A Behanding In Spokane
1 hour and 30 minutes, with no intermission
A Behanding In Spokane - 2010 Broadway History , Info & More
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (Broadway)
236 West 45th St. New York, NY
The title is just the starting point; take a man searching for his missing hand (Christopher Walken), two con artists out to make a few hundred bucks (Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan), and an overly curious hotel clerk (Sam Rockwell), and the rest is up for grabs. A Behanding in Spokane is Academy Award-winner Martin McDonagh's hilariously black comedy, a world premiere which marks McDonagh's first American-set play.
A Behanding In Spokane - 2010 - Broadway Cast
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Novelty Act
4 / 10
In A Behanding in Spokane, Martin McDonagh’s latest and lightest abattoir food fight, Christopher Walken is very much himself—which is to say, he’s reliably Walkenesque, a walking Walken impression far superior to the kind your stupid friends do at parties. Playing a vengeful psycho in search of his severed left hand (did I really need to tell you Walken plays a vengeful psycho?), he remains that familiar symphony of jigs and twitches we’ve come to love, burning holes in the fourth wall with anthracite eyes that seem terrifyingly lidless, until he winks. And wink he does, more than once, at his oft-bewildered co-stars—Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan as two young hustlers who disastrously attempt to sell him another man’s hand, and Sam Rockwell as Mervyn, the distractible sad-sack hotel clerk who admires him—and, by extension, at us. Watching Walken/Carmichael savor his own cigarette smoke, and his own travel-worn oddness, is like walking in on something autoerotic, then staying to watch. Which we can’t help doing, even if we sense a certain flogging futility in the proceedings. Walken is a little too perfectly matched with McDonagh (The Pillowman, The Lieutenant of Inishmore). They’re two tic-ish synthesists for whom quirk can quickly become an end in itself.
Raindrops Keep Falling on Their Heads
7 / 10
A Behanding in Spokane is laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s also a bit disappointing. Unlike many of Mr. McDonagh’s earlier works, equally funny and typically gorier, it doesn’t seem to have any deeper point than the comedy. It’s also the first time he has set a play in the United States, which I think detracts: The skewed worlds he creates make sense on a remote, fog-shrouded Irish island; in a nondescript American city, the unreality bumps up against reality. And he doesn’t quite have an ear for American dialect: His working-class grafters use plenty of “ain’ts,” but they also use a few “mightn’ts.”
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A Behanding In Spokane History
Other Productions of A Behanding In Spokane
| 2010 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
A Behanding In Spokane - 2010 Broadway Awards and Nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Christopher Walken |
| 2010 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Christopher Walken |
| 2010 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Christopher Walken |
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