Opposites attack in Sam Shepard's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play about two brothers with more in common than they think.
Broadway fireworks don't get more combustible than this powerhouse new production - on Broadway through March 17 only. Two of this generation's hottest actors face off as estranged brothers in an empty California home, and the sparks truly fly. The New York Times says, "Ethan Hawke delivers a faultless performance, probably his best ever onstage," and The Wall Street Journal says, "everything Paul Dano does is excitingly surprising." Don't miss director James MacDonald's suspenseful, smoldering True West. "It's as funny as it is serious, as entertaining as it is profound" (New York Stage Review).
James Macdonald directs Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano in the play's first Broadway revival, with set design by Mimi Lien, costume design by Kaye Voyce, lighting design by Jane Cox, hair & wig design by Tom Watson, and original music & sound design by Bray Poor.
Now the Roundabout Theatre Company takes a whack at this testosterone- and booze-soaked brotherly beatdown, and the results are disappointingly wan. First, credit where it's due: British director James Macdonald treats the script as if it were a well-built drama, and not the scrappy excuse for histrionics and set bashing that it basically is. Macdonald's intelligent, detailed work reveals the play's symmetries, its nicely orchestrated musical qualities that alternate crashing violence and noise with hushed moments of melancholy. In other words, this is the most well-behaved True West I've ever seen.
Both can easily be found online and are far preferable to the play's problematic new Broadway revival, which is directed by James Macdonald ('The Children') and stars a top form Ethan Hawke (in his first Broadway outing since a disastrous 'Macbeth' in 2013) and an utterly miscast Paul Dano ('Ruby Sparks').
2000 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
West End |
West End Production West End |
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2018 | Broadway |
Roundabout Theatre Company Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
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2019 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Ethan Hawke |
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