The Audience
Tickets from $65 Buy Tickets
Cititour.com Review
Helen Mirren and writer Peter Morgan were lauded for their great work on the 2006 film The Queen. But they haven’t finished with Her Royal Highness just yet. In the brilliant and poignant The Audience, an unconventional biodrama arriving on Broadway following a successful London run, Mirren reprises her role as Queen Elizabeth, this time playing the monarch at various points during her 60-plus-year reign in a series of one-on-one conversations — known as “audiences” — with Britain’s various prime ministers.
Since these weekly meetings, which take place in a specially designated room in Buckingham Palace, are private, Morgan has used his keen insight into politics and people to imagine what might have transpired. And as they did with The Queen, Mirren and Morgan make someone who might seem aloof and cut off from mainstream society, a sharp, fun and somewhat sad figure. Since the play isn’t presented in chronological order, even those who know recent British history won’t be able to anticipate the next scene, and it’s a joy watching Mirren undergo some stunning costume and wig changes without leaving the stage.
But there’s nothing choppy or confusing about Stephen Daldry’s polished production, which has a mixed cast of British actors from the London run and Americans new to their roles. Scenes of an older Queen lending an almost therapeutic ear to recent PMs John Major (Dylan Baker) and Gordon Brown (Rod McLachlan) segue into those of a twentysomething Elizabeth in the 1950s learning the ropes from an elderly Winston Churchill (Dakin Matthews) and proving her mettle with his successor, Anthony Eden (Michael Elwyn).
Throughout, Mirren is the queen of understatement, subtly revealing character through conversations that cross personal and professional boundaries. Even when it’s a struggle for Elizabeth to publicly support her PMs (one of her job’s requirements), Mirren adds just a bit of bite to scenes with Eden, when he gets the nation embroiled in the Suez Crisis — a situation Morgan likens to the 2003 invasion of Iraq — and Margaret Thatcher (Judith Ivey, playing her with too much self-awareness), who was opposed to sanctions against South Africa during the days of apartheid.
The most delightful scenes are between the Queen and Harold Wilson (Richard McCabe), a Labour PM from the ’60s and ’70s who is the antithesis of posh, yet forges the strongest bond with her. Mirren and McCabe won Olivier Awards for the London production, and will probably be represented at the Tony Awards in June.
Between interviews, it’s scenes of Elizabeth as a girl (Elizabeth Teeter and Sadie Sink alternate the role) that tie the play together and are the most moving, as she hopes that her parents will have a son to replace her as heir to the throne. But whether young or old, Elizabeth quietly accepts her destiny and serves her country with dignity. Once again Morgan and Mirren have made royalty ordinary — and combined for an extraordinary portrait in the process.
By Diane Snyder
Visit the Site
http://theaudiencebroadway.com
Cast
Helen Mirren, Dylan Baker, Geoffrey Beevers, Michael Elwyn, Judith Ivey, Richard McCabe, Rufus Wright, Dakin Matthews, Rod McLachlan, Anthony Cochrane, Graydon Long, Jason Loughlin, Michael Rudko, Henny Russell, Tracy Sallows, Sadie Sink, Elizabeth Teeter, Tony Ward
Open/Close Dates
Opening 3/8/2015
Closing 6/28/2015
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 2/14/2015
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
236 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
Comments
Sign up for our newsletter !