Nancy Groves 

James Franco and Chris O’Dowd in Of Mice and Men on Broadway – reviews

John Steinbeck's classic is revived on Broadway with an all-star cast, but the critics can't agree if its leads bring huge chemistry or are simply reading from CliffsNotes
  
  

Chris O'Dowd as Lennie and James Franco as George in Of Mice and Men at the Longacre theatre in New
Undercooked? … Chris O'Dowd as Lennie and James Franco as George in Of Mice and Men at the Longacre theatre in New York. Photo: Richard Phibbs/Polk & Co/AP Photograph: Richard Phibbs/Polk & Co/AP

Of Mice and Men may be a staple of the school syllabus, but don't mistake the motivations of the throngs of teenage girls massed outside New York's Longacre theatre. They are queueing to catch sight of Hollywood actors James Franco and Chris O'Dowd, plus Leighton Meester (of Gossip Girl fame) – all making their Broadway debuts in a revival of John Steinbeck's classic 1937 tale of Depression-era America.

No doubt their casting is grabbing headlines but Anna D Shapiro's production has divided the US critics, who can't decide whether its leads demonstrate real chemistry and depth as tragic heroes Lennie and George or if, as the LA Times puts it, Franco is in "CliffsNotes mode".

Marilyn Stasio, Variety:

James Franco and Chris O'Dowd may be the big draws (and well deserving of all their kudos) in this emotionally devastating revival of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. But the other star of the show is helmer Anna D Shapiro, who turns in an impeccably mounted production without a single blemish. The ensemble acting is flawless. The design work is breathtaking ...

O'Dowd has mastered a small but refined repertoire of facial expressions and gestures (one hand movement has the delicacy of an artist) that is quite astonishing ... The multitalented and ever-so-busy Franco gives a performance that's equally honest and beautifully crafted ... [he] has the kind of storytelling voice that can make anyone believe in his dreams.

David Rooney, the Hollywood Reporter:

The headline news in this stirring Broadway remount is the stage debut of peripatetic artistic adventurer James Franco opposite the wonderful Chris O'Dowd as itinerant ranch workers George and Lennie ... If he's not quite a natural onstage, registering as an actor more accustomed to transmitting nuances of feeling to a camera, [Franco] brings warmth and understated manliness to George in a performance that grows more assured as the play progresses. Most crucially, Franco has beautiful chemistry with O'Dowd ...

Shapiro treats Steinbeck's dusty yet honest sentimentality with integrity, and her casting down to the smallest roles is sterling. The most invaluable support comes from Jim Norton's shattering Candy, the doddery farmhand disabled in an accident, who all too clearly sees his own future going the way of his toothless old mutt ... And Leighton Meester is lovely in her Broadway debut as Curly's pretty wife.

Ben Brantley, the New York Times:

Mr Franco, Mr O'Dowd and their director, Anna D Shapiro, face the daunting task of turning folk heroes as fixed as the heads on Mount Rushmore back into pulsing flesh. This shouldn't be impossible. After all, actors regularly tackle, and often make us rethink, endlessly interpreted characters such as Hamlet, Stanley Kowalski and Willy Loman.

Yet somehow Ms Shapiro's handsome, meticulously designed production (featuring impressive Walker Evans-evoking sets by Todd Rosenthal) feels about as fluid as a diorama in a history museum. And its two undeniably talented leading men, though known as quirky and adventurous screen stars, here wear their archetypes like armour.

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press:

There are hordes of teenage girls waiting outside the Longacre theatre each night hoping to squeal over uber-muffin James Franco. But true theatre fans should be waiting for his co-star to emerge. Chris O'Dowd, known more for films such as Bridesmaids and Friends with Kids, turns in a very impressive performance as the mentally challenged Lennie in a fine revival of Of Mice and Men. Franco? He's pretty good in his Broadway debut as George, but O'Dowd, in a tricky role, steals the show ...

Leighton Meester, of Gossip Girl fame, has a less good time of it ... Her line-reading is flat, her comfort in the character nonexistent. Meester may be as pretty as Franco, but she's way out of her depth here.

Charles McNulty, the LA Times:

Why is James Franco, the world's most famous perpetual student, making his Broadway debut in a revival of that panting war horse Of Mice and Men, a favourite of high-school English teachers and Turner Classic Movies addicts? ... He's obviously an actor of wide-ranging intelligence, but his intellectualism doesn't serve him here. His acting – unspontaneous, utterly devoid of reflexes and lacking the gremlin smirk of his best film work – happens strictly from the neck up ...

This revival, I'm sorry to say, is just another quizzical episode of The James Franco Show, that pop-culture reality series growing vainer by the minute.

 

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