A View From the Bridge

Tickets from $61  Buy Tickets

A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE

Photo: Joan Marucs

Cititour.com Review
Utterly engrossing, the latest revival of "A View From the Bridge", Arthur Miller’s resounding rebuke to Kazan’s "On the Waterfront", is a lesson in understatement as art. Director Gregory Mosher leads his exemplary cast in this riveting portrayal of a man plagued by his own demons. Liev Schreiber never hits a false note and screen fav Scarlett Johansson, in her Broadway debut, is a revelation.

Not as well received as Miller’s masterpiece, "Death of a Salesman", "A View From the Bridge" in the current production is still a masterwork in playwriting. Narrated like an epic tale by attorney, Alfieri, it tells of a place where “being a “stool pigeon is the worst thing.” Here, Eddie (Schreiber) a dockworker living in Brooklyn harbors his wife’s two illegal Italian immigrant cousins and is soon dismayed to find that his wife’s niece, Catherine (Johansson) is falling for the younger one. Catherine has been like a daughter to him since childhood. ‘Like’ being the operative word and now, at seventeen, there is an unhealthy jealousy springing from Eddie. His dilemma - how to separate them?

Johansson is a wonderful jumble of teen angst, burgeoning womanhood, childlike innocence and defiant lover. Immersed in her Brooklynesque surroundings she fits into the character like a form-fitted gown. Schreiber’s Eddie is a hard-working tough with striking inconsistencies. His pent up rage seeps out with calibrated precision. Jessica Hecht, as his wife, knows what’s going on before he does and she wears her unending loyalty like a weary battle scar. Morgan Spector and Corey Stoll do an admirable job as the immigrants desperate for salvation and Michael Cristofer, as the lawyer, lends an intense sense of integrity.

At the time the play was written the sting of those testifying for the House Un-American Activities Committee, like Kazan, ratting out their friends as communists, held for Miller a righteous sense of injustice. "A View From the Bridge" personifies that morality tale with alacrity.

By Lesley Alexander


Visit the Site
http://www.aviewfromthebridgeonbroadway.com

Cast
Liev Schreiber, Scarlett Johansson

Open/Close Dates
Opening 12/28/2009
Closing 4/4/2010

Box Office
212-239-6200

Theatre Info
James Earl Jones Theatre
138 West 48th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map



Comments

^Top