Alan Cumming's one-man production of Macbeth lands on Broadway. The National Theatre of Scotland's production of MACBETH was performed last summer at the Lincoln Center Festival. Tony Award-winning actor Alan Cumming's virtuoso performance is a bold reimagining of Shakespeare's chilling tale of desire, ambition, and the supernatural.
The production is set in a psychiatric unit and centers on a patient who is reliving the story of Macbeth. CCTV cameras watch the patient's every move and the clinical walls of the unit come to life in a visually stunning multi-media theatrical experience.
The Scottish actor, now best known as the cunning political operative Eli Gold on TV's 'The Good Wife,' brings an authentic burr to the role along with several terabytes of memory. The production, which opened last summer's Lincoln Center Festival (where it wasn't eligible for Tony Award nominations) struck me as even more gimmicky on second viewing. It reveals more about the actor than the would-be king.
The economy and cleverness of the staging is no less than you might expect from Tiffany especially, whose direction in both downtown and uptown modes (Black Watch at St. Ann's; Once on Broadway) displays an uncommon facility with big but delicate gestures. Every element of the design-set, sound, costume, video, lighting-is ideally tailored to the concept. And Cumming is more disciplined than you might imagine; his delicious sense of camp is confined to the appropriate characterizations, and his voice for verse, with those big Scots vowels, is outstanding. He's tireless and brave in enacting a difficult story.
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Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
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2013 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design in a Play | Fergus O'Hare |
2013 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Alan Cumming |
2013 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | 0 |
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