Theater Review - Closer

I attended opening night of the play “Closer” last week, which I hadn’t the slightest idea was a play and not just a movie where sweet little Julia Roberts says naughty things. Always up for something scandalous, I attended this showing by the Independent Theatre Company here in Boston.

The theater was very cool, with seats on three sides. I sat in the second of three or four rows directly in front of the stage which was set bare except for a small white wall that was creatively used throughout the performance as a hospital waiting room wall, the mirrored wall at a strip club, a computer sex chat room, an art gallery, and more. Additionally, the floor was covered in glow-in-the dark tape marks so the crew could see where to put the furniture pieces that moved (quite loudly at times) in an out from what I could only tell was a Batcave off stage. Typical opening night issues were there, with sound ranging from too soft to too loud, mirrors falling off walls, and lights going on at the wrong times, but I don’t mind stuff like that too much – that’s what makes live theater interesting.

With only four characters, it was easy to focus on each actor as they portrayed four wildly different people in this big couple switcheroo. A.J. MacQuarrie played Dan (Jude Law in the film) and while I was skeptical of the founder, owner, producer, artistic director, etc, of the theater also being cast in the show, he did a fantastic job with the British accent, the whininess of the character, and really made me feel he was a rather sad sort. The only comment my friend and I discussed after the show is that his desperate cries of “I LOVE YOU!” to each of the female characters at various parts of the show seemed a little empty and made us wonder if the actor himself had ever been so desperately in love and in jeopardy of losing it, because only then could you truly be able to emote that feeling.

Roxanne Morse playing Anna (Julia Roberts in the film) was sadly a low point for me. While her scenes with co-actor Goerge A. Scala III were an improvement from others, I felt no chemistry between her and the two men she was supposed to be so desperately drawn to. She seemed to struggle to look her co-actors in the eye, whether that was direction or her, I don’t know, and always seemed to be intently concentrating in an effort to find her cue line so she could deliver her next. I didn’t believe she was a photographer, didn’t believe she cared much for either of the male characters and found scenes with her tended to be forced as her words seems to be carefully pronounced as opposed to delivered in a flurry of emotion as so many scenes seemed to require.

The character Alice was played by Amy Hildreth in this production (Natalie Portman in the film) and, in my opinion, definitely delivered. With an accent that, for all I know, was real, a mesmerizing stare about her, and the ability to carry off an attitude of loneliness and amusement at the same time, I enjoyed all scenes. My friend struggled with the stripper scene, thinking it perhaps wasn’t sexy enough, but I think doing a scene like that, in a wig no less, it pretty ballsy and give her an A.

My favorite performance of the night had to be the aforementioned Scala playing Larry the doctor (Clive Owen in the film) as he outshined Mr. Owen himself. While he didn’t LOOK like what I thought the character would look like, the acting was outstanding. Ranging from outright angry to humble to apologetic to a little bit crazy, I was happy every time he came out on stage. Again, if the accent wasn’t his own, I would be surprised because he nailed it exactly. The few scenes he had with MacQuarrie were particular favorites of mine because he really made his character his own and very different from MacQuarrie's even though both characters are pretty pathetic.

All in all, a good performance, but really not enjoying 25% of the cast and scenes really put a downer on a lot of it for me. Worth $25? Enhhh….not really. But hey, what do I know?