Broadway Blog - Review Roundup: The Philanthropist

Matthew Broderick returns to the stage as Philip, an insular college professor who obsesses over the details of his bourgeois life while the world is falling apart around him.

David Rooney, Variety: "Director David Grindley had a hit in 2005 with his Donmar Warehouse revival of Christopher Hampton's "The Philanthropist," its cast headed by Simon Russell Beale, an actor who could locate the emotional undertow in even the most distancing role. There's no reason to question the endorsement of London critics, but every reason to suppose the change of venue and lead actor must have taken a dire toll on Grindley's production. With Matthew Broderick reducing the title character to a cartoon, performing in his own hermetic space that excludes everyone else onstage, the play sits inertly, its poignancy lost and its clever dialogue hollowed into empty banter."

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: "Even with gray hair and a tentative English accent, Broderick can't convey sufficient weight or weariness. That's a shame, because The Ensemble here generally thrives under the thoughtful direction of David Grindley, who helmed a production of this play for the U.K.'s Donmar Warehouse in 2005. Anna Madeley, the one holdover from Donmar, is a pert, winning Celia, and Steven Weber brings a convincing ennui to Philip's more comfortably cynical colleague, Don. Jonathan Cake nearly steals the show from everyone as a smug, flamboyantly miserable novelist."

Charles Isherwood, The New York Times: "The play desperately needs the wistful inwardness that Simon Russell Beale, who has made a career specialty of wistful inwardness, reportedly brought to his performance as Philip in the production Mr. Grindley directed at the Donmar Warehouse in London in 2005. Mr. Broderick's sad-eyed clowning, all on the surface, is an unsatisfactory substitute."

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter: "Bottom Line: This mild British comedy just isn't generous enough with its laughs."

Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press: ""The Philanthropist" needs a crackerjack collection of performers to get across Hampton's sly, often quite witty and dark dialogue. It's particularly important for the actor playing Philip, who's intellectually nimble (the man loves anagrams) but psychologically and socially flat-footed. And Matthew Broderick doesn't quite fill the bill as an Oxford don determined not to offend - but does."

David Sheward, Backstage: "A visit to this Philanthropist is like playing word games with a group of unpleasant new acquaintances. You get some mild mind exercise, but you don't really want to know your fellow players."

More reviews to come in the AM!