Hughie

“Erie is portrayed by that excellent actor Forest Whitaker, in a transfixing yet modest Broadway debut.…Mr. Whitaker quietly breaks your heart…I hope his performance isn’t under-appreciated because it lacks showy bravado…'Hughie' feels as vaporous as smoke, though the kind that might come from an opium pipe...you could glean its shape and substance in a 20­-minute reading of the script. But you wouldn’t feel the full mortal ache and ghostly chill that this production summons.” Full Review

“Whitaker may have an Oscar but his Broadway debut is largely inconsequential — he brings no heft or insight to Erie Smith…Michael Grandage’s direction emphasizes a spooky atmosphere that makes you wonder if the characters are dead and in some kind of purgatory. It’s an interesting thought to ponder, which you’ll have time to do as you daydream during Whitaker’s monotone monologues.” Full Review

“Whitaker's performance is far too undistinguished…Under Michael Grandage's direction, he's a rather ordinary...There's little depth, or even vocal variety in his portrayal and the proceedings get dull quickly. It would be unfair to say that Wood steals the show with his tiny role, but his fine, understated turn is a lovely display of a stage actor's craft.” Full Review

“There’s not really much of an arc to this one-hour play, which is essentially an extended monologue…Both actors have their best moments during this tug of wills. Wood makes Charlie’s silence seem both menacing and merciless, while Whitaker lays bare Erie’s terror…there’s no pretending that ‘Hughie’ is much more than a warm-up for ‘Iceman’, a far more devastating study of life as living death.” Full Review

“Whitaker's inexperience is clearly evident throughout the first two-thirds of the evening…Yet as we come toward the end Whitaker suddenly comes to life. The artifice in his line readings virtually disappears…Whitaker's physicality is extremely surefooted and thoroughly heartbreaking...If only he could get the first half of his performance up to the level of the second, this 'Hughie' would be a safe bet.” Full Review

“The accomplished film star speaks Erie’s lines, but he misses the spirit of the character, leaving an unmistakable void not to be confused with the playwright’s poetic nihilism…When he should be a big-talking con man and Runyonesque swell, Whitaker tries something possibly more realistic, but ends up blunting O’Neill’s punchy lines...‘Hughie’ is only an hour long. But as we wait for Whitaker to gain confidence in his character, the night grows long and weary.” Full Review

"Together and separately, they’re more than fine actors; they’re poets equal to O’Neill’s poeticism...I wasn’t sure what I thought of the show until a few days after I’d seen it...But later I remembered Whitaker’s gracefulness...Erie is a white character played by a black man, and the complications inherent in that casting keep the production contemporary and important. Nothing significant happens in 'Hughie' except theatre--and the creative lives of its actors." Full Review

“Whitaker is now playing Eugene O'Neill's stemwinding character Erie Smith, a character he hasn't been able to crack…‘Hughie’ is not quite workable as a stage piece. A character study, and a rich one; but not a satisfying play…The same sense of the wrong play at the wrong time applies to director Michael Grandage…Whitaker and Grandage can certainly combine for high octane theatre; but not this time, starting as they did with a not-quite play." Full Review

“A huge set for a small play is usually compensating for something. In Michael Grandage’s production of 'Hughie', it’s pretty clear what that something is. Whitaker, who does 98 percent of the talking in the 60-minute one-act, hardly makes an impression…he seems catatonic, with peculiar diction...You spend a lot of the time looking at Wood, a theatrical creature through and through, doing much more with much less.” Full Review

"The character’s self-delusion seems obvious, the stories he tells not especially vivid, the relative slightness of O’Neill’s effort tilting it towards a theatrical exercise. The audience is in danger of identifying too closely with the night clerk, who stops listening, his mind drifting, while Erie prattles on...I’m reluctant to blame all this on Whitaker...He has his moments...'Hughie' is more effective as a work of literature than a star vehicle, at least based on the current production of... Full Review

"It’s a potentially powerful short play, but Whitaker is so shaky and insubstantial that Erie’s desperate situation seems no more important than a toothache. The marvelous character actor Frank Wood manfully tries to bring life to the clerk but even his one flash of emotion expressing a desire to burn down the city, is weirdly muted...Barely more than an hour, 'Hughie' makes for less than a full evening of theater, particularly with this limp staging and especially not at Broadway prices." Full Review

"I once had a wonderful acting teacher who said that the purpose of a monologue was to keep the other character from leaving. Be so compelling that the other(s) stay and listen. This is why standing in the most brightly lit corner of the room and speaking does not constitute a monologue all on its own." Full Review

"It's a slight piece...Whitaker is pretty good, high praise indeed for a role that can prove a swamp. We are never lost in his telling, though the potential magic of the tale and Erie's sad despair never quite comes out, not really. Some film actors need the close-up of the camera. Not Whitaker. 'Hughie' is no triumph but it's the start of what could be a promising stage career." Full Review

“Whitaker has failed to beat the odds in Eugene O’Neill’s ‘Hughie’…Talented though he is, Mr. Whitaker is a film actor through and through, a pure naturalist accustomed to being seen by the camera rather than presenting himself to a live audience, and his bright, bouncy performance is as devoid of depth as his piping tenor voice…Mr. Wood is infinitely better equipped to keep up his end of the deal.” Full Review

“With his sleepy eyes, soulful voice and fluttering hands, Whitaker is a superb actor who can wear sorrow like a baggy overcoat. However, as watchable as he is, the real star of Michael Grandage's production is the design team…Grandage and his team of frequent collaborators have honored the inherent theatricality of the slender piece while fortifying it with an immersive cinematic presentation.” Full Review

“There’s a reason why O’Neill’s 1942 two-hander ‘Hughie’ is usually presented on a double bill: it is only an hour long and is essentially a rambling monologue…Oram’s towering set design of a decaying hotel lobby is visually impressive but inappropriate for such a small piece. Whitaker gives a hyperactive yet sensitive performance…while Wood does a fine job serving as the blank-faced listener.” Full Review

“Whitaker delivers a thoroughly amiable and thoughtful performance…The problem with Whitaker's approach, however, is that it's a shallow one… moments are angled so wide that they become arid, not rich, and feel more like filler…Although Whitaker is not there yet, he may still make it. The energy, resourcefulness, and raw ability he shows here suggest it's a distinct possibility. But right now, like Erie, Whitaker is potential and fantasies unrealized, underutilized, and underwhelming.” Full Review

“This 'Hughie' is hooey. It’s not that Whitaker’s acting is bad in this high-profile revival. It’s that this likeable Oscar winner is not doing any discernible acting to speak of…Whitaker, known for emotionally vibrant performances is simply reciting his lines…Christopher Oram’s scenic design is an unqualified success…If you tire of Whitaker’s disconnected talk, gaze at the faded tin ceiling or the broken elevator.” Full Review

“It’s a brave, if odd, choice for a Broadway debut, this meager work that reads better than it plays…The biggest miscue of Michael Grandage’s production is that Erie seems to believe his bullshit. Whitaker lacks the sense of desperation that O’Neill says will overcome Erie during the course of this dark hour…The result is a failure to lift this small work into the tragic realm to which it aspires…That’s surely as much O’Neill’s fault as Whitaker’s. But it’s Whitaker we’ve come to see." Full Review

“What a quietly satisfying, touching pleasure this production turns out to be…Whitaker brings a buoyant, sweet, almost delicate sensibility…It is hard to imagine a more compelling, almost silent, witness than Frank Wood as the new clerk. With little more than a disbelieving blink and a dry stare, Wood dares us not to acknowledge this as a two-character drama.” Full Review

“No one captured urban isolation on canvas better than Hopper, and if he’d ever decided to paint the now slightly crumbling lobby of a hotel in Times Square this ‘Hughie’ as designed by Oram and directed by Grandage would be it…The Oscar-winning [Whitaker] delivers a most endearing Erie, right down to the nervous giggle…That kind of vital sign is completely missing in Wood’s equally disturbing night clerk.” Full Review

"Director Michael Grandage has taken an unconventional approach in presenting this small-scale work by creating tremendous imagery with theatrical stagecraft that inventively and faithfully realizes the material...This production of 'Hughie' vividly fulfills O’Neill’s intentions with its inspired physical representation and engrossing performances." Full Review

“Grandage lets it breathe and the actors make it work as a parable about connecting and disconnecting in modern life. By the time the clock hits 4 a.m. and the sun peeks out, there's something deeply satisfying about this little play, which O'Neill himself may never have expected anyone to actually mount on a stage. Thank goodness it has been, especially with Whitaker in the lead role.” Full Review

"Whitaker gives it a game effort, but you’re always aware that he’s acting, working at persuading us he’s a small-time hustler named Erie Smith rather than simply being him. The two-character play is one of O’Neill’s distinctly minor efforts...Whitaker, under the direction of Michael Grandage, gives us the character’s surface. His Erie is a pleasant-enough guy with a genial laugh, but there isn’t a vital arc to his story. The actor is a warm presence, but not much more." Full Review

"What O’Neill wants us to appreciate is just how lonely Erie is behind his bonhomie... Whitaker manages to capture Erie’s good-time exterior and his gift of gab...But that well of loneliness behind the bravado, isn’t really present in Whitaker’s performance. It creeps in for a moment, but it’s far too fleeting to make us feel much for Erie. In the end, by the sheer brevity of the play, its repetitive nature, and Whitaker’s semi-successful star turn, I believe we’ve all been shortchanged." Full Review