Scene On Stage
- Scarlett Johansson, Liev Schreiber and Morgan Spector in a tense scene from Arthur Miller's drama.
1950s Drama In Stirring Revival
"A View From the Bridge" on Broadway
By Philip Dorian
Playwright Arthur Miller, who died five years ago this week, exercised strict control over his plays, frequently popping in to productions unannounced. (In 1990, I saw him at a performance of Death of a Salesman in New Jersey.) Miller approved the 1998 revival of A View From the Bridge, which starred Anthony LaPaglia and Allison Janney as Eddie and Beatrice Carbone and featured Brittany Murphy (yes, the same) as Bea's niece Catherine.
Mega-movie star Scarlett Johansson is playing Catherine in the current revival, opposite high-wattage stage actor Liev Schreiber as Eddie. I suspect Miller would have okayed the casting; he had been married to Marilyn Monroe, after all. The entire cast is first-rate, but the eye (and the ticket demand) goes right to Johansson - until the play gets underway.
If Ms. Johansson is the most prominent Hollywood star to appear on Broadway lately (Julia Roberts and Denzel came and went recently), she's also the one who best serves the play, meshing perfectly into a top-quality ensemble.
Eddie and Beatrice have raised her orphaned niece Catherine, now 17. Eddie is way overprotective, masking an intense longing that only he and the young woman fail to recognize. The family takes in a pair of illegal immigrants from Italy, and the attraction between the younger "submarine" and Catherine sets off a chain of events that ends in betrayal and violence. Miller's maxim, "I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were" holds true. Self-deception can be destructive at any level of society.
In Schreiber's subtly strong playing, Eddie's emotions simmer just beneath his macho veneer. Beatrice sees what's happening, but a dread of the truth and wifely tradition keep her from asserting herself. Jessica Hecht plays the heartrending woman perfectly. And Johansson, her 21st Century glamour on hold, submerges herself in the role. Her Catherine, hardly plain, is an utterly un-self conscious girl-woman.
An attorney, Mr. Alfieri (Michael Cristofer), serves as a chorus, addressing the audience and advising Eddie. The two illegals are played by Corey Stoll and Morgan Spector. Judging by their names, none of the principals is Italian. Neither is director Gregory Mosher nor was Arthur Miller. This evocation of 1950s urban Italian-American values and traditions - within Miller's gripping drama - is a triumph of stagecraft.
"A View From the Bridge" at the Cort Theatre, 138 West 48th Street, NYC through April 4. For performance schedule and tickets: (212) 239-6200 or at Telecharge.com.
