Celebrity Gossip
Gandolfini plays ‘God’
What does “God of Carnage” mean and what are you to expect from a night in the theater that includes the TV superstar, James Gandolfini, the Oscar-and Tony-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden, our old friend from the Purple Rose Theater—the journeyman actor Jeff Daniels and the NY Film Critics winner and character woman of all work Hope Davis? (To give all their credits would be simply too much.)
I’ll tell you what the title means; it indicates the historical way the all-powerful creator has treated miserable little human beings throughout history. And with this in mind, these four adept actors give us—human nature at its best, its worst and its most hysterical. Under the direction of Matthew Warchus, they interact together like a Mozart quartet breaking apart at the seams. Each actor is superb, the interactions like perfect clockwork and each character is reminiscent of someone you know and love.
Don’t let anyone tell you what “God of Carnage” is about. Don’t let anyone spoil it by explaining the plot to you. Just go, fasten your seat belt and sit there for the bumpy night, as these fabulous talents enact Yasmina Reza’s play, as translated by Christopher Hampton.
(Playwright Reza previously wrote “Art,” but that has nothing to do with this!)
This comedy of grown people holding back and letting go is one of the funniest things I’ve encountered in 60 years of Broadway!
So far “God of Carnage” should win the Tony Award, provided the voters aren’t too far gone in searching for “serious” stuff.
Gandolfini opens as a mild-mannered, somewhat hen-pecked, decent husband and ends with a roar, which he manages to make entirely different from the familiar tirades and assaults of Tony Soprano. What a great actor! Jeff Daniels, too—usually sympathetic and middle-of-the-road—has here perfected his cynical insensitive lawyer into a realistic white-collar villain seldom realized. Miss Harden is the idealist out to save Darfur and the world; you know her very well—she is today’s Everywoman. And she is, as usual, magnificent. And Hope Davis must definitely win something for unprecedented projectile vomiting onstage and other feats of mesmerism in changing a character’s behavior about 40 times before your eyes. She is my new heroine!
The set by Mark Thompson is streamlined and effective and his white tulips are definitely the stars of the night! Don’t miss “God of Carnage” at the Bernie Jacobs Theater in New York City!
•••
Here’s a scoop on a little $3 million film that is, or will be, the talk of the movie world. Nobody I can find has even seen it yet but it is already elevated into Academy Award-winning gossip.
It is director Lee Daniel’s film called “Precious,” based on a book titled “Push” and backed by none other than our old friend Oprah Winfrey. As near as I can tell, this little film boasts an obese 16-year-old, impregnated by her father and with a mother (to be played by the comedian Monique) who beats and torments her. Schoolmates also bully her. In the end she is rescued in a most unorthodox manner, but I don’t want to give away the little plot I know.
Mr. Daniels is the guy who helped bring another now famous black woman to the Oscar ring—I do mean Halle Berry in “Monster Ball.” More anon, after I talk with Lee.
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