Tony and Olivier Award-winning star Mark Rylance (La Bête, Boeing-Boeing) recreates his wildly acclaimed, multi award-winning performance as Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron on Broadway in the Royal Court Theatre production of Jez Butterworth’s universally heralded new play, Jerusalem.
In the woods of South West England, Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron, former daredevil motorcyclist and modern-day Pied Piper, is a wanted man. The council officials want to serve him an eviction notice, his son wants to be taken to the country fair, a stepfather wants to give him a serious kicking and a motley crew of friends wants his ample supply of drugs and alcohol.
Directed by Ian Rickson (from the acclaimed Broadway production of The Seagull), Jerusalem is the winner of the 2009 Evening Standard and London Critics’ Circle Awards and the 2010 Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Play.
Into every spring on Broadway a brand-new British play must fall. This year there are two, 'War Horse' and Jez Butterworth's 'Jerusalem,' and those Anglophiles who like their accents thick and their plays pretentious will prefer the latter to the former. Indeed, 'Jerusalem' is pretentious almost without limit, a three-hour save-our-England tract in which the uplift is slathered with a thick brown sauce composed of two parts coarse humor and one part pseudopoetry. In addition, 'Jerusalem' features a performance by Mark Rylance ('La Bête,' 'Boeing-Boeing') that is every bit as good as the critical buzz that accompanied its transfer from London's West End. Connoisseurs of great acting won't want to miss him—but those with normal attention spans will be hard pressed to make it to the finish line.
Both the playwright and the production find resonance in the raves and rants of an ornery sot and his relationship to the succeeding generations of kids who use him and drop him. And much credit goes to Rylance, one of the most magnetic, fearlessly physical actors on stage today. Just as he wowed New York audiences in La Bete and Boeing Boeing, the actor uses his dense body as much as his words, this time contorting with the specific, hopping, pained hobble and the puffed-out chest of a proud, foolish, self-destructive fantasist who can't believe that his body (or at least his bum foot) has betrayed him. (Not for nothing does Rylance thank his trainer and his chiropractor in his Playbill credits.) His Johnny is a roaring wreck (he's got a wife who's left him, and a young son), barred from every pub in town. Yet he's got deep-down English pride in his battered bones. Rylance wears Johnny's contradictions like vivid warrior paint.
2011 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2011 | West End |
Return Engagement [West End] West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2011 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Leading Actor in a Play | Mark Rylance |
2011 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Mark Rylance |
2011 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Mark Rylance |
2011 | New York Drama Critics Circle Awards | Best Foreign Play | 0 |
2011 | New York Drama Critics Circle Awards | Special Citations | Mark Rylance |
2011 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Mark Rylance |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Play | Mimi Jordan Sherin |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Mackenzie Crook |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Mark Rylance |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Carole L. Haber/Richard Willis |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Jez Butterworth |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Sonia Friedman Productions |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Stuart Thompson |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Adam Blanshay |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Jacki Barlia Florin |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Scott Rudin |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | 1001 Nights/Stephanie P. McClelland |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Jon B. Platt |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Broadway Across America |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Dede Harris/Rupert Gavin |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Beverly Bartner/Alice Tulchin |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Royal Court Theatre Productions |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Roger Berlind |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Ultz |
2011 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Play | Ian Dickinson |
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