Theater Review: A View from the Bridge

Emotions Fail to Ignite in Revival of the Classic
By Lauren Yarger
A possessive uncle with lust-filled feelings for his niece; his jealous wife; the niece blinded by love for another man who might be gay. All these things are catalysts for what should be an emotionally-charged revival of Arthur Miller’s 1955 classic A View from the Bridge, but mostly phlegmatic performances by actors with no chemistry smolder in a production that never ignites.
Liev Schreiber stars as Eddie Carbone, the longshoreman who has worked his whole life to provide for his wife, Beatrice (Jessica Hecht), and their orphaned niece, Catherine (screen star Scarlett Johansson, making her Broadway debut). Catherine has grown up and has dreams of working as a secretary, but the blooming of her womanhood has Eddie over protecting while harboring some unseemly desires of his own.

His lust doesn’t go unnoticed by Beatrice who tries to advise Catherine to stand up to Eddie and pursue her own happiness with Rodolpho (Morgan Spector), Beatrice’s illegal immigrant cousin who, with his brother, Marco (Corey Stoll), work on the docks to earn money to send back to their family in Italy. While in America, they live with the Carbones in their tenement apartment (rendered in a loud rotating set by designer John Lee Beatty that doubles as the drab exterior of the towering brick buildings). The family lawyer, Alfieri (Michael Christofer), who serves as a sort of narrator for the tale, and who brings to mind Mayor Rudy Giuliani, also urges Eddie to let Catherine go.

Eddie’s irritation only grows, however, when the guys on the docks (Robert Turano and Joe Ricci) keep laughing at the blond Rodolpho who sings, make dresses, cooks and who Eddie insists “isn’t right” (translation from 1955 to 2010: gay). Turano’s contagious laugh is a highlight of the performance, though, Spector’s wooden performance doesn’t clue us in to what’s so funny.

Schreiber is convincing as the unhappy man who reaches terminal velocity and can’t keep himself from plummeting to his finish once he allows his lustful feelings to control him. We’re not sure what all the fuss is about, though, as Johansson, rather stiff while delivering her lines, looks dowdy dressed down in a brunette wig (Tom Watson, hair and wig design) and tailored skirts and sweaters (Jane Greenwood, costumes) and nothing like the screen bombshell who tempts King Henry VIII (“The Other Boleyn Girl”).

In addition, there’s no chemistry between the two stars and none between Johansson and Spector, either. Did Director Gregory Mosher really miss that or the fact that Johansson, 26, hardly looks like a 17-year-old? Maybe he was too occupied trying to make sense of some plot devices like Eddie’s planting a kiss on Rodolpho to prove that the object of Catherine’s affection is gay or Marco’s sudden, violent accusations that Eddie is robbing food from his children’s mouths that make you scratch your head and ask, “really?”

One thing that does fly in this production, however, is spit: lots of it, some scripted, some not. Look out if you’re in the front row.

A View from the Bridge plays through April 4 at the Cort Theatre, 138 West 48th St., NYC. Tickets are available by calling (212) 239-6200, or outside NY: (800) 432-7250. Discounted tickets for friends of Masterwork Productions are available at http://www.givenik.com/?code=Masterworks

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