Broadway Blog - A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE Review Roundup

Tony® Award-winner Liev Schreiber and Golden Globe nominee Scarlett Johansson, in her Broadway debut, star in Arthur Miller’s A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE directed by Gregory Mosher on Broadway at the Cort Theatre. This limited engagement will run for 14 weeks only. In A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, Schreiber plays Eddie Carbone, a Brooklyn longshoreman obsessed with his 17-year-old niece Catherine, played by Scarlett Johansson. When Catherine falls in love with a newly arrived immigrant, Eddie's jealousy erupts in a rage that consumes him, his family, and his world...

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: "Mr. Schreiber is such a complete actor that he has often thrown productions into imbalance, highlighting the inadequacy of the performances around him. That is not a problem here. That the excellent stage veteran Ms. Hecht holds her own with Mr. Schreiber is no surprise. That Ms. Johansson does - with seeming effortlessness - is."

David Rooney, Variety: "Sometimes it's high praise to call a stage director's work invisible. The compliment applies to Gregory Mosher's searing revival of "A View From the Bridge," though it by no means indicates any lack of craftsmanship or insight. Returning to Broadway after a considerable absence, Mosher has instilled in his outstanding cast an unconditional trust in Arthur Miller's text, evoking a time, a place and a 1950s blue-collar community with penetrating integrity. Each scene flows seamlessly from the one before in a production that expertly plants the seeds of inexorable tragedy yet grips with a tension and volatility that make every moment seem unpredictable."

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: "A new revival of A View From the Bridge (* * *½ out of four) features what could be this season's most inspired piece of movie-star casting - though you may not immediately recognize the star."

Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press: "As Alfieri says of the play's protagonist: "Eddie Carbone never expected to have a destiny." At the Cort, Schreiber, Johansson and company have managed to make it a memorable one."

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter: "Bottom Line: Scarlett Johansson makes a fine stage debut and Liev Schreiber delivers another titanic performance in this revival of Miller's classic tragedy."

David Sheward, Backstage: "Scarlett Johansson matches Schreiber's intensity as the inexperienced but determined Catherine. This film star makes an impressive Broadway debut, clearly conveying what this girl wants-to be a grown woman-and pushing against the only obstacle in her path: her overly attentive uncle. As Eddie's loving but agonized wife, Beatrice, Jessica Hecht stakes her claim as one of our most sensitive portrayers of downtrodden women. Her climactic howl of despair rings through the theater and tears at your heart."

Stephanie Zacharek, NY Magazine: "Schreiber even manages to look stunned by the violence at the show's climax, as if Miller hadn't been signaling it from the start. Schreiber recognizes it as a moment of Shakespearean grace, as Hecht's Beatrice does-her body folds around his, protectively, like the petals of a flower. But it's not time to go home yet: That noble wet blanket Alfieri is lurking nearby, ready to send us off with a final, mournful monologue. Yet even he brings a delicate touch to Miller's speechifying. Can actors save a playwright from his worst impulses? This A View From the Bridge may be everything a playwright, living or dead, could want: People who care enough not just to keep your language and your ideas alive, but to watch your back."

Linda Winer, NY Newsday: Over a decade of New York theater, Liev Schreiber has coolly skinned the layers of darkness off some of its most thrilling and complex tough guys. He has been sleaze triumphant in David Mamet and Eric Bogosian, silken menace in Harold Pinter, crumbling evil as Shakespeare's Macbeth and Iago. Even so, nothing prepares us for the shattering grandeur of his Eddie Carbone - the Brooklyn longshoreman..."

More Reviews to Come in the AM!