Hugh Jackman in THE RIVER on Broadway

[foxie]

I don't think he has to be a walking advertisement the tickets are almost sold out!!

[hughmanity]

From Broadway.com Broadway Show "smack down":  Question- "which Oscar nominee are you most excited about seeing return to Broadway- Hugh Jackman or Bradley Cooper?"Results:  Hugh 62%, Bradley 38%.  

[jo]

Great to hear about the results of the survey. I saw the clip where Broadway.com posed the question for the poll.

Thanks.

Jo

[foxie]

Of course!!!?

[jo]

VOGUE has published the recent article on THE RIVER on its online edition --


www.vogue.com/2298383/hugh-jackman-broadway-the-river/

Hugh Jackman Returns to Broadway in Jez Butterworth’s The River


November 14, 2014 6:00 am
by Adam Green|photographed by Annie Leibovitz





From left: Cush Jumbo, Jackman, and Laura Donnelly. On Jumbo: Michael Kors sweater and Lucky Brand jeans. On Jackman: Rag & Bone knit cap. On Donnelly: Suzannah dress and The Row cardigan.

Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, November 2014


Every so often, the announcement of an upcoming theater production exerts an effect on me similar to that of a dinner bell on one of Pavlov’s dogs. A good example would be Jez Butterworth’s play The River, which opens this month at Circle in the Square, though it’s hard to pinpoint just which element of this production elicits my response: The return to the boards of the incomparable Hugh Jackman (and the chance to see him in a relatively intimate setting)? The Broadway debut of the brilliant young star-on-the-rise Cush Jumbo? The New York premiere of Butterworth’s (and his longtime collaborator, the director Ian Rickson’s) first new play since the epic smash Jerusalem? Chalk it up to an alchemical mix of all three.

The quiet 90-minute, three-character play was first produced two years ago in London at the Royal Court’s 90-seat upstairs theater, where it played for only four weeks, making it literally the toughest ticket in town. It revolves around a character known only as the Man (Jackman), who has brought a newish girlfriend, the Woman (Jumbo), to his remote rural cabin near a river for the weekend to introduce her to the transcendent joys of night fishing for sea trout. Soon, though, he’s making a panicked call to the police to say that she has gone missing, and when she finally shows up, she is someone else entirely—that would be the Other Woman (the terrific Laura Donnelly), who may be an earlier or later lover, a figment of the Man’s imagination, or a ghost.

That’s about all I can tell you without giving away the play’s secrets, except to say that the women continue to change places, sometimes in the middle of a scene—one goes off to take a shower, the other returns toweling her hair—and that its final plot twist raises more questions than it answers. Like all of Butterworth’s plays, it’s also suffused with poetry—in this case, works by Yeats and Ted Hughes—which help impart its spare, elliptical beauty.

An avid fly-fisherman, Butterworth approaches the sport with an almost spiritual reverence, a view shared by his mysterious protagonist. “The act of fishing takes him to another world, to another dimension,” Jackman says of his character. “It’s pure and real, which is what he’s looking for in his relationships—looking for ‘the one.’ He’s trying to rekindle something that he lost, or that he’s never had—a feeling of being truly alive.”

Jackman is excited to be returning to the stage, both for the sheer joy of it (“It’s a love that’s never waned since I was five, doing Camelot at my primary school,” he says) and for the chance to do something different: “This play has been described as a piece of chamber music. I’ve done musicals and a one-man show and massive, bombastic movies, so it’s thrilling to be in something so intimate and filled with so many goose-bump moments.” A case in point is an extended scene in which Jackman cleans, prepares, and sautés an actual trout. “I love the idea of doing all that, in silence and alone, except I’m onstage in front of 750 people,” he says. “I love the power of theater to create a moment like that—though if I cut myself and start bleeding all over the place, it might not be so silent.”

As an acting challenge, gutting a fish will be child’s play next to having commitment issues with his costar, the radiant Jumbo, a 29-year-old actress of English and Nigerian descent whose fiercely intelligent performances in such productions as the Donmar Warehouse’s all-female Julius Caesar and her self-written one-woman show about Josephine Baker (which may be coming to New York soon after The River) radiate something ineffable that can’t be learned or bought. She appreciates her character’s enigmatic nature, but she knows where she’s coming from. “It’s such a simple thing, but in Jez’s hands it feels very lovely and romantic and dangerous and vulnerable.”

The Belfast-born Donnelly, as the Other Woman, is the only member of the original cast coming to New York. She was initially drawn to the play, she says, by the way it “reminded me of certain music—music with darkness and longing to it.” But as she rehearsed and played the part, she came to appreciate her character’s radical, uncompromising honesty. Despite its luminous, poetic quality, The River also raises unsettling questions about authenticity in relationships and to what extent we can ever know another person. “It had quite a profound effect on me and my personal life,” Donnelly says. “It made me look at the way my life was going, and change some things, because I wasn’t living in a truthful place.”

As Butterworth puts it, “I think it’s quite an elegiac piece on the surface—but it was designed to kill.”

[jo]

More insights from British media --


www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/hugh-jackman-interview-x-mens-wolverine-on-going-fly-fishing-in-new-play-9860771.html

Wolverine goes fly-fishing: As X Men's Hugh Jackman hits Broadway, how will the theatre world react?


In The River, it's the presence of Jackman that has transported the play across the pond and made it the most intriguing of this Broadway season

Tom Teodorczuk
Friday 14 November 2014


There have been few plays this century more mysterious than Jez Butterworth’s The River.

The drama chronicles a man’s relationship with two women in a remote log cabin set against the backdrop of a fly-fishing trip. Yet the production history of The River is as enigmatic, if less eerie, as the play itself.

The River played for less than a month in autumn 2012 at the Royal Court’s 90-seat Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, starring Dominic West, Laura Donnelly and Miranda Raison. Since it was Butterworth’s follow-up to his astoundingly successful state-of-the-nation play Jerusalem – staged at the Royal Court, twice in the West End and on Broadway – a novel ticketing scheme was implemented to cater for the demand; no seats were sold in advance with a mixture available online and at the Court’s box office.

With the possible exception of the London Olympics, The River generated better reviews over here than any other form of entertainment in 2012 (Paul Taylor, theatre critic of The Independent, wrote that The River “unfolds like a tantalising cross between a piece of deeply felt poetry and a sleight-of-hand puzzle”). No West End run ensued but now this intimate three-hander chamber piece has landed on Broadway with Donnelly returning alongside original director Ian Rickson, former artistic director of the Royal Court. Replacing Dominic West and Miranda Raison are Hugh Jackman and Cush Jumbo.

The Broadway debuts of Donnelly, 32, and Jumbo, 29, are significant milestones for UK theatre. But it’s the presence of Jackman that has transported The River across the pond and made it the most intriguing straight play of this Broadway season. The Australian star of the X-Men films balances Hollywood blockbusters with stints on stage, where he started out (his breakthrough stage role was in Sir Trevor Nunn’s National Theatre’s 1998 revival of Oklahoma!). Jackman is beloved on Broadway. Earlier this year he hosted the Tonys, New York’s equivalent of the Oscars, and his 2011 one-man show Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway would probably still be running so if he hadn’t opted for a limited two-month run.

Hugh Jackman as The Man, Laura Donnelly as The Other Woman in The River, a new play by Jez Butterworth, directed by Ian Rickson, at Circle in the Square Theatre Hugh Jackman as The Man, Laura Donnelly as The Other Woman in The River, a new play by Jez Butterworth, directed by Ian Rickson, at Circle in the Square Theatre
Ordinarily a complex, intimate drama such as The River would face a challenging fight to stay on its feet in the Broadway arena but the presence of Jackman, 46, ensures its status as a sell-out hit at the Circle in the Square theatre before it has even opened. It’s tempting to think this has all been meticulously plotted by producer Sonia Friedman, Rickson and Butterworth, but The River’s journey to New York is the latest in a chain of accidents.

Butterworth was commissioned to write The River for the West End before opting to stage it in the shoebox of the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.

“Frankly I would have put the play straight in the West End from the Court but not every actor who was in it wanted to do that,” Rickson tells The Independent. “That created an opportunity. Why not originate the show on Broadway? It’s like doing a new play as only a few people saw it in London during its four-week run in a tiny theatre. We found Hugh early on.”

Jackman warmed to the prospect of playing The Man, an intimidating yet tender soul. “I can’t stop telling you what an amazing guy he is,” says Rickson. “Hugh has a radiant charisma. You walk around New York with him and everyone has a sense of ownership of him. He’ll take you far into this play because he has the masculinity and power you want but he’s so sensitive and artistic.”


Jackman says he was drawn to The River by its slow-burning existentialism. “It’s the kind of play I haven’t seen in a long period of time,” he told the Vulture website. “Literally from the moment it opens, you’re brought into a world where the audience will feel almost uncomfortable to be there – it’s very private, very interior. It really asks: when you find someone in life, are we actually just trying to recapture something we’ve lost, or is it real?”

Donnelly is the only member of the original acting trio who has crossed the Atlantic for The River. “It was a question of trying to get a time whenever Dominic [West] would be available to do it,” she remembers of early attempts to stage The River in the West End. “There was always the intention of it having another life outside of the Court and I made it clear to Ian that I wasn’t done with it and wanted to bring it somewhere else. When Hugh got involved, it made so much more sense to bring it to New York.”

Donnelly shares the theatre world’s fascination with how Jackman’s fans will respond to such a personal piece. “People expect a certain kind of entertainment from Hugh Jackman because he is essentially Mr Broadway,” she says. “He can do it all – sing, dance and act – and people think they know him as a lovely guy, which for the record he really is. People will go in expecting, or at least wanting, to see that side of him and it will be interesting to see how they react to the fact it’s not necessarily the side of himself he’s giving in this.” According to Donnelly, an A-list ego is nowhere to be found: “What we’re getting from Hugh as an actor is a sensitive, incredible performance in a way I’ve never experienced from any other actor I’ve been on the stage with.”

Friedman, who struck box-office gold and Tony Awards glory on Broadway last year when she exported the Globe Theatre’s all-male Twelfth Night and Richard III, chose not to cash in on Jackman’s celebrity this time, staging The River in one of Broadway’s most intimate theatres, the 776-seater Circle in the Square. The thrust stage means even the back row is only a few feet away from the performers, something Donnelly says is in keeping with The River’s spirit: “It feels much more collaborative, like everyone is sharing an experience rather than the audience sitting down to face people on stage doing the work.”

The River marks the latest collaboration between director Rickson and writer Butterworth that began two decades ago when Mojo was staged at the Royal Court. Their partnership is perhaps the most intriguing Royal Court export since John Osborne and Tony Richardson took Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer to Broadway six decades ago. Staging Jerusalem in New York with Mark Rylance, Rickson recalls, “felt like we were a bunch of pirates doing this raucous, anarchic and rousing thing. Just seeing Broadway audiences getting obscure English riffs about BBC South West was affirming.”

This time round they’re being exposed in The River to the joys of fly-fishing, but Rickson is adamant X-Men aficionados won’t drown in English esotericism when they see The River. “Hugh Jackman fans and Wolverine fans might not have seen this sort thing before,” he says, “but I don’t think they’ll be daunted or dismayed. The River is really accessible.”

‘The River’ opens at the Circle on the Square, New York, on 16 November

***********************************************************************************************

Donnelly shares the theatre world’s fascination with how Jackman’s fans will respond to such a personal piece. “People expect a certain kind of entertainment from Hugh Jackman because he is essentially Mr Broadway,” she says. “He can do it all – sing, dance and act – and people think they know him as a lovely guy, which for the record he really is. People will go in expecting, or at least wanting, to see that side of him and it will be interesting to see how they react to the fact it’s not necessarily the side of himself he’s giving in this.”...



...but Rickson is adamant X-Men aficionados won’t drown in English esotericism when they see The River. “Hugh Jackman fans and Wolverine fans might not have seen this sort thing before,” he says, “but I don’t think they’ll be daunted or dismayed. The River is really accessible.”

It seems that Donnelly, Rickson, and even the article's author have not familiarized themselves with all of Hugh's serious work on stage and film. Have they seen THE FOUNTAIN OR THE PRESTIGE or A STEADY RAIN or PRISONERS? Or even LES MISERABLES?


They underestimate Hugh Jackman fans - we have all long appreciated Hugh's many talents and versatility as an actor! And we also love him as Wolverine!!



Jo

[carouselkathy]

Is the Vogue article only in the online edition?

[jo]

It is printed in the November issue of VOGUE - I was able to get a copy here a few weeks ago.

I posted the online edition because the fan-scanned copy of the article earlier posted here was not completely legible.


Jo

[jo]

TimeOut-NewYork summarizes theatre etiquette for THE RIVER --

www.timeout.com/newyork/blog/what-not-to-do-at-hugh-jackmans-new-broadway-show

Blog Theater & Performance


What not to do at Hugh Jackman’s new Broadway show


By David Cote
Posted: Friday November 14 2014, 4:52 pm


The River .


The River Photograph: Richard Termine


The River, currently playing on Broadway and starring Hugh Jackman, is a hushed, intimate drama…and audience members have been acting like pigs. Masses of them are clearly there to see the hunky action star, not savor the ambiguities and delicate silences in Jez Butterworth’s unnerving mediation on nature, love and relationships. So thunderstruck are they to be in a theater with the godlike Jackman, they forget to turn off their phones. Or worse, they snap pictures. At the press night I attended, some woman lacking a filter filled in the final, quiet moments of the play with an audible, “Holy shit!” Nice way to ruin a final tableau.

How bad has it gotten? There’s a note inserted in the program, begging people to turn their damn phones off, signed by the actors. Now understudy Kerry Warren also takes the stage and reminds the audience to silence its frigging devices. “Before we had the onstage announcement, despite the note from the actors, we had constant interruptions from phones, texts and flashing lights,” producer Sonia Friedman explains. She says the extra live request “seems to be working, as we haven’t had a problem since Kerry started doing this preshow announcement.”

I’m not so sure. The night I saw it, there was one or two Siri bleeps, not to mention loud shushing and the aforementioned holy-shit lady. It’s embarassing, making New York theatergoers look like vulgar rubes. So here are things to keep in mind if you attend The River.

DO NOT:

Applaud Hugh's entrance. This is a chamber drama with three actors and a whole lot of pauses, not goddamn Boy from Oz II. Restrain your starfucker reflex and try to imagine Hugh is a normal human being.

Clap after every scene. Maybe you think the rule for theatergoing is to slap your nose-pickers together after each song (for a musical) or scene (for a play). Just sit quietly and take it in; you can applaud at the end to your little heart’s content.

Ask your companion, "What’s going on?" 
Work it out later, dirtbag. Sometimes art resists comprehension, at least on a conscious level. Some of you look like you started going to theater lit by candles; you should have learned that by now.

Utter a forehead-smacking remark, as if you "got it." This is not a call-and-response type of hoedown, sweetie. I don’t care how into it you are. STFU. Also, there’s nothing to get.

Scream "I love you, Hugh! But in a totally nonsexual, not-at-all-weird way, and we can hang out any time and have a beer and talk about whatever you want, y'know?!?" Okay, that one’s on me. I apologize for that.

By David Cote Time Out Staff


David is the Theater editor and chief drama critic at Time Out New York and a playwright and opera librettist in his free time. And yes, he can tell you what shows you should see on or Off Broadway right now. Follow him on Twitter at @davidcote.

Is it as bad as all that?

How about a silent sigh

But I remember when I saw Denzel in Julius Caesar -- his entrance applause was so long they couldn't start the play properly.

And more seriously -- it seems PRESS NIGHT has already occurred -- so critic reviews are probably being written right now ( and not after Opening Night). I hope the abovementioned theatre behavior does not create a slightly sour impression on the critics.

At least Mr. Coote, judging by some of the lines in the article, seems to have a very good appreciation of the kind of creative work THE RIVER actually is -- and hopefully this will translate to the critic's review he will write for TIME OUT.



Jo

[carouselkathy]

Thanks Mr. Cote. THE RIVER is not a pep rally for Jackman fans. This may be off topic, but it also irritates me when singers "hot dog" the high note in the national anthem, and everyone cheers like it's a rock concert. So disrespectful! Unless they are asked to join in, the audience is there to observe, not to participate.

About participation in THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER....Everyone in the audience should sing along. I only object to the disrespectful hoot and hollering when a soloist showboats on the high note.

[mamaleh]

I agree with most of his comments, although his rants against the elderly (when "candles" lit the theater? come on!) and the use of the word "dirtbag" were kind of uncalled for. It's really interesting to observe: one audience will not applaud between scenes, while another will. Go figure. I just hope the romantic, haunting and sometimes eerie mood is not dispelled too often by rude theatergoers, of whatever age.

Note: Try to catch this week's THEATER TALK. The first half is a discussion of the current revival of THE BELLE OF AMHERST, while the second half is an interview with critics Stefanie Cohen and Imogen Lloyd Webber (yes, she's his daughter). During that latter segment, they discuss why HJ has taken this role and related matters. It's pretty interesting.

Ellen

[annetter]

Just for the record, I am not the one how screamed out " Holy Shit"

[JH4HJ]

Nov 15, 2014 12:17:03 GMT -5 annetter said:

Just for the record, I am not the one who screamed out "Holy Shit"

<funny>

I believe you, Annette.




[Is anyone else willing to confirm that?]

(I'M TEASING!!!) smiley-hug006

[jo]

Note: Try to catch this week's THEATER TALK. The first half is a discussion of the current revival of THE BELLE OF AMHERST, while the second half is an interview with critics Stefanie Cohen and Imogen Lloyd Webber (yes, she's his daughter). During that latter segment, they discuss why HJ has taken this role and related matters. It's pretty interesting.

Thanks, Ellen.

Have you seen or are planning to see BELLE OF AMHERST? I had once lived in Amherst ( U of Mass grad school days) and, if I remember right, I had passed by Emily Dickinson's house a few times.

Imogen Lloyd Webber is one of two children of ALW from his first marriage. According to Andrew, they inspired him to compose STARLIGHT EXPRESS ( a guilty pleasure ).


Jo

[jo]

ATC'ers discuss the David Cote complaints -- and somewhat disagree on the entrance applause/between-scenes applause comments by Mr. Cote.

www.talkinbroadway.com/allthatchat/d.php?id=2244789


Jo

[mamaleh]

Jo, I'm on the fence about seeing THE BELLE OF AMHERST. Will see how I feel and what free time I have .

Ellen

[jo]

It's not yet BC/EFA time ( maybe Tuesday night?) but two ladies have already bid $ 25,000 each for a meet and greet with Hugh Jackman in The River --

pagesix.com/2014/11/18/rosie-and-couric-go-bid-to-bid-over-jackman-meet-and-greet/

Rosie and Couric go bid-to-bid over Jackman meet-and-greet


By Mara Siegler

November 18, 2014 | 9:42pm


Rosie and Couric go bid-to-bid over Jackman meet-and-greet
Rosie O'Donnell (main) and Katie Couric attend the live auction at the Worldwide Orphans Gala.
Photo: Getty Images


Rosie O’Donnell took over the live auction at the Worldwide Orphans Gala at Cipriani Wall Street Monday, taking on Katie Couric in a bidding war to meet and greet Hugh Jackman at “The River” on Broadway.

We’re told O’Donnell started the bidding at $5,000, which Couric raised to $10,000. The pair decided to put in $25,000 each to win Jackman together...

[foxie]

How great is that Katie has always had a big crush on Hugh!

[jo]

www.showbiz411.com/2014/11/19/broadway-hugh-jackmans-the-river-so-big-it-extends-run-for-a-month




deadline.com/2014/11/hugh-jackman-the-river-extends-run-1201289373/

Hugh Jackman Invites 11,136 More Dates To His Broadway Cabin On ‘The River’


jgerard


by Jeremy Gerard

November 19, 2014 12:57pm



While some critics found Jez Butterworth’s Broadway import a mystery wrapped inside an enigma wrapped inside an onion, few had anything but raves for the Wolverine’s performance as an avocational fisherman with a thing for sea trout, single women and the poetry of Ted Hughes and William Butler Yeats. That’s made The River one of the hottest tickets in town, especially in the scarcity market created by a limited run inane of the Theater District’s smallest venues, the 696-seat Circle in The Square. Butterworth has been seeing his star rise on screen (for his work on Bond movies and the screenplays for Get On Up and Edge Of Tomorrow).


That’s now been eased up a bit with today’s announcement of a two-week extension that will add 16 performances to the run through February 8, 2015. The 85-minute drama, staged by Butterworth’s regular director Ian Rickson, was developed by British producer Sonia Friedman and first presented in a 90-set space at London’s Royal Court Theatre. The play, set in a woodsy solitary cabin overlooking a river, also stars Cush Jumbo and Laura Donnelly. Tickets range in price from $35 (good luck; there are 40 available per show, half available on day-of performance, the other half going on sale the Monday of the week of performance) to $275 for “premium” seating.

Apart from his written review ( check out the Official Review thread) --Jermy Gerrard posted a video review. He really raves about Hugh's work in the play!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxn_HMKXbMs

[ptflynn]

Reminds me of when A Steady Rain's final perf was the matinee, and later in the run they added on an evening perf for a fundraiser of some sort. GRRRRRRRRR.

Fern

[mamaleh]

Fern, when they announced the extension, I immediately thought of you. First the TBFO tour was supposed to end in Brisbane, then ASR's final bow was supposed to be the matinee. Two major Grrrrrs, to be sure!

Ellen

[jo]

Was Perth an afterthought of the arena tour? If I remember right, I thought it was not announced earlier because he wanted to give them a special pricing structure where the students particularly at WAAPA could see the show at more affordable prices. He also wanted to see how WAAPA students could have parts in the show. Perth is very close to his heart!

[mamaleh]

You're probably right; I don't remember. All I know is our little group was expecting to see the tour's farewell performance. It was a great show nonetheless, but some of us were really bummed. But that's show-biz, I guess.

Ellen

[JH4HJ]

How bad has it gotten? There’s a note inserted in the program, begging people to turn their damn phones off, signed by the actors. Now understudy Kerry Warren also takes the stage and reminds the audience to silence its frigging devices. “Before we had the onstage announcement, despite the note from the actors, we had constant interruptions from phones, texts and flashing lights,” producer Sonia Friedman explains. She says the extra live request “seems to be working, as we haven’t had a problem since Kerry started doing this preshow announcement.”

Just FYI - This is the insert mentioned: (the poem is on the back of it)

[mamaleh]

On my most recent visit the other day, someone's cellphone did go off, but it was shortly thereafter silenced. One other interruption was of a more natural kind. At a very quiet, almost suspenseful moment in the show after The Other Woman unveils the fish she caught and asks, "What do we do now?", came a very loud sneeze from the audience. Hugh and Ms. Donnelly were visibly fighting the giggles--shared by some audience members--but after several moments were able to get back into the action of the play as Hugh finally responded, "We eat it, of course."

Don't you love live theater?

Note: I did not use an emoji, even though it sprang up. Seems if you type the "g" word for chuckles, it automatically appears.

Ellen