The limited run was originally scheduled to play to July 5 at the St. James Theatre. It opened April 27 after previews from April 14. By close, it will have played 16 previews and 32 performances.
The lack of 2009 Tony Award nominations for the provocative staging helped take the wind out of the sails (and sales) of the box office. (The reviews were mostly positive.) The next production at the St. James will be the revival of the musical Finian's Rainbow, to begin in late summer. No dates have been officially announced.
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Tony Award-winning director Falls (Long Day's Journey Into Night, Death of a Salesman) and his cast of five — including two-time Tony Award winner Dennehy, stage and screen star Carla Gugino and Tony nominee Pablo Schreiber — reunited for this new Broadway limited run of the staging that was critically acclaimed earlier this year at the Goodman Theatre, the Tony Award-winning resident theatre in the Windy City.
Doing away with any creaky naturalism and intruding neighbor folk, Falls cut ten characters out of the play, and streamlined it to 100 minutes, focusing on the turbulent family drama at the core. The result is a kind of abstract expressionism, critics said. During one wordless section in the production, showing tension during household routines, a Bob Dylan song ("Not Dark Yet") is heard. Audiences exiting the St. James have been talking about Walt Spangler's otherworldly, expressionistic scenic design as much as they have about the sweaty, violent forbidden love between Abbie and stepson Eben, played by Gugino and Schreiber, respectively.
The Variety review speculated that the audience "responses will range from rejection to rapture." The early, naturalistic O'Neill play is rarely produced, but is considered a major play in the canon of the writer regarded as the father of modern American plays.
"It's an amazing key play that I think has been wildly overlooked," Falls told Playbill.com Feb. 19. "It's had more productions in Chicago than it has in New York. It's a remarkable American play about land, possession, ownership — ownership of land and of people…it's O'Neill's turning-point play where he really found his voice."
From the early days of the New York City run, a TV ad campaign underlining the play's sexual passion and heat was employed to arouse interest in the play. Scenes from the play were shown as a male voiceover rasped the words, "Passion. Lust. Heat. O'Neill."
Falls previously stated, "Desire Under the Elms is iconic. A highly passionate, shocking drama of three people tangled in lust and loathing, it's the first great tragedy from the writer who I consider to be the American Shakespeare — our country's greatest and most influential playwright. It was necessary for me to reinterpret this play with my longtime collaborator Brian Dennehy — who is considered by many to be one of the great O'Neill interpreters in the world — with two actors of remarkable depth and substance, Carla Gugino and Pablo Schreiber, to complete the devastating love triangle."
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The 1850-set naturalistic play shocked audiences when it first appeared on Broadway more than 80 years ago. A love triangle between an aging farmer, Ephraim Cabot (Dennehy), his young wife, Abbie (Gugino), and his son, Eben (Pablo Schreiber), does not end happily. There are no arching, verdant elm trees in this production; it's literally a world of New England rock (created by scenic designer Spangler, whose landscape is surreal and expressionistic) suggesting that family conflict is as implacable and timeless as the earth we walk on. For all the talk about land being important to the play's characters, the physical territory of Falls' production is joyless, unforgiving and seemingly fallow.
In the background of the rocky farm set, boulders hang by ropes — dangling like anchors that never touch the seabed — behind mammoth translucent walls. The farmhouse itself has been wrapped in stage ropes and hoisted toward the fly space, where it dangles and creaks, like something held up at a cattle auction.
Falls' Goodman (and Broadway) cast also includes Boris McGiver ("The Wire") and Daniel Stewart Sherman (Broadway's Cyrano de Bergerac), playing Eben's sweaty half-brothers.
The Broadway staging is produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Steve Traxler, Bat-Barry Productions, Ronald Frankel, Norton Herrick, Judith Resnick, Daryl Roth, The Weinstein Company, Scott Delman/Alan D. Marks, Mort Swinsky/Michael Fuchs/Cindy & Jay Gutterman, Mark Johannes & Amy Danis/Jack Thomas Morris Berchard/Eric Falkenstein in association with Terri & Timothy Childs, Jam Theatricals, Jamie deRoy and Jujamcyn Theaters.
The production understudies are Christian Conn (Eben), John Henry Cox (Ephraim), Kelly Hutchinson (Abbie), Michael Laurence (Simeon/Peter).
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Falls' visceral new production of O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms officially opened in Chicago Jan. 26 after previews from Jan. 17.
Falls chose to cut the Greek chorus-like townspeople from the script. "I don't think it was particularly successful," the director said, adding that the major Greek-drama passions, however, remain intact.
For Desire, Falls reassembled the design team from his 2006 critical and popular hit, King Lear, including Walt Spangler (set design), Ana Kuzmanic (costume design), Michael Philippi (lighting design) and Richard Woodbury (original music and sound design). Their work will be seen on Broadway.
Desire Under the Elms is performed in one act with no intermission. The production contains nudity.
According to Goodman notes, "Master American playwright Eugene O'Neill conceived Desire Under the Elms as he slept one night, imbuing it with the emotional pitch of a fever dream. Ephraim Cabot returns to his remote New England farmhouse with his third wife — the alluring, headstrong young Abbie — launching his three grown sons into a bitter fight for their inheritance. When Ephraim's youngest son sets his sights on Abbie, the resulting tempest brings tragic consequences."
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| Robert Falls |
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| photo by Eric Y. Exit |
Carla Gugino (Abbie Putnam) made her Broadway debut in Roundabout Theatre Company's 2004 revival of Arthur Miller's After the Fall, for which she received an Outer Critic's Circle Award nomination and a Theater World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut for her role as Maggie. She followed that with her acclaimed portrayal of Catherine Holly in the Tennessee William's classic Suddenly Last Summer, also for Roundabout. Film credits include "American Gangster," "Righteous Kill," "The Lookout," the "Spy Kids" Trilogy and "Sin City," among others.
Pablo Schreiber (Eben Cabot) received a Tony Award nomination for his Broadway debut in Awake and Sing! Other theatre credits include Reasons To Be Pretty at MCC Theatre; Dying City at Lincoln Center Theater; Mr. Marmalade at Roundabout Theatre Company; Manuscript at Daryl Roth Theatre; Sin: A Cardinal Deposed at The New Group; and more.
Boris McGiver (Peter Cabot) appeared in Off-Broadway's The Overwhelming at Roundabout Theatre Company; nine Shakespeare productions with Vanessa Redgrave, Mark Wing-Davey, Steven Berkoff, Brian Kulick and many others at The Public Theater; Cymbeline with Bartlett Sher and Andorra with Liviu Ciulei at Theatre for a New Audience; Book of Days at Signature Theatre, and more.
Daniel Stewart Sherman (Simeon Cabot) appeared on Broadway in Cyrano de Bergerac, A Touch of the Poet, Henry IV and The Full Monty.
The St. James is 246 West 44th Street. The Desire performance schedule is Tuesday at 7 PM, Wednesday-Saturday at 8 PM, Wednesday & Saturday at 2 PM and Sunday at 3 PM.
Tickets are $32-$117. For information, contact Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200 or (800) 432-7250 or visit desireonbroadway.com.
