Thursday, April 26, 2012

"The Columnist" Opens on Broadway

Manhattan Theater Club's Broadway production of The Columnist, a new play by David Auburn, opened last night at the old Biltmore Theatre. The reviews are in and they are mixed. John Lithgow's performance is said to be among the best of his career. But the play itself is only good at best.

Marilyn Stasio of Variety Magazine summarized it best when she wrote, "John Lithgow is a chameleon who can play anything from a TV serial killer (Dexter) to a charming con in a Broadway musical (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels). In The Columnist, the new bio-drama by David Auburn (Proof), he does a brilliant job with Joseph Alsop, the Washington political pundit who wielded immense power through his syndicated newspaper column. Supported by a solid cast, Lithgow finds the humanity in this irascible, obsessive and quite unlikable demigod. But neither he nor helmer Daniel Sullivan can do the impossible: manufacture a play out of the scattered events of Auburn's well-articulated but loosely structured scenes."

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