Frost Nixon, a CurtainUp review

Frost/ Nixon On Broadway

By Elyse Sommer

Frank Langella as Richard Nixon

I'm saying that when the president does it, that means it's not illegal— Nixon

The parallel of the above quote to our current administration's blinders-on declarations in defense of their foreign policy set off a burst of knowing laughter from the audience at Frost/Nixon. I came home from seeing this tremendously entertaining and theatrical faction to hear President George W. Bush try to raise his plummeting ratings with a long television interview with Charley Rose, an extremely bright, well-respected but rarely confrontational talk show host. Unlike Frank Langella's fascinating Nixon, Bush didn't collapse in a stunning closeup, as Langella's Nixon does on set designer Christopher Oram's giant digitized overhead grid of screens. But then, except for the state of Vermont's impeachment attempts, Bush remains firmly, if unpopularly, entrenched in the White House and, barring unforseen events, will serve out his term.

I would have preferred to see Frost/Nixon in a smaller venue like the Donmar Warehouse where it originated. Yet there's something about a big theater that underscores the sense of watching a thoroughly modern Shakespearian tragedy about an awkward and ungainly David becoming a Goliath only to self-destruct into a broken Humpty Dumpty. The Jacobs Theatre where the American production is playing also gives even viewers at the rear of the orchestra and the balcony a close-up look at Nixon's coming apart in the devastating last part of the interview. (Directors might do well to consider making more use of animated projections in large houses where even the less expensive seat cost enough for audiences to deserve more than a long distance glimpse of the actors' faces).

As in his hit film, The Queen, Peter Morgan has given us a behind the scenes look at a well publicized event, and used his imagination to create a riveting entertainment. It doesn't matter one whit that you're probably already familiar with the actual details and that you know what happens (in The Queen, Helen Mirren's distant monarch caves in to public's need for a proper royal response to the death of Princess Diana; in Frost/Nixon, Martin Sheen's media savvy Frost nudges a widely televised apology out of Nixon).

What makes this play so eminently watchable is the chance to be in on the smartly staged prize fight between two oddly compatible contenders, both of whom are brilliantly interpreted. Given Morgan's highly selective text (no mention of Nixon's penchant for anti-Semitic and other ethnic slurs or the several books that did quite a bit to help mend his damaged reputation) and his imagined additions keep this from laying claim to being a history lesson. Yet it is that imaginary touch that provides a sizzling fresh touch —most notably, the midnight phone call from an inebriated Nixon to Frost that, like a show stopping song in a musical or an outstanding opera aria, has the audience bursting into applause.

Anyone looking for a more carefully documented approach to this slice of history will soon be able to read ALL about it in James Reston Junior's long delayed memoir The Conviction of Richard Nixon: The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews — its June publication date is a timely tie-in to Reston's role as Frost/Nixon's narrating Greek chorus. However, for sheer theatrical pizzazz, nothing (not even the already contracted for film version) is likely to come close to watching Langella turn Nixon into an almost funny, almost sympathetic and ultimately tragic figure and Sheen play David Frost with the same nuanced flair he brought to the role of Tony Blair in The Queen. As Lizzie Loveridge already pointed out neither actor resembles his character, and it is their ability to embody these men's personalities that makes their performances so enthralling.

The major change in the Broadway transfer of the Donmar Warehouse production is that the support cast has been replaced by American actors. Like the British thespians all animate what may sound like a static talking heads play. Besides the already mentioned Kunken as Nixon basher and narrator, Armond Shultz and Remy Auberjonois do excellent work as Frost's handlers. Corey Johnson plays Nixon loyalist Jack Brennan with unwavering devotion. Stephen Rowe is hilariously on target both as the ueber deal maker Swifty Lazar and Mike Wallace. Sonya Walger is a lovely addition as Frost's airplane pickup who later becomes his lover and assistant.

It's interesting, and not a little ironic that the same medium that helped Nixon's famous 1952 Checkers speech save his role as Eisenhower's vice-presidential running mate ( the speech countered accusations of a lavish life style with a humble self-portrait of a family man with a clothcoat wearing wife and a dog named Checkers) twenty-five years later helped Frost to come out the winner — and is now sure to make this play a multiple winner of any number of upcoming awards.

NEW YORK PRODUCTION NOTES
FROST/ NIXON
Written by Peter Morgan
Directed by Michael Grandage
Starring: Michael Sheen as David Frost, Frank Langella as Richard Nixon
With: Remy Auberjonois (John Birt) , Shira Gregory (Evonne Goolagong), Corey Johnson (Jack Brennan), Stephen Kunken (Jim Reston), Stephen Rowe (Swifty Lazar, Mike Wallace), Triney Sandoval (Manolo Sanchez), Armand Schultz (Bob Zelnick), Sonya Walger (Caroline Cushing); also Dennis Cockrum, Antony Hagopian, Roxanna Hope
Set and Costume Designer: Christopher Oram
Lighting Designer: Neil Austin.
Composer and Sound Designer: Adam Cork
Video Designer: Jon Driscoll
Hair and Wig Designer: Richard Mawbey. Jacobs Theatre, 242 West 45th Street 212/239-6200 www.frostnixononbroadway.com
Running time: One hour fifty five minutes with no intermission From 3/31/07 to 8/19/07; opening 4/22/07.
Running Time:1 hour and 55 minutes, with no intermission.
Tickets: $96.25 to $76.25.
Tuesday - Saturday @ 8pm, Wednesday & Saturday @ 2pm, Sunday @ 3pm