Bryan Cranston Returns to Broadway in ‘Network’

Bold choice, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off.

In all seriousness, intriguing casting.

Well, I'm not a believer that Howard Beale is THAT great a character or particularly timely a character - I could argue that Travis Bickle is the more timely film character from '76 in 2019 than Beale is but that's a different argument and I certainly rave this performance of Beale at least - Cranston is an exhausting marvel of energy here - focused energy.

He's also shrewd in how he plays Beale before the crackup - as a sort of jovial - funny but serious, distinguished man of the news, he's on target right from the start, some of his best stuff is early on - he's building this character not saving it up for big scenes. This performance is far and away the broadest he's ever done that I've seen and I mean that as a compliment. Some people won't buy it - I could see you saying "enough" and I did - but to the play not to him.

It's a more daring performance than actually is needed - at several points you are dared to kind of hate Howard in this play - and I suspect it might be a Tony winning one too. The problem is when he's not on the stage or monitors the play is shaky - some of it works, some not.

The monitors are a really big problem here and the best thing too - showing you not only the developments in plot but even outside the theater for a scene that comes inside so there is a lot to keep track of - too much actually - and a whole lot of info overload to juggle. That's part of the point of course but it gave me a headache so at some point you're choosing where to concentrate on.

Rest of the cast is adequate but dull in comparison to Cranston. Goldwyn and Maslany are sketchy in design and don't translate to the stage that well. I like Goldwyn well enough - loved him as D'Onofroio's drug addict brother in L&O Criminal Intent but you got to give him something to sharpen the edges and not dull them. Cranston is an equal of Finch in this design but no one else is an equal to their movie counterpart and the cluttered production causes thematic points to be obscured not highlighted. Still the production/video design is impressive........just wish there was a tad less.

But a brisk and interesting show, crowd loved it and was enraptured by the star ......

Also, for as whiz bang as this is, it's another of these "you know what you're getting" shows like AiA and Iceman I saw last season - it's the classics dusted off for another shot, so you already know what you should feel, you're just waiting for your buttons to be pushed the right way. I know this is a new play but it's sort of not too so a minor gripe for that since I'd like to see something really new but.........