A View From the Bridge

I had the great honor today of seeing the closing performance of the current A View From the Bridge revival, and the show was (almost) everything I expected.  Until recently, I had not generally been a fan of Arthur Miller plays, based on my experience with The Crucible, After the Fall, and Death of A Salesman.  After seeing the recent revival of All My Sons, though, I started to have a more open mind, and this show made me appreciate him even more.  The writing was tight and realistic, but also had good dramatic tension where it needed to, and all of that.  The acting was great overall, though I was not as impressed with Michael Christofer as other reviewers seem to have been.  (In a side note, I am probably going to give his predicted Best Featured Actor in a Play slot to Eddie Redmayne of Red based on that show's reviews combined with what I saw today.)  Jessica Hecht and Liev Schreiber were in top form today and Scarlett Johansson was good but not great.  As an added bonus to the performance, Stephen Sondheim was in attendance at the show today, sitting about 10 to 12 or so rows ahead of me and, though I didn't get a chance to talk to him, it was fun to notice him in the house.  During intermission, I went outside for some fresh air and to walk around a bit and, to my surprise, saw violinist Joshua Bell walking by, though he seemed to be just a passer by and not an audience member at the show.