Recently, my daughter, Brooke, decided to surprise herself with tickets to see Billy Joel for her birthday. She bought two tickets to the concert and sent me a text message –
Brooke: Just got two tix to see Billy Joel for my birthday. No one I’d rather spend my birthday with than you so you’re coming. Already bought. You can’t say no.
Me: OK. Where?
Brooke: MSG
Me: Huh?
Brooke: Madison Square Garden.
Me: In NYC?!
And so we planned a long weekend in Manhattan. It occured to me to look online to see what was playing in the theatres during our stay. And look what I found –
It took me a New York minute to click on the “buy” button. And then I sent Brooke a text –
Me: I just got us two tix to see Helen Mirren in The Audience.
Brooke: Who?
Me: Helen Mirren. British actress. You’ll know her when we see her. She’s playing the Queen.
Brooke: K
K? That’s what you say to two tickets to see The Audience? K?
So, Thursday night we went to see Billy Joel at the Garden. He was fabulous. Here’s a clip of Piano Man from the show we attended on May 28.
And on Friday night we had dinner at Patsy’s iconic Italian restaurant and then headed to the theatre to see Dame Helen (Yay!)
The Schoenfeld Theatre is intimate in size, so when we found our seats, I was delighted to find that we were just six rows back from the stage. I could write my own review of the play, which, unsurprisingly, was fabulous, but there are others who have written better and so I give you the excellent piece written for the Huffington Post:
Take a revered, honored and accomplished actress (Dame Helen Mirren) and put her in a new play which reprises a character that won her a Best Actress Oscar in 2006 (as Elizabeth in “The Queen”). And not a mere ripoff. Put it in the hands of Peter Morgan, who wrote “The Queen,” and whose theatrical bonafides include the astonishingly good Frost/Nixon; and director Stephen Daldry, of the stunning 1992 revival of An Inspector Calls and the international musical hit Billy Elliott. There are enough fans of Mirren, and H.R.H., and Anglophile television, to attract S.R.O. audiences in the West End and on Broadway for as long as the star wishes to wear the crown.
“Snapshots from The Queen,” you might call it; in this case, it is more like a scrapbook. “The Queen” was set in one year of Elizabeth’s reign, 1997, when she was dealing with the death of Princess Diana; Morgan’s The Audience centers on sixty years-worth of Elizabeth’s weekly audiences with her Prime Ministers (eight of whom are represented, starting with Winston Churchill and ending with the current David Cameron). And there’s the rub. While most theatergoers are likely to be thrilled byThe Audience–or more precisely, by Mirren’s performance in The Audience–the concept dictates that we will be seeing pages from a scrapbook, without the dramatic heft that would make it a fine and/or important play.
Yes, there is great life for The Audience with Helen Mirren; but the script itself seems to be merely an element of the evening devised to support the star performance, in the same manner as Bob Crowley’s sets and costumes and Ivana Primorac’s hair and make-up. Consider The Audience without the participation of Helen Mirren; while other stars are likely to try it–Kristin Scott Thomas is scheduled to do the play at London’s Apollo next month–the appeal, here, is watching the star of “The Queen” playing The Queen live and in person. Compare this to Frost/Nixon; while original stars Sheen and Langella were unforgettable in the roles, the play is more than strong enough to work with any number of actors.
The format is simple enough. The Equerry–a combination butler/narrator–sets the scene; Geoffrey Beevers, one of the four actors imported with Mirren from London, has a droll and authoritative, raised-eyebrow manner which keeps the evening moving. One is slightly surprised that he doesn’t start the affair with one of those “the action starts in 1936, before the age of cell phones, so please do toggle yours off” speeches. We then see Elizabeth with one of her more familiar prime ministers, John Major (a somewhat restrained and not-quite-comfortable Dylan Baker). Major exits; Equerry makes a little speech; a team of ladies-in-waiting help Mirren through an impressive, onstage costume change that trims forty-three years; and we see the silhouette of her first prime minister, Winston Churchill. Daldry gives Dakin Matthews a grand reveal, almost as if the silhouette of Alfred Hitchcock sprang to life. (This was presumably effective in not-so-merry olde England, but at the press preview attended it was clear that a major portion of the patrons had no idea who this Mr. Churchill was.)
That’s the framework. Between ministers, Mirren has costume and wig changes; some onstage, some off, and some rather remarkable–but there’s something faulty when one of the major highlights of an entertainment are the costume changes. (The most memorable element of the recent musical Cinderella, alas, was a costume change–which kept people talking but was indicative of the lackluster show itself.) Morgan also gives us a running character he calls “Young Elizabeth”–played at the performance attended by Sadie Sink, who alternates in the role with Elizabeth Teeter–who talks to one servant or other (and eventually her elder self) about how she would rather be able to go outside and play like all the other girls and boys.
The “imaginary conversations from history” nature of things is interrupted by the appearance of Harold Wilson, the Labour minister who served from 1964-70 and 1974-76. Wilson has an awkward, bull-in-the-china-shop scene in the first act, and a highly amusing scene with the queen in Scotland, in which he describes the Queen’s Balmoral C
astle as a “Rheinland Schloss.” (He continually kids the Regent about her family’s Germanic heritage.) The play ends with a third Wilson encounter, this one moving and emotionally affecting.
I can’t say whether the Wilson scenes are better than the rest of the play because of the actor, Richard McCabe; or whether Mr. McCabe, who won the Olivier Award for this performance (as did Mirren), sparks the play alive because of the writing. In any event, Wilson is the only Minister up there created as more than a revue sketch. In fact, Elizabeth and Wilson–as drawn by Morgan–could populate their own play, and it might well be as compelling as Frost/Nixon.
Mr. McCabe is a treat to watch. So, to a lesser extent, is Michael Elwyn as Anthony Eden. His participation is restricted to one, short scene; but it offers high stakes writing, centering on the Suez crisis of 1956, which tarnished the United Kingdom’s place in the postwar world and caused Eden’s resignation in disgrace. The Suez scene, following Balmoral and followed by the Margaret Thatcher sequence, makes the second act far more involving than the first. This despite the fact that Judith Ivey, who storms on like a Texan Thatcher, seems somewhat out of place (although this might be a question of the writing).
So look to The Audience for an audience with Helen Mirren, dressed and coiffed as Elizabeth II. An audience with Helen Mirren makes a fine night’s entertainment, but not–in this case–a compelling dramatic event.
You can watch a clip of
Dame Helen’s acceptance speech from the 2015 Tony Awards when she was voted Best Leading Actress. She also won the Olivier Award for this role in 2013.
After the show, when Brooke and I were leaving the theater, we saw that barricades had already been erected either side of the stage door and a car was parked, ready and waiting, at the curb. Brooke offered to stand with me if I had my heart set on seeing Dame Helen, but I declined. I decided that it was best to recall her as she was on the stage, rather than when being hounded by autograph seekers.
So we turned away and began to walk down the block on our way to the
Rum House for some much anticipated cocktails. Note: I had my very first Pimm’s Cup. Yumm.
However, we’d only gone a few steps towards the next door theatre when we found that the actors who’d appeared in that play were already on their way out. I stood on tip toes and craned my neck in order see the actor who was causing such a stir.
Brooke: Can you see who it it?
Me: Yes.
Brooke: Well, w
ho is it?
Me: Bill Nighy!
Brooke: Who?
Me: A British actor. He’s been in Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Pirates of the Caribean. You’d know him if you could see him, he looks exactly like himself! Too bad you’re too short to see. We’ll Google him when we get to the Rum House.
Bill Nighy is starring in Skylight with Carey Mulligan
New York was wonderful, as it turned out, and it was great to have four whole days alone with Brooke. Still, I didn’t see myself returning any time soon – until I read that Colin Firth is set to play Henry Higgins in the
Broadway revival of My Fair Lady.
Victoria here with a rant!!
I did not see Helen Mirren in the play on Broadway. I have seen (twice) the Live from London presentation from the stage of the theater recorded in 2013 and recently re-shown at theatres across the U.S., perhaps elsewhere.
This second presentation included an interview between Helen Mirren and the director Stephen Daldry, in which they discussed some of the changes they had made in the script for American audiences not as familiar with British 20th-21st C. history. So I didn’t see the play as reviewed in Kristine’s post.
But, my dear blog partner, how could you consider this review from the Huffington Post, which you included in all its foolhardiness, to be “excellent?”
I beg to differ, though based on another version of the play. This Huff Post Reviewer, no doubt intending to be oh-so-clever, instead ended up sounding like both ends of Shakespeare’s Seven Ages. Infantile, “mewling and puking,” and aged, “sans teeth…sans taste.”
The reviewer found it not a “compelling dramatic event?” Hogwash. I found it so compelling I saw it twice – albeit a different version. And the reviewer, ( s/he) thought the attention to the costume changes amusing but superfluous to the thrust of the play. Oh? You don’t get the part where she has been Queen to 12 PMs and has changed from age 25 to 80+? Shame on you, oh worthless writer.
I understand that The Audience, the version I saw on film, is either out already or soon to be issued on DVD. If you are a fan of Helen Mirren, and/or the Queen, and/or the theatre, best get it and see for yourself.