Jane Fonda’s Broadway Comeback
In the New York Times, Ben Brantley reviews Jane Fonda’s return to Broadway after 46 years:
"It’s a fine line between brittle and breakable. Jane Fonda blurs that distinction to memorable effect in 33 Variations, the new drama written and directed by Moisés Kaufman that opened on Monday night at the Eugene O’Neill Theater. Playing a sharp-witted, terminally ill musicologist confronting the betrayal of her body, Ms. Fonda exudes an aura of beleaguered briskness that flirts poignantly with the ghost of her spiky, confrontational screen presence as a young woman.
…
"Ms. Fonda, 71, is surely nervous about performing for a live audience after decades of working mostly in front of cameras, followed by years of semiretirement from acting. After all, younger stars of comparable renown have sputtered and flamed out on Broadway in recent years. But it is to Ms. Fonda’s advantage that she is playing someone who, used to being in unconditional charge of her life, is suddenly faced with the prospect of losing control."
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Andy Rooney in Variety:
"It’s been 46 years since Jane Fonda’s last role on Broadway but there’s no sign of rustiness in the cool command she brings to 33 Variations. Fonda certainly knows her way around characters like musicologist Dr. Katherine Brandt, an impassioned woman hungry for knowledge and reluctant to concede her weaknesses. Playing an emotionally distant parent who finds closeness with her daughter only at the end of her life, the iconic star’s work here is also illuminated by personal history, mirroring her own famously troubled relationship with her father. If Moises Kaufman’s elegant production outshines his schematic play, Fonda nonetheless distinguishes it with integrity and class."
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Ed Pilkington in The Guardian:
"Her acting is understated — crucial in a play that could be saccharine were it not for its pared down delivery. She captures brilliantly the passion of Brandt’s search that intensifies as her body weakens.
"She is also admirably collegiate. Fonda never dominates the stage, working always within the ensemble. In particular, she never crowds out the real star of the show, identified by the New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini as Beethoven’s music itself."
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Also in the 33 Variations cast: Samantha Mathis, Colin Hanks (son of Tom Hanks, in his Broadway debut), Zach Grenier, Susan Kellermann, Don Amendolia, Erik Steele and Diane Walsh.
However "schematic" or "saccharine," here’s hoping that 33 Variations will be staged — with Jane Fonda — in the Los Angeles area in the near future. Perhaps a film adaptation will follow?
More review snippets of Jane Fonda’s Broadway comeback can be found in the Los Angeles Times.
Jane Fonda’s previous Broadway appearance, by the way, took place in the spring of 1963 in a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude, also starring Geraldine Page. Tom O’Neil has more on Fonda’s Broadway career at the Gold Derby.
Also in the Los Angeles Times, review snippets of Kirk Douglas‘ autobiographical one-man show, Before I Forget, which he also wrote, at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Los Angeles (more exactly, Culver City).
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Congratulations, Jane!
You’re the greatest actress of your generation.