A View From The Bridge

I walked into the Lyceum with extremely high expectations. I'd heard nothing but great things about the production and was eager to see it for myself. Unfortunately my evening at the theater did not live up to my high expectations. It wasn't bad or boring or unenjoyable, it was just not my thing. And I can appreciate that the production was stunningly well designed and the concept was really incredibly. I can appreciate the lack of set, monochromatic color scheme, and subtle lighting design. I thought Mark Strong was unbelievable as Eddie - definitely a Tony Award winning performance in my opinion.

My feelings on "A View From The Bridge" are difficult to put into coherent thoughts because I have no problem saying the production was brilliant, but I can't say I really enjoyed the show. When the kiss scene happened - if you've seen the show or know the play you understand - I was immediately thrust into the action. I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed the show from that point on. But there were literally moments where I wanted nothing more than the pace to speed up because it was agonizingly slow. Still, as an intelligent theater-goer, I can recognize the reasons behind the pace and all that jazz. Like, in my head I understood the concept but in my heart I just couldn't get behind it - "it" being the concept and the story.

I love me some Russell Tovey, but he was miscast here as Rodolpho. Everyone else was strong, but Mark Strong (his last name is hilariously ironic) was so good that no one else really had the chance to measure up. Also, why cast another actor as the INS officer who barely said more than two words and had all of 10 seconds where he was onstage.

There was nothing tangible about this production, and thus I couldn't really connect to any of the characters or situations. The ending got me interested because something was happening, and I have a hard time with shows where nothing happens but the characters are living in a barren universe. If a character in a realistic/naturalistic play are sitting around doing nothing, that's easier to relate to because I've been there, I've existed in that same world and done nothing. But an empty stage doesn't provide for much except the action and dialogue between the people, and there wasn't enough of that to keep me involved and interested. Stripping everything down - including the lack of accents - sometimes works for me, but not with this particular play. The accents, or absence of accents, frustrated me and took me out of the world of the play at times. The actress playing Catherine had a distinct accent, but she was the only one. The Italian immigrants didn't have accents, which was obviously a strong choice but unrealistic. Every choice that was made in the production made sense when I went back and thought hard about it, but even thinking it all through I still couldn't get behind the concept with this play.

Long story short, the production was great but I was not emotionally stimulated or overwhelmed.