SITE GUIDE
SEARCH
REVIEWS
REVIEW ARCHIVES
ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Connecticut
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
A CurtainUp Feature
with a buzz-y new version of his classic A View From the Bridge and the less familiar Incident at Vichy and a Yiddish Death of a Salesman
By Elyse Sommer
If Arthur Miller were still with us in this centennial year of his birth, I think he would be especially pleased to see the Signature Theater's wonderful revival of Incident at Vichy . No doubt he'd also be intrigued with the high profile British-cast Broadway revival A View From the Bridge. And audiences at the Castillo Theater's presentation of the famous Death of a Salesman in Yiddish would love to hear his comments on it. ( Death of a Salesman in Yiddish Review )
The operatic A View From the Bridge has been tagged as a Miller classic and as such has enjoyed frequent productions. Consequently it's one of those well known drams that sell tickets based on star-casting and new directorial approaches — as is the case with the latest View's marking the Broadway debut of Belgian director Ivo Van Hove who's noted for his bold deconstructionist approach to classic plays.
Incident at Vichy is more of a revelation, especially for theatergoers below a certain age. It did have a Broadway premiere at the now defunct ANTA Theater in 1964 but for just 32 performances. Miller adapted the play for television, which featured Rene Auberjonois as Monceau the actor and Harris Yulin as LeDuc the doctor, but that was back in 1973.
Actually the more famous and often produced View. . . wasn't an instant hit either. Its first permutation was as a one-act verse drama entitled A Memory of Two Mondays which flopped, prompting Miller to turn out a 2-act revision. The current version's British credentials are especially valid given that the 2-act revival first premiered in London's West End under the direction of Peter Brook. It's this version that's the one with which audiences are most familiar today. The Vanhovian approach's chief reinvention is to present the story with completely naturalistic, almost cinematic, performances but framed non-naturalistically (Don't look for the original Brooklyn setting). Still, outstanding as the cast is, the actors have their work cut out for them in terms of speaking authentically and consistently with American accents. The on stage seats, not original with Van Hove, are likely to be extremely popular even when they're no longer lower-priced as was the case during previews.
Theatergoers with limited time or discretionary income, will be hard pressed to choose a much buzzed about new interpretation of a proven Miller classic on Broadway or what will probably be a first encounter with an equally worthy work. Those smart enough to take advantage of the Pershing Square Signature Center's wonderful sponsored initiative that makes tickets bought during the scheduled run of a show available for $25, may just be able to see both plays — especially if they also nabbed a pre-opening on-stage ticket before View's official opening when
Since I'm old enough to have seen the last three Broadway productions of View (there ARE advantages to being older) I wouldn't miss a chance to see this first Broadway production helmed by the trendy Van Hove, but I did opt to see the never seen Incident at Vichy first so a link to our review will precede that of the View production at the Lyceum: For the review of the Signature production of Incident at Vichy go here .
For a review the buzz-y ocean crossing Van Hove production by our London critic go here
For a review of the production currently at the Lyceum, go here .
And looking ahead, there's another Van Hove directed production coming to Broadway next Spring — and, yes, it's a Miller classic, The Crucible.
Below, links to our review ot other View From the Bridge Productions we've covered:
Review View at the Lyceum (review pending)
View. . . at the Roundabout's then Off-Broadway Second Stage in 1998 . This included lots of background. As directed by Michael Mayer and starring Anthony LaPaglia and Allison Janney I thought this was as good as it could get. And so did my colleague Les Gutman, in his review of that production's Broadway transfer . But then along came the .
2010 production starring a riveting Liev Schrieber and with an impressive Broadway debut by movie star Scarlett Johansen.
Obviously there can't be too many views of A View from the Bridge.
For Curtainup's Arthur Miller backgrounder go here
Book of Mormon -CD