Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

I don't have much to say about Plenty because I don't think that much of it. The David Hare ( Skylight ) play focuses on Susan Traherne (Rachel Weisz), who does some spy/undercover work during WWII, and Raymond Brock (Corey Stoll), a diplomat (of sorts) with whom Susan develops a relationship. In program notes, Public Theatre artistic director Oskar Eustis says the play charts "the disillusionment of the post-war years." I was disillusioned with the undue hype surrounding this production. The play premiered at the Public in 1982, and this production is the first major New York revival. Many people were excited for it (I was excited to see Weisz and Stoll). What a disappointment they were. That's not entirely fair. They were not disappointing. It's the material. Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz and Corey Stoll are terrific actors; we know this. Unfortunately, they have no chemistry on stage, leaving a void where there is supposed to be dramatic tens...

I don't have a lot to say about Skylight  because playwright David Hare used up all the words in his verbose play. Mostly a two-hander (with a third character appearing in what is essentially a prologue and an epilogue, and with a fourth character spoken of but never seen), Skylight  is a relationship drama that sees an older man and his former young mistress talking at each other for two hours. That those characters, Tom and Kyra, are played by pros Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan , respectively, is the saving grace of the play, directed by Steven Daldry (although Nighy ( Love Actually ) looks too old, even for an older man, for Mulligan ( Inside Llewyn Davis , Shame ), who looks younger than her years). This revival played the West End prior to its Broadway transfer, and many of the theatre cognoscente are excited to see it here in New York. I kept nodding off. I don't know why I'm supposed to care about these people. The whole first act is ostensibly character dev...