We round up the reviews for Kenny Leon’s production starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Deadline.com: “Gyllenhaal bounds, loose-limbed and bursting with malevolent energy, onto the Barrymore stage and barely takes a breath for the next nearly three hours. It is a remarkable performance, conversational, contemporary and unerringly convincing.”
The Guardian: *** “The show, instead, belongs to Gyllenhaal, an actor of singular intensity who makes a meal out of Iago’s desperate two-facedness. He opens the show with a hypnotic screed against “The Moor” he so loathes – a denigration of blackness (of soul and skin) in Shakespeare’s time titled just enough to resonate more clearly in ours, and never ceases to mesmerize.”
New York Theatre Guide: “In Leon’s stark production, the military setting is emphasized for modern audiences by having the soldiers (including Othello) almost always wearing army fatigues. This choice also visually reminds us that Desdemona, usually dressed in crisp outfits like a statesman’s wife, is an outsider in this world. Casting the 27-year-old Molly Osborne as Desdemona creates a striking age difference between her and her new husband, but Osborne has an easy chemistry with Washington that makes the match work. All this casts an even darker light on the character’s tragic death.”
The Wall Street Journal: “Unfortunately Mr. Washington, here and throughout, fails to transmit the powerful majesty of Shakespeare’s writing for this character, “the Othello music,” as it has been called. Mr. Leon’s staging is roughly contemporary—taking place in “the near future,” we are obscurely notified—so one may infer that Mr. Washington and his colleagues have been encouraged to make the verse accessible to today’s audiences.”
Vulture.com: ” It may be that Washington’s lackluster performance stems from a misfiring if understandable desire to avoid stereotypes of outsize passion—of big, blustery emotional fireworks in a thorny role of color—yet the result is that we go on no journey with his Othello. We listen to him say words; we don’t, even as he enters the bedroom of his innocent wife, Desdemona (Molly Osborne), to strangle her, experience his awful interior transformation. Instead, as he approaches her in these fateful moments, a truly unsettling percentage of the audience is still laughing.”
Variety: “That lucky group of people who will get to see this “Othello” will get to luxuriate in Washington’s silky, fluent delivery of the Bard’s English, and to thrill to the painful irony of Othello’s fundamental lack of understanding that he’s being played by the jealous, venal Iago (an excellent Jake Gyllenhaal).”
The Wrap.com: “Gyllenhaal delivers the most engaging Iago I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen some pretty good Iagos: Christopher Plummer with Jones and Daniel Craig with Oyelowo. Gyllenhaal’s performance fuels the show, and when his Iago takes a needed break after getting Cassio wounded and Roderigo murdered, this “Othello” never quite regains either its focus or its propulsive momentum.”
USA Today: “With an ensemble as mighty as this, it’s a shame that director Kenny Leon’s prosaic staging feels like such an afterthought, given his artful recent work on “Our Town” and “Purlie Victorious.” An opening title card announces that the story is set in a vague “near future,” where the men dress like Murray Hill bros, while the women look as if they stepped out of a Talbots catalog. (And please, dear God, it’s time for a moratorium on army fatigues in modern Shakespeare productions.) Derek McLane’s scenic design is frustratingly rote – mostly consisting of moving columns – although lighting designer Natasha Katz manages to create some stunning silhouettes as the violence ramps up in the second act.”
The Hollywood Reporter: “Among the productions strengths is Jake Gyllenhaal’s seething Iago, one of Shakespeare’s greatest villains. Gyllenhaal conveys the hatred and resentment coursing through the minor officer’s veins, but also the petulance after he’s passed over by revered general Othello for promotion to lieutenant. The actor injects notes of ingratiating charm into his character’s evil manipulations, which lends credibility to the number of people easily duped by him, selling the common perception of him as “Honest Iago.””
Entertainment Weekly: “Washington’s vocal cadence has always been something akin to jazz — altering pace, inflection, and volume to keep other characters (and audience members) off balance. Those mannerisms expand here alongside Othello’s increasing jealousy as Iago’s deception begins to take hold. Watching the always dynamic actor yell, “Blood! Blood! Blood!” in a bitter rage is as impactful as you would imagine.”
New York Stage Review: **** “Both the female characters, Desdemona (beautifully portrayed by British actor Molly Osborne) and Iago’s wife, Emilia (the equally impressive Kimber Elayne Sprawl), reveal themselves to be smarter and more assertive than in previous productions.”
Time Out: “Othello does offer an intense, original and compelling depiction of jealousy. But it’s Iago’s jealousy, not Othello’s: his suspicion that Othello has slept with his wife, Emilia; his rage at Cassio’s having taken his rightful place as Othello’s lieutenant. These are always motives for Iago’s malice, but Gyllenhaal makes them the white-hot core of his powerful performance, the coal that fires his hypermasculine truculence.”
New York Post: “Gyllenhaal, with five Broadway credits, has built an impressive Midtown resume. And, recognizing he gets to make a meal of one of the great love-to-hate parts, is a delectable Iago He gets an A for Evil.”
AM New York: ““Othello” is a play about the dangers of misinformation and mistrust as engineered by an exceptionally persuasive orator. It should speak directly to this cultural moment. Instead, it’s a hollow star vehicle – expensive but cheap, flashy but dull.”
To find out more visit: https://othellobway.com/