I was Lucky to See "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and I Wish You Had Too
Ashley Griffin
This evening it was announced that the 2020 revival of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” will not return to the Booth Theater, even once the Broadway shutdown (due to the Coronavirus) is over. Many shows are trying to figure out how to survive the shutdown, which was originally scheduled to end around April 13th, 2020, but now looks like it will continue much longer. New shows, especially limited runs, are currently being hit the hardest, with Martin McDonagh’s new offering “The Hangman” at the Golden Theater also recently announcing it will not return.
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” played only nine preview performances before the shutdown took effect. Today’s announcement from the production team means the show will never have an official opening and will most likely not be reviewed.
I had the privilege of seeing the production during its first week of previews. I felt moved to write about it as the piece was quite extraordinary and deserved to be reviewed in some form for the sake of the company, those who will not get to see it and to have some journalistic archive of the production.
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” by Edward Albee is a staple of the Broadway canon. It has been revived dozens of times and was most famously immortalized in the film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. First staged in 1962, it is a tour de force, analyzed by many a college student as well as those much more knowledgeable of the subject matter than I. I highly suggest you read some of the wonderful articles out there about the piece.
The plot sounds dull on paper: University professor George and his wife Martha have an after-party get together with hot, new, young professor (Nick) and his “mousey” wife Honey. George and Martha have a passionately dangerous “cat and mouse” relationship and as they play with each other, and their guests, the evening, and the lives of all four present, quickly unravel.
When in action, however, and done right, the show is a fiercely dynamic look at the fragility of the relationships we hold most dear and a metaphor for the tenuous state of America in the middle of the cold war. On the title, Albee is quoted as saying: “I was in there [a saloon in New York] having a beer one night, and I saw "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" scrawled in soap, I suppose, on this mirror. When I started to write the play it cropped up in my mind again. And of course, who's afraid of Virginia Woolf means who's afraid of the big bad wolf . . . who's afraid of living life without false illusions. And it did strike me as being a rather typical, university intellectual joke.”
When “…Woolf” goes wrong, however, it quickly devolves into a bore with one, domineering couple endlessly barking at each other, and another, clueless couple, annoyingly (and not adequately) distracting from said barking. But the onus of the piece is that, even when it does go right, it is inevitably compared to the, dare I say, perfect film featuring Taylor and Burton.
The 2020 revival was directed by Joe Mantello (I always trust that anything he’s involved in will be excellent,) and starred Laurie Metcalf as Martha, Rupert Everett as George, Russell Tovey as Nick and Patsy Ferran as Honey. The set design by Scott Pask did a lovely job of creating the overstuffed ‘60’s home of a University professor but, forgive me, this piece doesn’t give a scenic designer much room for creativity. It needs to fulfill a function and in that Pask did his job admirably. There were changes to the set differentiating each of the three acts, with clutter being slowly removed to, by the third act, create an utterly sparse, almost Beckett-esque space. The reasons for doing so were intellectually understandable, but to me felt like the one unnecessary miss of the production. The costume design by Ann Roth was fantastic and kept the iconic nature of the Taylor/Burton version while staying true and unique to the actors portraying the roles in this production. Her work was spot on as was the lighting by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, sound design by Tom Gibbons and hair and wig design by Robert Pickens (it is quite a challenge to create solid wig designs for this show that will stand up to the abuse they must endure eight shows a week.)
But the meat and potatoes of any production of “…Woolf” are the actors.
I had the pleasure to see the previous revival of “…Woolf” starring Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin. Irwin is one of my favorite artists of all time, and I was thrilled when he won a Tony for his performance as George. I thought the performances of the entire company were very good.
The cast of the 2020 revival was spectacular.
And keep in mind, I’m reviewing their FIRST PREVIEW performance.
Normally the preview period is a chance for the cast to get their footing, changes to be made, and all in all, to get the production ready for critics to come. I believe their preview period was scheduled to be at least a month, with critics meant to come closer to the end of that time. The performance that I saw was not meant to be critic-ready.
And yet…
One of the reasons I felt so compelled to write this is because, I believe, if the show had opened, Laurie Metcalf would have won the Tony for Best Actress this year. I’ve had the privilege to see most things on Broadway this season (not all… “The Hangman,” for example, closed before I had a chance to catch it. McDonagh is one of my all-time favorite playwrights and I’m devastated that I won’t have a chance to see his latest offering.) I also have not seen every production of “…Woolf,” but, I would still go out on a limb, in print, to say that Metcalf’s performance rivaled Elizabeth Taylor’s.
Yup. She was that good.
Neither she, nor Everett attempted to replicate a performance – a challenge not to do in and of itself with all the heavy hitters who have come to these roles before, but they found the essence of what made them so special in a way that was utterly unique and truthful to them.
Metcalf was brilliant and biting (as we all know Martha is.) But perhaps what most sold her performance for me was her dark humor. We know what a phenomenal comedian Metcalf is from her turns on “The Big Bang Theory,” “Rosanne” and others. But what her comic talent added here was to add an undercut to Martha’s lines that, for the first time for me, made believable the fact that she could be SO cruel to her husband, and still have it, truly, all be a dark joke. Her banter really is a game. A dark game – terrifying and cruel, but a game, not a session of torture and abuse. Underneath her bite is a challenge and, yes, even love and vulnerability. Metcalf is the epitome of truthfulness and honesty onstage. She made Martha make sense and come alive and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Frankly, I was not expecting such a remarkable performance from Metcalf (though I have seen her on Broadway before, and liked her very much,) but frankly, I can’t say enough good things about her.
Everett was a wonderfully pleasant surprise. I’ve long been a fan of his but he’s not the first person I would envision in the role of George (especially as a last-minute replacement for Eddie Izzard.) He acquitted himself beautifully. George is a deceptively challenging role. Often described in the play as a pushover, without “tenacity” or “drive,” and, quite simply, a wimp who never had the right stuff, George can easily turn into a sad sack punching bag for Martha. But in Everett’s hands, the wheels were constantly turning, and he left you wondering how much of his “wimpyness” was a personal defect, and how much was him being pushed down by life. An especial surprise from matinee idol Everett. Frankly (in the best way) I didn’t recognize him onstage.
But, despite George’s “pushover” quality, there is a fire in Everett’s George, and it is a testament to his talent that you really don’t know until the very end of the show who is going win in the battle of Martha and George, or, indeed, who you want to win.
Russell Tovey is always wonderful to watch, and he did a lovely job as ambitious “Golden Boy” Nick. Patsy Ferren was utterly delightful as his “mousey” wife Honey – and I was stunned when I discovered that this was her Broadway debut. What a phenomenal introduction to this lovely actress, and what a testament to her that she held her own with such strength and grace in the company of such heavy hitters. She was a fantastic Honey (a role that can become very annoying very quickly,) and earned great empathy for the character. She has a fantastic career ahead of her.
I do hope that this show was archived in some way. It was a stunning production of a stunning play and deserved to be seen by the entire NY community and, I believe, receive many awards come awards season. Joe Mantello always does a first-rate job of stewarding every production he helms (and raising the bar on any production he performs in.) All I can say is BRAVO! And I hope this production (and these performers) come back and get their due soon.
Ashley Griffin is an actor, writer, director, and producer. She also is the host of the “Stage Directions” podcast on the OnStage Blog Podcast Network. Learn more at www.ashleygriffinofficial.com