The Special Effects of "Frost/Nixon"

When you think of special effects you usually think of movies like “Spider-Man” and “Pirates of the Caribbean”. But Broadway has been experimenting with special effects too. Leading the way these past few seasons have been the video artists who work alongside set designers to bring new kinds of visual images to the stage, from the poignant memory book photo of a once happy family in The Year of Magical Thinking to the amusing simulation of a crowd doing the wave at a tennis match in Deuce.

The Brits have been particularly enterprising with this new imagery. The first time I really noticed how projections could transform the Broadway experience was two years ago when my artist friend Lesley and I saw Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White. The critics weren't crazy about William Dudley’s computer-animated projections and strategically placed screens, which, replacing conventional sets, transported the audience through Victorian-era train tunnels and into the rooms and passageways of ghost-ridden mansions. But I found myself entranced. Maybe too much so since I actually enjoyed those virtual “sets” more than I did the rest of the show. Lesley, who enjoys teasing the boundaries of people’s expectations with her paintings, sculptures and installations and who was once married to a set designer, was also intrigued by the artistic possibilities of this high tech toolbox. We both thought that it might be a way to attract a younger generation of theatergoers who are accustomed not to the static three-camera TV sitcoms of their parents’ youths but to the kinetic energy of video games and streaming computer images. The next season, I loved it when The History Boys incorporated video into its highly theatrical production. Still, the most effective special effect I've seen is in the current production of Frost/Nixon.

I first saw the show a month ago with my friend Ann but I went back this past weekend with my husband K. The show, of course, details the behind-the-scenes drama leading up to the famous interviews in which TV journalist David Frost got Richard Nixon to apologize for his role in the Watergate cover up that brought down his presidency. Frank Langella, the deserved front runner for the Best Actor Tony, doesn't need any special effects to convey the complexities and subtleties of Nixon. But the large freeze-frame close-up his face as his Nixon finally accepts the hell to which his hubris has brought him illuminates the exquisite tragedy Langella creates at each performance. Film director Ron Howard and his producing partner Brian Grazer have bought the movie rights to the play and there was much speculation that they would hire a big name star to play Nixon. They have smartly given the role to Langella. That close-up may have helped clinch the deal. But their decision also proves that even in Hollywood, there's an appreciation for the old-fashion special effect of an actor at the top of his game.

Only Two Reasons to See "Deuce"

The display case outside a theater usually shows photos of the production that's currently inside. But the case outside the Music Box Theater doesn't have pictures of Deuce, the new Terrence McNally play about the reunion of a pair of former tennis doubles partners. Instead, it offers a photographic retrospective of the careers of the show's two stars, Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes. And that's fitting. Because there really isn't much else going for this slight play. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't go see it. Lansbury, who over nearly seven decades has triumphed in, as they used to say, stage (four Tony Awards), screen (three Oscar nominations) and television (18 Emmy nominations, 12 of them for her iconic portrayal of Jessica Fletcher in "Murder She Wrote"), hasn't been on Broadway in 26 years and, as she says in a lovely interview with the New York Times' Jesse Green (click here to read it), this is also her first time before a live audience since the death in 2003 of her beloved husband of 38 years, producer Peter Shaw. Seldes, daughter of the influential cultural critic Gilbert Seldes and widow of the writer Garson Kanin, has been a constant pleasure for both Broadway and off-Broadway audiences (5 Tony nominations, including a win for the original production of A Delicate Balance, and 6 Drama Desk nominations) for 60 years. Both are still playing at the top of their games and it's a treat just to watch them volley back and forth during the play's 90 intermissionless minutes.

I went to Deuce with my friend Ellie, the one-time actress whom I've known since we were stage-struck teenagers. Like the characters Lansbury and Seldes play we've experienced our share of double faults and missed balls over the course of our relationship. And like those characters, we find neutral territory in something we both love—in our case it isn't running around on a tennis court but sitting in a darkened theater. After seeing Deuce, Ellie and I walked over to the Paramount Hotel for a drink. One of the great things about one act shows is that you get out early enough to get a good seat at a bar or restaurant. Ellie and I first went to the Paramount a decade ago with a mutual friend to celebrate the opening of The Who's Tommy, which the friend had helped bring to New York. The hotel is not as “in” as it was back then but we still felt grand and daring walking up its dramatic, banister-less staircase and we got a great table overlooking its delightfully eccentric lobby. There is something about old friendships, even when they fray a bit. That's what Deuce is about. It's not a revelation. But with actors like Lansbury and Seldes delivering the message you don't mind so much hearing it again.