In London this past season, there was one show that everyone was talking about. The Young Vic production of A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE premiered in April 2014 to ecstatic reviews and instantly sold out its initial engagement. The production subsequently transferred to London's West End for another completely sold-out run. It won the 2015 Olivier Awards for Best Revival, Best Actor and Best Director. It was named the top theater pick of the year by The Evening Standard, The Guardian and The Independent. The Times called it "one of the great theatrical productions of the decade."
The Financial Times called it "superb, searing and triumphant." Time Out wrote, "To say visionary director Ivo van Hove's production is the best show in London is like saying Stonehenge is the current best rock arrangement in Wiltshire; it almost feels silly to compare this pure, primal, colossal thing with anything else on the stage."
The visionary director, Olivier winner Ivo van Hove, will be making his Broadway debut. The stellar cast will be led by Mark Strong (The Imitation Game; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), who won the Olivier Award for his portrayal of Eddie Carbone in Miller's dark and passionate classic drama set on the Brooklyn waterfront.
What makes this slight misfit of play and production finally unimportant is that the actors are so devastatingly good. Their habit of fealty to character as defined by dialogue survives the director's effacements. Mark Strong may be styled to look like a neutral Everyman of the past or future, but, in his bearing and cadence and anguish and bafflement, he is only Red Hook's Eddie Carbone, in full tragic tilt. Phoebe Fox makes Catherine's transition from baby doll to furious womanhood thrillingly transparent, just as Nicola Walker, as Eddie's wife, Beatrice, shows how every hopeful choice she and Eddie have made now closes in on her like a trap. (For once, Beatrice and Catherine actually look like aunt and niece.) The Italian brothers, Marco (Michael Zegen) and Rodolpho (Russell Tovey), are both excellent in difficult roles, and Michael Gould makes of Alfieri the perfectly regretful guide. Some of the credit for the cast's superb work obviously belongs to van Hove; he knew he needed actors who could stand up to his powerful, showy interventions. It's a fair trade; those interventions probably made this revival viable. Still, one looks on them, and on van Hove's upcoming Broadway production of The Crucible with, as Alfieri says, 'a certain alarm.'
Van Hove is highly dramatic, but he isn't always very subtle. Some of the performances, though, are both. Strong turns Eddie's tragedy into an utter inability and unwillingness to understand his own motives, even when he turns Rodolpho and his friend Marco (Michael Zegan) over to the immigration authorities to have them deported back to Sicily.
1955 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
1965 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
1983 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
1997 | Broadway |
Roundabout Revival Broadway |
2010 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
West End |
West End West End |
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2015 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
2019 | Immersive |
Brave New World Repertory Theatre's Immersive Production Immersive |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Mark Strong |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Nicola Walker |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Ivo van Hove |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | A View From the Bridge |
2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Mark Strong |
2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Nicola Walker |
2016 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | Arthur Miller |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Mark Strong |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Nicola Walker |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Ivo van Hove |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play (Broadway or off-Broadway) | A View From the Bridge |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Ivo Van Hove |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Play | Jan Versweyveld |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Mark Strong |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Jan Versweyveld |
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