” The sad fact is that, in order to cross over, most black actors of Mackie’s generation must act black before they’re allowed to act human.
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A Behanding In Spokane History
Other Productions of A Behanding In Spokane
| 2010 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
A Behanding In Spokane - 2010 Broadway Awards and Nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Christopher Walken |
| 2010 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Christopher Walken |
| 2010 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Christopher Walken |
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