Clifford Odets is one of America's greatest playwrights, and perhaps one of the most under appreciated as well. The average American has probably never even heard of Odets the way they have say, Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams. This Broadway season we were lucky enough to have two different Odets plays produced on Broadway. Unfortunately, they were the two with almost identical plots and thematic elements.
The first of these revivals was one of Odets earliest plays, Golden Boy which you can read about in my blog post. The other is the show that I'm about to talk about, The Roundabout Theater Company revival of The Big Knife.
The Big Knife tells the store of Charlie Castle, a 1940's Humphrey Bogart style tough guy film star who's got a dirty little secret. The secret is being kept by Studio head Marcus Hoff, Castles wife Marion, and a few close confidants. When Charlie and Marion's marriage hits the skids, Charlie is left with a tough choice, leave pictures behind - or face the possibility of Hoff going public if he doesn't resign with the studio. It may seem flimsy in description, but it's really a story about the price of fame, and the choices and compromises we make along the way to achieving our dreams.
To say that The Big Knife is not one of Odets best is not fair to the author. The structure, and the written dialogue are beautiful and at times even poetic - but not to the point of being flowery. There are scenes in The Big Knife which are magnificent and breath taking to watch. It is unfortunate that the basic outline of the story and it's thematic elements are almost identical to Golden Boy, but the man is dead and the plays were written over 50 years ago, so what are you going to do about it?
Reviewers, main stem reviewers anyhow, did not much take to this particular revival of The Big Knife. Perhaps in part to the high bar set earlier this season by that other previously mentioned Odets revival. Bobby Cannavale is well cast, physically, in the lead role of Charlie Castle. Cannavale is exhibiting his usual charm and magnetism in the role, but there seems to be some what of an emotional disconnect. One could argue that he is building to the explosive end of the play, but we are getting too much aloof, and not enough of a man who trying desperately to hold everything together.
While I was in the theater, I very much adored the performance of Marin Ireland as Charlie's Long Suffering wife, Marion Castle. Upon further reflection, however, I grew more frustrated with it. If this were a modern drama, I probably wouldn't have any problem with the way the character was portrayed. But despite her spot on period costumes from the ever so talented Catherine Zuber, there is not much about Miss Ireland's portrayal of a suffering 40's era housewife that is accurate. Furthermore, she doesn't do much in the way of adding chemistry to her onstage relationship with her husband. That is not to say that there are not moments that are astounding - the final scene in the play between husband and wife is absolutely on point, but it's the performance as a whole that I'm talking about.
The worst scene in this production is that which is between Charlie Castle, and a small contract studio player who is keeping is secret. The young up and comer is played by Rachel Brosnehan, and it's everything about her performance which drags the scene down. Immediately upon entering she strikes a note of a young Lena Lemont from singing in the rain. The type of character that is portrayed in such a way as to make the audience realize through her the tone of her voice that she isn't that smart, and has loose morals. The end of the scene doesn't come fast enough.
One bright spot in this production is Richard Kind. Usually type cast into playing large comedic parts, Kind gets to show his acting chops with great bravura and force. He is playing the role of studio head Marcus Hoff. Hoff is the type of man who comes off as everybody's friend, but if you cross him, whoa to you. Kind is striking every note on the scale, rather than playing just the surface of the character. He is very likely to go home with the gold come Tony night.
The rest of the supporting cast is very good. Chip Zien perfectly nails the character of Charlie's agent Nat Danzinger. Reg Rogers is also very good as Charlie's friend and Marcus Hoff's lackey, Smiley Coy, which is a perfect name for that character. Ana Reader, Joey Slotnick, and Billy Eugene Jones also hold their weight.
The Big Knife is one of the only plays that gives us an inside look at what The Hollywood Studio system was really like. It not only shows us how it affected actors and their choices of roles, social lives, and salaries, it gives us a good picture of how it affected everyone from their family's to agents to press agents to servants. The Big Knife will close on Broadway at The American Airlines Theater on June 2, 2013 after 29 previews and 56 regular performances.
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