R&R reviews - NYC

[GreenEyesToo]

First one's up - a bit so-so:

www.talkinbroadway.com/world/RockRoll.html

"As for the more active participants, Cox makes Max - not incidentally, born the month of the Russian Bolshevik takeover in 1917 - a dynamic discontent with a deceptively disarming softer side, while Sewell errs on the cold side as Jan but nonetheless makes him a complex and compelling leader through three of the most turbulent and important decades of recent human history. Both actors deftly embody the volatility of the time, demonstrating how the old regime so often unwillingly gives way to the new."

Either Rufus was really off tonight, or that reviewer has no soul -"errs on the cold side"? Rubbish! Rufus couldn't have made Jan a warmer character.
ADDED:

www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=114&sid=1286143

"The amazing Sewell" ...."The characters age just as quickly and with astonishing realism, particularly Sewell's Jan. The actor flawlessly captures the man's journey from young idealist to weary, apparently beaten middle-aged man. Yet throughout, Jan retains a generosity to others that is enormously appealing."

I like the second reviewer better!

[maxx02]

brilliant!


The Associated Press critic loves Rufus. That's one that will get picked up and redistributed all over. You'll read that one a hundred times by the end of the week. I've seen it in three different places already.

Keep your fingers crossed for the NY Times.

[maxx02]

Nice stuff for Rufus from Variety:

or those of its mostly unengaging characters -- had half the humanity packed into Sewell's wonderful performance.

But the most consistent involvement comes via Jan. Presenting a touchingly arrhythmic figure despite a lifetime of passionate immersion in music, and balancing his intelligence with a disarming hint of social awkwardness, Sewell deftly shapes the character's path from passivity through persecution to rehabilitation and unexpected, somewhat whimsical deliverance.

Jan embodies the bittersweet view of rock 'n' roll as a language of underground political protest whose once-trenchant social significance has given way to meaningless commercialization, though its liberating power somehow endures.

www.variety.com/review/VE1117935305.html?categoryid=33&cs=1&nid=2562

[ukelelehip]

Variety is harsh on the play but it's a rave for Rufus!!

[maxx02]

And the last important one from The New York Times:

...the rhythms of Mr. Nunn’s swift-footed staging had me hooked again. So did Mr. Sewell’s portrayal of a hopeful, smart young man who, though aged prematurely by a punishing totalitarian regime, holds on to the essence of what he always was. In the second act, when Jan returns to Cambridge in 1990, Mr. Sewell’s performance becomes that rare thing in acting: a palimpsest in which you see all the layers of a single life.


theater2.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/theater/reviews/05rock.html?8dpc


High praise for Rufus from the NYTimes. I couldn't be more thrilled.

[ukelelehip]

The NY Times review is always going to be the one that matters the most. And it's a rave.

Congrats to the entire RnR team!!!

[uncorked]

So let me get this right...Max is the soft one and Jan is cold?? Did we see the same play??? Who is this guy anyway. You New Yorkers...where does this guy rate in the theatre world? I know where he rates with me. The other reviews sound GREAT. I'm so excited for Rufus and the cast. Thank you Maxx and GE2 for being so on top of things!! Was anyone there tonight??? or at least outside afterwards

[ree]

Mr. Sewell’s performance becomes that rare thing in acting: a palimpsest in which you see all the layers of a single life.

Bravo Rufus!

[maxx02]

A couple more

From the New York Sun: it is Mr. Sewell's chastening journey toward political and personal serenity — christened by an awkward, beatific dance to the chugging chords of the Rolling Stones — that I will not soon forget.

www.nysun.com/article/65877

From the Washington Post: Stoppard's buoyant imagination is invigorated here by tributaries of ideas about politics and art that flow into rivers of wisdom about the nature of revolution and the human craving for free expression. It is principally, however, through the moving struggle of one person, the Czech academic -- played with endearing reserve by the captivating Rufus Sewell -- that the dramatist gives 'Rock 'n' Roll' its fiercely beating heart.[/b]

www.topix.net/content/wapo/2007/11/stoppard-gets-his-groove-on

There are a few more such as The Daily News but the reviewers don't seem to know how to do a review and waste the time reciting what the show is about. No point in wasting space with them here--since they are content free.

[maxx02]

uncorked said:

So let me get this right...Max is the soft one and Jan is cold?? Did we see the same play??? Who is this guy anyway. You New Yorkers...where does this guy rate in the theatre world?

Everyone sees things differently and every evening of a performance is different. Perhaps the reviewer was more of Brian Cox vintage and identified with him more easily.

As to who this person is? No idea. Seems like Ticketmaster has their own reviewer. In the scheme of things it's completely irrelevant.

[rai]

If I only knew what palimpsest meant.

The first of my 7 times in London, the couple next to us left at the interval. I figured they were expecting "We Will Rock You".

GO RUFUS!!!!!!!!!! ;D

Rai

[maxx02]

rai said:

If I only knew what palimpsest meant.

The first of my 7 times in London, the couple next to us left at the interval. I figured they were expecting "We Will Rock You".

every time I've seen it some one sitting near me has left. I figured it was me.

Lot of conflicting opinions about the show itself. Seriously, it's not ever going to be for everyone. It's just not that sort of show. It's not a musical.

I admire and respect Rufus for taking chances on something not in the main stream. If everyone doesn't like it, so what? As long as they come away talking that's all the matters. Stoppard is Stoppard. As one review said, it isn't ever going to be easy and that's something many people don't want to tackle in their entertainment.

And frankly none of this has a wit to do with his performance which seems to have been very roundly praised.

on to the Tony's

[Tinkerdog]

and you say Rufus doesn't know how astounding he is? Well, if he is reading this Board, none of these critics are related to any of us!

[maxx02]

You say that like our opinions don't count. We're the ones plunking out the 100.00 for a theatre ticket and the 25.00 for a DVD and in my case the 14.00 for a movie ticket.

as to Rufus knowing how brilliant he is... I'm sure he has some internal standard that keeps moving just out of reach, just like all the rest of us.

but this can't hurt.

[ukelelehip]

maxx02 said:

on to the Tony's

Ha, f*cking A!