‘THERE ARE few plays where you get to play true goodness, to find a way where it’s not cloying or sentimental or naive, or actually, boring. In theatrical terms, it’s always better to play villains,” said Frank Langella to reporter Harry Haun.
Well, what an experience to go to the theater in the middle of the US financial meltdown and a pre-election in which people are calling names, telling lies and slandering one another. At the American Airlines Theatre, we encounter a true moral moment even if only onstage. I do mean the revival of Robert Bolt’s morally challenging Tony-winning play of 1962, “A Man for All Seasons,” which involves that perennial historical dilemma – could Henry VIII set aside a Catholic queen to marry Anne Boleyn?
I had the pleasure of seeing England’s great Paul Scofield do this stunning 16th-century drama of Sir Thomas More and his travails of conscience. This week I had the pleasure all over again when one of America’s greatest actors, Frank Langella, offers a new version, brilliantly directed by Doug Hughes.
The opening-night crowd was fascinating, very top-drawer: Sid and Mercedes Bass, Jayne Wrightsman, Barbara Walters, Elaine Stritch, Chita Rivera, Stockard Channing, Cady Huffman, Julie White, Barbara Cook, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth, Jill Clayburgh, Jessye Norman, Jim Dale, Brian Grazer, Gay and Nan Talese.
Onstage, Langella towers in the role of a man torn between his religious conscience and his love and respect for his King. He follows his heart and soul to his doom. Playwright Bolt is reminding us once again what happens when people are imprisoned without trial and examined under torture. Langella’s Sir Thomas More is imposing, human, humorous, tragic, gallant and best of all – overwhelming when he translates More’s predicament with the King into a legal defense. I had forgotten that More was not only a churchman and an intellectual but versed in the intricacies of the law. It does him no good, of course.
I had recently seen bits of Frank Langella’s screen portrayal in the coming film “Frost/Nixon.” So now I think Frank will be up for both the Oscar and the Tony. Langella is such a feeling and thoughtful actor. I believe he could do anything, except maybe play Tiny Tim.
OH, THE problems of Hollywood soccer moms! When Victoria Beckham comes to her son Romeo‘s soccer games, she usually shows up in designer minidresses and spiky high heels. The other moms now want Posh to de-glam and de-posh and dress like they do in jeans and flip-flops or sandals. (So they wear Prada and Gucci, but they still aren’t tottering around.)
They say when Posh steps in the mud, her shoes get stuck, and she has to wait and call for a bodyguard to lift her out, take the shoes from the mud, clean them, etc. So the moms would prefer that Posh “get down” and not be such a fashion plate.
OSCAR’S LITTLE darling is Kate Win slet, who is still the youngest person ever to be nominated – and without a win – five times! (She was the first actor ever to be nominated four times before she was 30 years old.)
Maybe this will be Kate’s Academy Award year for sure. She’ll have two movies in contention. Her husband, Sam Mendes, directed and co-produced “Revolutionary Road,” in which she stars. It’s based on the acclaimed but little-known novel by Richard Yates. (This Dec. 26 movie reunites Kate with her “Titanic” co-star Leonardo DiCaprio after 11 years. It asks the question – can two people break away from the ordinary without breaking apart?)
Kate’s other current film, “The Reader,” also comes in December, after a tempestuous Scott Rudin–Harvey Weinstein blowup over questions of timing. But now it’s settled. (For “The Reader,” she could snag a Best Supporting nod.)
So the experts are predicting two Oscar nominations for Kate Winslet.
WHEN I hear the magic name Jessica Lange, my heart goes pitty-pat with admiration unexpressed. This grand Oscar-winning actress will surprise us in November with a large still-camera body of work called “50 Photographs” by Jessica Lange from powerHouse Books.
Jessica started out documenting her children, but she has been taking pictures off and on for 15 years, approaching the work as an antidote to the usual Hollywood film fervor. Jessica’s photos, taken in Mexico, Africa, Romania, Russia, Finland, Italy and France, will beguile you. They are great works of art.
THE LIGHTHOUSE lunch to give the Henry Grunwald Award to Las Vegas “royalty” – Elaine and Steve Wynn – and to the Picasso biographer John Richardson – went off with a bang in spite of the financial climate. The sight-impaired benefited, and what passes for the créme de la créme showed up, even though the Dow kept tumbling. This was quite a gathering, I mean – Henry and Nancy Kissinger, Annette de la Renta, Anna and Graydon Carter, Agnes Gund, Liz Rohatyn, Bill and Donna Acquavella, Rosamond Bernier, Charlie Rose and people like that.