Ronan, Whishaw make Broadway bows in a 'Crucible' for our times
8 / 10
At a time when smearing a neighbor or movie star or rival presidential candidate can be as easy as hitting 'send,' it's especially troubling to watch riled-up teenagers and self-centered adults point such destructive fingers with impunity...Perhaps because Crucible invokes the supernatural, the staging seems less mannered than van Hove's take on Miller's A View From the Bridge last fall -- but not much...the excellent actors help ensure that Miller's dialogue is never overshadowed...Whishaw's beautifully shaded tenderness and fury also contrasts with the repressed desperation Ronan brings to her role. Alternately cool and rash, her Abigail is more wounded child than calculating homewrecker.
