The Elephant Man
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Cititour.com Review
Sounds like a joke, doesn’t it? A hunky film star headlines a Broadway production of The Elephant Man. Don’t be fooled. In this revival of Bernard Pomerance’s 1979 Tony-winning play, Bradley Cooper makes a striking John Merrick, the severely disfigured 19th-century Englishman who got the “Elephant Man” nickname because of his enlarged, misshapen features. But it’s not simply Cooper’s beauty that makes it hard to take your eyes off him. It’s the way he effectively uses his face and body to suggest Merrick’s abnormalities — without any aid from makeup or prosthetics.
Cooper twists the fingers on his right hand in such a way that the arm suddenly seems longer than the left one (as was the case with Merrick’s limbs). He talks through a mouth that he contorts to one side, and limps as he walks on twisted legs. It’s a painstakingly technical performance, yet one that’s also deeply soulful, and it’s the centerpiece of a work that’s more of an acting showcase than a fully realized play.
After a harrowing beginning, in which Merrick is abandoned by the freak-show proprietor who had employed him, then besieged by a crowd at a train station, he ends up in the care of Frederick Treves (Alessandro Nivola), a doctor who gives him a place to live at the London Hospital. Once his plight becomes known, Merrick is visited by the ladies and gentlemen of Victorian society, forming a close bond with Mrs. Kendal (Patricia Clarkson), an actress whose regular visits arouse his ardor and become the highlight of his existence.
But Scott Ellis’s production, which as a cast of 13, does the former only intermittently, and to be fair he doesn’t have the strongest of plays to work with. Pomerance’s drama is more a character study than a play, with characters only as strong as their relationship to Merrick is. Clarkson’s scenes with Cooper are the play’s most moving, conveying both Merrick’s childlike innocence and adult longing for intimacy. But the evening belongs to Cooper, whose outstanding performance is truly a thing of beauty.
By Diane Snyder
Visit the Site
http://www.elephantmanbroadway.com
Cast
Bradley Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Alessandro Nivola, Anthony Heald, Scott Lowell, Kathryn Meisle, Henry Stram
Open/Close Dates
Opening 12/7/2014
Closing 2/21/2015
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 11/7/2014
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
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