Play readings are usually how you produce things on the cheap; but not with Oscar Wilde’s Salome, which made a short run at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. (Ethel would be proud!) Like the main idea behind the military’s principle of war called “economy of force,” this magnum opus moved over you like a tank—and took no prisoners. Thus, by show’s end, spontaneous standing ovations were de rigueur.
Marisa Tomei was almost perfect in the title role. (We say “almost,” because her incredibly skilled “Dance of the Seven Veils” shed only a single veil—but powerfully enough to have been 700!) The amazing Dianne Wiest was never better at acting up a storm; and David Strathairn made the most of a symbolically laden role that even Wilde probably considered impossible to act. Yet, it was Al Pacino who stole First Prize with his loathsome characterization of a low-class king that nobody could love—despite being offered a catalogue of treasures beyond price. Certainly, no one could fail to be astonished by his gutsy work, even in moments when he had to put on glasses to read the script.
Director Estelle Parsons gets Second Prize for, first of all, leaving her actors alone when they needed it; and secondly, for her deftness at keeping these wonderful performers in tune to one another every second of the action. You could see her behind-the-minimal-scenes’ brilliance, matched by Wilde’s almost parodied poetic (“peradventured”) script.
Despite this doomed author’s indefatigable sense of humor, his play was as serious, wise, and powerful as the “Ballad of Reading Gaol.” Probably not for everyone; but anyone will be less for having missed it.
The party was held at trendy Whisky, which celebrated Opening Night. All the stars, of course, attended, as well as producer and Hamptonite Marty Bregman—who told The Sheet that the great Pacino may be making another movie with him this summer in the Hamptons. We’ll keep you posted.
