Patriots

 Patriots
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
April 13, 2024 

Photo courtesy of Patriots

The Almeida Theatre production of Peter  Morgan’s play, Patriots, is mind blowing.  The writing is superb.  The cast is outstanding.  Director Rupert Goold keeps the action tight and concise, making the complicated story of Putin’s rise to power dramatic and accessible. 

Boris Berezovsky (played by Michael Stuhlbarg) is a wealthy and powerful businessman in Russia.  During this time, Boris Yeltsin (played by Paul Kynman) is president.  Russia was taking on a more democratic form of government, and large corporations had a strong influence.  Capitalism was on the rise, improving Russia’s presence in Europe and the west.  Berezovsky bought the national television station, and controls all new broadcasts.  After an attempt on his life, he becomes connected with Alexander Litvinenko (played by Alex Hurt), the government agent investigating the car bombing.  Berezovsky offers him a job as his personal security.  Out of loyalty to his country, Litvinenko refuses.  Roman Abramovich (played by Luke Thallon) approaches Berezovsky with a business proposition, promising a guaranteed increase in Berezovsky’s wealth and power.  When the government instructs Litvinenko to take out Berezovsky, he resigns his position and goes public with the plot.  

Michael Stuhlbarg as Boris Berevosky
Photo courtesy of Patriots

Boris Yeltsin is re-elected president, and Berezovsky uses his influence to have someone he considers weak and controllable appointed as Prime Minister.  This man is Vladimir Putin (played by Will Keen).  When Yeltsin resigns, he appoints Putin to take his place.  Thinking they have their puppet in place, Berezovsky and his colleagues are content.  Putin wastes no time turning the tables on them all.  After Berezovsky broadcasts a truthful news story that makes Putin look bad, the tension rises between the two men.  Berezovsky leaves the country, joining Litvinenko in England, seeking political asylum.  They do what they can to start a new political party and remove Putin from power, but they no longer have influence. 

Will Keen as Vladimir Putin
Photo courtesy fo Patriots

The structure of this play is remarkable.  Playwright Peter Morgan sets up Boris Berezovsky as a wealthy oligarch, only interested in himself, his position, and his financial gain.  He is arrogant and disliked.  The villain.  Vladimir Putin is a weakling.  The underdog.  In Act II, Putin rapidly become the villain, and Berezovsky, who tries to take him down, becomes the sympathetic hero.  The dramatic action of the play revolves around the conflict between these two characters, and Michael Stuhlbarg and Will Keen are phenomenal.  Mr. Stuhlbarg commands the stage, continually making demands, and spouting threats.  He pointedly sets the tone and pace.  Will Keen masterfully portrays the transformation of Putin from a meek “yes man” to a decisive leader.  He takes the tone and pace set by Mr. Stuhlbarg and focuses it with laser beam precision.  

Alex Hurt as Alexander Litvinenko
Photo courtesy fo Patriots

There are equally strong performance by Luke Thallon (Roman Abramovich), Alex Hurt (Alexander Litvinenko), Ronald Guttman (Professor Perelman, Berezovsky’s teacher), and Stella Baker (Marina Litvinenko).  These characters all have very specific intentions at the start of the story.   As Putin takes control, their needs shift.  These actors skillfully and truthfully portray this stoic transformation with grit and caution.  

Patriots is playing for a limited engagement at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.  It is a powerful play, excellently directed, and stunningly performed.  You must see it!  

Domenick Danza

Cardinal

Cardinal

Second Stage Theater

Tony Kiser Theater

January 13, 2018

Photos courtesy of Second Stage Theater

If you paint the town red, literally paint all the buildings in the town red, it will attract people and improve the economy for long-time residents.  This is the premise for Greg Pierce’s new play Cardinal, now playing at Second Stage Theater.  His characters are realistic and multi-layered.  The conflicts that arise are compelling and engaging.  Director Kate Whoriskey keeps the action moving, building the tension through to the very end.

Lydia Lensky (played by Anna Chlumsky) pitches a brilliant idea to Jeff Torm (played by Adam Pally), the Mayor of her hometown.  She proposes that by painting all the downtown buildings red, cardinal actually, their dying upstate New York factory town will become a destination stop.  It passes the city vote and gets the attention of a Chinese businessman who compromises the integrity of the plan.  Townspeople are quickly displaced, and Lydia’s intention becomes questionable.

The Cast of Cardinal
Photo courtesy of Second Stage Theater

Adam Pally is charming and likeable as the gullible, young mayor who suffers from depression and obsessive behavior.  Anna Chlumsky is a driving force as Lydia.  The relationship they create is complex, intriguing, and believable.  It propels the action of the play.  Becky Ann Baker and Alex Hurt play two long-time, mother/son residents of the town.  Their pacing and connectedness create the atmosphere of what life in this small town has been for generations.  Their fears and resistance to change are truthful and clearly understood.  Stephen Park and Eugene Young play the father/son business partners who cash in on the red city.  They play their scenes with just the right balance of humor and determination.

The Second Stage Theater’s production of Cardinal is running at the Tony Kiser Theater through February 25.  The play offers a unique glimpse at how consequences can get out to hand when making decision for the wrong reasons.  It makes a strong statement about how our deepest fear often manifests itself when we choose to run from it.

 Domenick Danza

Love, Love, Love

Love, Love, Love

Roundabout Theatre Company

The Laura Pels Theatre

October 1, 2016

Photo courtesy of
Roundabout Theatre Company

In Love, Love, Love, now playing at the Laura Pels Theatre, playwright Mike Bartlett takes his audience on a journey of ideals, compromises, and perseverance.  Director Michael Mayer keeps the action focused in this three act play that spans forty years.  The stellar cast in this Roundabout Theatre Company production is funny, jarring, and honest in their portrayals of flawed characters moving along in life, who never really give up on the dream.

It is 1967 in London and the Beatles are performing live on television.  Henry (played by Alex Hurt) invites his date to his flat for dinner.  His brother Kenneth (played by Richard Armitage) is saying with him while receiving grant money to go to Oxford, and is definitely cramping his style.  When Sandra (played by Amy Ryan) finds herself more interested in the non-conformist Kenneth that her conservative date, Henry, she does not hold back in making her move.  Fast forward twenty years to Act II where Kenneth and Sandra are married with two teenage children, Jamie (played by Ben Rosenfield) and Rose (played by Zoe Kazan).  The couple has clearly compromised on their rebellious ideals, but it is not until Act III that they face their shortcoming and the fact that “all you need is love.”

The cast of Love, Love, Love
Photo courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company

The maturity that Richard Armitage develops in his character from one act to the next (each a twenty year jump) is truthful and realistic.  He becomes resigned as the decades pass, yet retains his energy, sincerity, and optimism.  Amy Ryan enters with a roar in Act I and shocks you senseless.  She then does it again in Act II and Act III.  Her character ages gracefully, and never loses her brash demeanor.  Ben Rosenfield creates the character of Jamie in the spitting image of his father, Kenneth.  His posture, gesture, and expressions illustrate how it is much more than just genetics that make up a family.  Zoe Kazan delivers a strong performance as Rose.  Her character is the darkest member of the family.  She is touching and damaged, and clearly her mother’s daughter.

Love, Love, Love makes a strong statement of the effect the ideals of the baby boomer generation has on their adult children.  The characters are realistic, selfish, and true to their word.  You will definitely see yourself reflected in one aspect of their personalities or another.  The play is running at the Laura Pels Theatre through December 18.

Domenick Danza