Mike Nichols returns to Broadway to direct Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormand and Peter Gallagher in Clifford Odets's The Country Girl. The production will play a limited engagement on Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (242 West 45th Street) beginning Thursday, April 3rd and open on Sunday, April 27th.
The first major New York production in more than thirty years, The Country Girl is a classic backstage story. The title character, Georgie (Frances McDormand), is married to actor Frank Elgin (Morgan Freeman), once a great theatre star, now down on his luck. When Frank is offered a major role by hotshot director Bernie Dodd (Peter Gallagher), he has the chance to make a major comeback.
Academy Award-winner Morgan Freeman last appeared on Broadway in The Gospel at Colonus in 1988, and Academy Award-winner Frances McDormand last appeared on Broadway the same season in A Streetcar Named Desire. Peter Gallagher was last seen on Broadway in Noises Off in 2001 and was nominated for a Tony award for Long Day's Journey into Night.
Director Mike Nichols is an Academy Award-winner and eight-time Tony Award-winner, most recently for the smash hit musical Monty Python’s SPAMALOT. His most recent film is Charlie Wilson's War with Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julia Roberts.
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Friday night at the Jacobs theater, after two scenes.....the curtain does not move. As set changes happen that curtain closes and music from the radio in the apartment of Elgins begins to play. Music plays and then stops...nothing.. nothing...nothing...
an announcement for technical difficulties and then more waiting... Finally Mike Nichols take the mic and announces a Wench broke and they are trying to fix it. He jokes we will have stories to tell and will share stories later. He thanks the audience. @0 minutes later the music starts and we are ready to go... Tenatively, with each set change.
I have to say Peter Gallagher was excellent and MF and FM were also stunning. The plays disruption..didnt help get the groove back or get hte audience back. We were lost and the play was dated. But it had a multilayer of characters that classic plays possess. Classically Odets, wish i was sitting in the orchestra, wish the wench didnt break... wish i got home earlier.
