Jessica Chastain returns to theater with 'A Doll's House'
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Directed by Jamie Lloyd (Cyrano de Bergerac), this revival puts a fresh spin on the century-old tale with a new, adapted script by Pulitzer Prize finalist Amy Herzog. In the case of “Mary Jane,” the 3-year-old Alex, whom we never see, has cerebral palsy and other complications, and is cared for by his divorced mother, Mary Jane, played by McAdams. Alex’s father, also not seen, left the marriage sometime after the child’s birth, and Mary Jane is now surrounded by a diverse community of people, none of whom happen to be male. Herzog never directly addresses the lack of men in Mary Jane’s current life, and her silence on the subject tells us much about how different mothers and fathers can be. Amy Herzog is best known on Broadway for paring-down plays written by Henrik Ibsen. Her version of “An Enemy of the People,” starring Jeremy Strong, now runs on Broadway, and last season her version of “A Doll’s House” starred Jessica Chastain.
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The ways the characters are miked make their performances even more intimate; we hear their breaths as well as their words. Chastain spends much of the time seated, again focusing attention not just on Nora, but also how trapped she feels. While the relationship between Ibsen and Kieler never recovered, one of the playwright's most enduring quotes was written upon reflection of Laura's case. He wrote, "A woman cannot be herself in modern society, with laws made by men and with prosecutors and judges who assess female conduct from a male standpoint."
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In one of the theatre's most historic moments, and what writer James Huneker noted as the, "slammed door reverberated across the roof of the world," Nora rebukes Torvald, disavowing their marriage, walking out of her opulent home into an uncertain future, and slamming the door firmly behind her. After Kieler had been committed, Ibsen was shaken to learn of her fate. Through either guilt or merely inspiration, he turned to the page to process his feelings, creating his play, A Doll's House and the character of Nora Helmer, a young wife and mother who finds herself in near-identical circumstances as Laura Kieler.
A Doll's House on Broadway Starring Jessica Chastain Tickets
Review: NIGHTMARE DOLLHOUSE at Teatro SEA @ The Clemente is a thrill! - BroadwayWorld
Review: NIGHTMARE DOLLHOUSE at Teatro SEA @ The Clemente is a thrill!.
Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Perhaps best of all is Thornton, whose terminally ill Dr. Rank – he suffers from a lifetime of bad health inherited from a syphilitic father – can’t hide an abiding if inevitably soul-crushing love for the married Nora. It’s through his eyes and devotion that we most fully comprehend Nora’s spell-casting appeal. Whether the two deeply committed friends are engaging in small talk or something more, their love – platonic for one, romantic for the other – is truer than anything in Nora’s farce of a marriage. Instead, when Torvald reads the blackmailer’s letter and responds with the expected outrage and blame, Nora experiences freedom of an entirely different sort, a freedom that comes only with the revelation of truth. Nora, of course, is the wife of the domineering Torvald (Moayed, who plays conniving Stewy on Succession).
This stark, sometimes chilly production is an eavesdropper’s paradise, so intimate and conversational that all but the most guarded among us will be susceptible to its frequent enticements. Chastain is joined by Arian Moayed, a Tony Award and Emmy Award nominee, as 'Torvald Helmer,' Jesmille Darbouze as 'Kristine Linde,' Tasha Lawrence as 'Anne-Marie,' Michael Patrick Thornton as 'Dr. Rank,' and Grammy Award winner Okieriete Onaodowan as 'Nils Krogstad.' The production's understudies are Franklin Bongjio, Carey Rebecca Brown, Melisa Soledad Pereyra, and José Joaquín Pérez. It is a thing of beauty, this play, and a relief to be spared the spectacle in favor of a kind of pure view of what Ibsen meant to convey. Chastain’s performance is restrained, and yet you can witness each unique moment register on her face (there are a lot of silent tears and, because there are no props, no handkerchiefs to soak them up with!). And Moayed as Torvald is convincing as a man who sounds like a loving, devoted husband but is, underneath, selfish, shallow, ungrateful and narcissistic.
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In my otherwise admiring review of the South Coast Repertory production, I pointed out that Shannon Cochran, while lucidly revealing Nora’s mind, doesn’t disclose much about the character’s heart in a performance that keeps the role’s humor mostly latent. The Broadway production, tilted more toward intellectual comedy than psychological drama, clarifies that Hnath isn’t all that interested in Nora’s private feelings. A versatile stage veteran best known for her Emmy-winning performance as Jackie on “Roseanne,” Metcalf has the ability to fully inhabit a comic universe without effacing more difficult human truth.
The honesty, though, is too little, too late for this marriage, and Nora’s self-actualization will seem to strike a bit too abruptly if you haven’t been studying Chastain’s expressions. Her face registers the gamut of Nora’s feelings, from nervous forced satisfaction through a waning confidence that her physical beauty will see her through anything. We watch as Nora evolves (or devolves) from the smug superiority she lauds over her broke, widowed friend Kristine through the panic of a law-breaker caught in her own deceptions and, finally, to the scary, thrilling liberation of freedom as nothing left to lose. In this video, watch as Tony nominee Jessica Chastain chats more about the importance of arts education, why this role was so important to her, and so much more. In this video, watch as Tony nominee Arian Moayed chats more about audiences' reactions to A Doll's House, why this company is so important to him, and so much more. For Nora, this is an important first step towards awakening and enlightenment, and in 1879, it must have been as thrilling as it was scandalous.
We expect Mary Jane to break down, explode, get pissed off long before she does. Anne Kauffman’s direction takes a while to coalesce the various facets of Herzog’s play. As presented by McAdams, Mary Jane is more than a little wan in her encounters with the various women who visit her apartment over the course of this two-hour one-act play. They include a super (Brenda Wehle), a nurse (April Matthis), a niece (Lily Santiago) and a Facebook friend (Susan Pourfar), who also has a child with special needs. Director Jamie Lloyd brings his vision for A Doll’s House to Broadway for the first time. (The production was supposed to premiere with Chastain in London's West End.) The show marks Lloyd’s second Broadway credit following Betrayal, starring Tom Hiddleston, in 2019.
‘A Doll’s House’ Review: Jessica Chastain Shines in a Broadway Staging That Brings Sparkling Clarity to a Classic
Oh, and there’s Jessica Chastain, her red hair pulled back, seated in a wooden chair on a turntable and slowly circling the stage in a simple blue dress. Over time, one by one, the rest of the cast comes out, taking chairs off a stack onstage, placing them here and there, and sitting quietly with their backs to Chastain. Such a storied play is bound to attract many celebrated actors, and it has. Lots of celebrities have taken on the iconic roles of Nora, Torvald, and more. Discover the celebrities who have starred in A Doll’s House and which productions they led.
One of the most acclaimed actors of her generation, Jessica Chastain will inhabit one of the theater’s most iconic roles, re-energizing the play for a whole new generation. Is a Grammy Award-winning stage, film, and television actor known for his acclaimed performances on Broadway including originating the roles of 'Hercules Mulligan' and 'James Madison' in Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony Award-winning production, Hamilton. Since making his Broadway debut in 2012, Onaodowan has also starred in productions of both Cyrano de Bergerac and Rocky. He was most recently seen playing the lead role of 'Pierre' in Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. His Off-Broadway work includes Hamilton at the Public, Luce, Neighbors, and Young Jean Lee's The Shipment as well as the first national tour of American Idiot.
While Ibsen was initially offended at the young writer's audaciousness, he and his wife, Suzannah, quickly saw much promise in the work and forged a close friendship and mentorship with her. The charismatic and lively young woman quickly enchanted the couple, who helped to nurture her literary ambitions. The three grew so close, in fact, that Laura earned the affectionate nickname, "skylark" from Ibsen.
Though the play is regularly produced, and even spawned a sequel with Lucas Hnath's 2017 continuation, A Doll's House, Part 2, many theatre fans are unaware of the true and hidden history behind this theatrical classic. Jessica Chastain stars as 'Nora Helmer' in Lloyd's radical new production of Henrik Ibsen's landmark drama A Doll's House in a new version by Amy Herzog. Any aversion to minimalism or even the vaguely avant-garde might spur disappointment in this production. There are no period costumes here, no homey 19th century furnishings or Christmas trees in sight. This Doll’s House, opening tonight at the Hudson Theatre, is as much suggestion as action, our main character seated in a chair throughout nearly all of the play, even when she dances. At more than a few points during Jamie Lloyd’s hypnotic Broadway revival of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, you could swear that stars Jessica Chastain and Succession‘s Arian Moayed are confiding in you, whispering their secrets to no one else.
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