Brief Encounter

Theatrical magic mixed with sentimentality is what makes Brief Encounter, currently playing at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Studio 54, such an emotional, clever and for sentimentalists like me, breathtaking piece of theatre. The production, Based on a 1945 film penned by Noel Coward and beautifully re-imagined for the stage by Emma Rice, makes use of music, projected images and live performance to tell the story of a forbidden love affair between an unhappily married housewife and the handsome doctor that falls in love with her. I originally saw this show a few years ago on a visit to London and was blown away by the inventiveness, quirkiness and shear theatricality of the storytelling. Being based on a 1945 film about adultery the show could feel dated, overly sentimental and lacking relevance. However, just the opposite is true of the show. Because of how cleverly the production draws the audience in you really feel transported, and the heightened emotionality somehow begins to seem real…necessary even. I would assume this would be a tough sell to Yankee audiences as the production is quintessentially British. However, I was very happy to see that they didn’t culturally “dumb” it down for the American audience. The accents were in full force, as were the English references. I truly hope Brief Encounter finds an audience and has a life here on Broadway as I feel the production is extremely well deserving for the fact that it is striving, and succeeding, to keep theatrical storytelling alive!

Isn't it rich...

Bernadette Peters is currently hitting the musical theatre ball out of the mother f#@%9ing park over at the Walter Kerr Theatre in the revival of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. Ms. Peters recently replaced Catherine Zeta Jones as the lead character, Desiree, a somewhat washed-up, aging actress in search of stability and true love. As expected, Bernadette pretty much wipes her a** with CZJ’s Tony Award winning performance. Bernie makes a joke of that award the minute she steps onto that stage; reminding the production and Broadway on the whole what a true musical theatre actress is; which is something much different than a Hollywood celebrity who can sell tickets. Her rendition of Send in the Clowns is both heartbreaking and illuminating; tears streaming down her face in the most natural, beautiful and vulnerable way that only Bernadette Peters can pull off on stage. She isn’t performing, she is living (can you tell I’m a bit obsessed with Bernadette Peters?). She raises the bar for the whole cast as everyone is on top of their game. You can tell that Alexander Hanson, who plays her male lead, is well aware of the force that is Ms. Peters and is so happy to finally be digging deeper into the characters and the text. One could hear a pin drop in their scene before Send in the Clowns…a truly astonishing theatrical moment.

I’m not the only one who thinks so…

“...for theater lovers there can be no greater current pleasure than to witness Bernadette Peters perform the show’s signature number, “Send in the Clowns,” with an emotional transparency and musical delicacy that turns this celebrated song into an occasion of transporting artistry. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced with such palpable force — or such prominent goose bumps — the sense of being present at an indelible moment in the history of musical theater.” – NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/theater/02night.html?_r=1

…how’s that for a review?!