New York City
Frank Langella's performance as the deposed Richard Nixon is a powerful tour de force in the new Peter Morgan production of Frost/Nixon here at the Bernard Jacobs Theater. Many fine actors such as Anthony Hopkins have played Nixon well. Philip Baker Hall's one-man Nixon eruption in the 1984 Secret Honor was starkly engaging. After all, as far back as 1961 Phillip Roth said of Nixon as a character that he was "so fantastic, so weird and astonishing, that I found myself beginning to wish I had invented him." (Slate, December 28, 2004)
Langella's work is far more compelling and, yes, strangely empathetic to the disgraced former president. The play was created by Peter Morgan, screenwriter for The Queen and The Last King of Scotland among other biographical works, who took 11 years to write it. John Lahr writes in The New Yorker (April 20, 2007, p. 34) that Morgan believes "the chemistry of opposition makes terrific drama." It certainly does in this case.
Michael Sheen is fine as David Frost, but the show belongs to Langella. Langella told Charlie Rose (April 23, 2007) that he resisted playing Nixon because the character was simply not in his "bag of tricks." "He was not the sort of man I could find, play or inhabit," he added. Langella prepared thoroughly for the part, reading everything about Nixon, interviewing Nixon's close associates and visiting the Nixon Library. " I threw it all away. It had to be my Nixon. It had to be the essence of the man, rather than an imitation," Langella added. He is nominated for a Tony Award, competing this year with Liev Schreiber for Talk Radio and Christopher Plummer for Inherit the Wind.
Interestingly, we were attending the start of the Council on Foreign Relations Annual Meeting prior to last night's show. We saw former NPR and ABC reporter Bob Zelnick at the Council meeting only to arrive at the theater to realize that he had been part of David Frost's team for the Nixon interviews and was being played by the actor Armand Schultz.
I greatly enjoyed Margaret McMillan's wonderful book Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed The World. The Nixon biographical elements provided a useful background for Frost/Nixon, as I'm sure do the Nixon insights in Bob Dallek's new book, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power.
Frank Langella's performance as the deposed Richard Nixon is a powerful tour de force in the new Peter Morgan production of Frost/Nixon here at the Bernard Jacobs Theater. Many fine actors such as Anthony Hopkins have played Nixon well. Philip Baker Hall's one-man Nixon eruption in the 1984 Secret Honor was starkly engaging. After all, as far back as 1961 Phillip Roth said of Nixon as a character that he was "so fantastic, so weird and astonishing, that I found myself beginning to wish I had invented him." (Slate, December 28, 2004)
Langella's work is far more compelling and, yes, strangely empathetic to the disgraced former president. The play was created by Peter Morgan, screenwriter for The Queen and The Last King of Scotland among other biographical works, who took 11 years to write it. John Lahr writes in The New Yorker (April 20, 2007, p. 34) that Morgan believes "the chemistry of opposition makes terrific drama." It certainly does in this case.
Michael Sheen is fine as David Frost, but the show belongs to Langella. Langella told Charlie Rose (April 23, 2007) that he resisted playing Nixon because the character was simply not in his "bag of tricks." "He was not the sort of man I could find, play or inhabit," he added. Langella prepared thoroughly for the part, reading everything about Nixon, interviewing Nixon's close associates and visiting the Nixon Library. " I threw it all away. It had to be my Nixon. It had to be the essence of the man, rather than an imitation," Langella added. He is nominated for a Tony Award, competing this year with Liev Schreiber for Talk Radio and Christopher Plummer for Inherit the Wind.
Interestingly, we were attending the start of the Council on Foreign Relations Annual Meeting prior to last night's show. We saw former NPR and ABC reporter Bob Zelnick at the Council meeting only to arrive at the theater to realize that he had been part of David Frost's team for the Nixon interviews and was being played by the actor Armand Schultz.
I greatly enjoyed Margaret McMillan's wonderful book Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed The World. The Nixon biographical elements provided a useful background for Frost/Nixon, as I'm sure do the Nixon insights in Bob Dallek's new book, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power.