THE HANGOVER REPORT – Roundabout’s Broadway revival of Sam Shepard’s TRUE WEST simmers when it should combust

Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of "True West" by Sam Shepard at the American Airlines Theatre. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano in Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of “True West” by Sam Shepard at the American Airlines Theatre. Photo by Joan Marcus.

This week, the Broadway revival of Sam Shepard’s classic play True West opened at the American Airlines Theatre courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company. Mr. Shepard’s seminal play – a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1983 – tells the increasingly contentious story of two archetypical brothers, Austin (a conservative aspiring screenwriter) and Lee (a wild and unpredictable type).

In my book, True West is Mr. Shepard at his very best. The play’s tight structure and explosive scenes make it among his most accessible and oft staged works (I’m sure the two attributes aren’t mutually exclusive). Its ideal combination of intense naturalism and grandiose mythology – particularly with regards to the hollowness of the American Dream (the play was ahead of its time in this respect) and the nature of masculinity – turns out to be the recipe for an intoxicating cocktail for provocative, visceral theater.

The last Main Stem revival was the near legendary 2000 production starring the late, great, and much-missed Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly, who famously rotated performances as the brothers Austin and Lee. Roundabout’s mounting, meticulously staged by British director James Macdonald, is solid but arguably over-produced. At this ripe point in his career, Ethan Hawke has found just about the perfect role as the unhinged but charismatic Lee, and he doesn’t disappoint. However, I found Paul Dano a bit too mannered and affected as Austin, resulting in stagey scenes, particularly in the second act, that lacked the bite I was hoping for. Indeed, this True West simmers when it should combust.

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TRUE WEST
Broadway, Play
Roundabout Theatre Company at the American Airlines Theatre
2 hours (with one intermission)
Through March 17

Categories: Broadway, Theater

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