Brian's Italian Wrapup: Orphans (Broadway Revival)

This was one show I was dying to see considering my favorite actor, Alec Baldwin was in the Broadway revival. The story originally drawn out by Lyle Kessler is a heart warming and excellent piece of work that was really enjoyable to watch. The play was absolutely great because of it being a drama with many comedic lines thrown out in the play mainly by Baldwin’s character, Harold. Alec’s character had many great lines, however I thought he failed to deliver in a performance playing a Chicago mobster, his performance was not very convincing to say the least. On the other hand, the performances of Ben Foster (Treat) and Tom Sturridge (Philip) were absolutely remarkable and convincing. Foster in my opinion was snubbed from a Tony nominee. Foster delivered such a powerful use of anger in his acting which was very interesting to see as he was able to play a father figure to Philip in the show who struggles with a disability. Sturridge does a brilliant job of playing a young man with a disability and convinces you that he is disabled. His performance was the one that stole the show and could very well win a Tony for Best Supporting Actor. I left the show in such amazement of his performance. Sturridge who carries a British accent was able to cover it up so well, it was perfection. The one thing that bothered me was I thought the character’s all did not have much directed stage movement which I direct the problem at director, Dan Sullivan for. I thought the actor’s were deers in the headlights with the movements they made during the show. I also saw this poor movement in Sullivan’s directed show “Glengarry Glen Ross.” I think Sullivan has to work on this for future works. The other thing that bothered me was the lack of props used and the setting stayed the same the entire show with little changes made at intermission. I think in order to keep a show going on for an hour and fifty minutes in “Orphans” case, change is needed in the setting to keep an audience more enriched to what’s going on. Seeing actors perform with a same background can get very tiring.

Rating – 3.5/5