by Slade Sohmer
Four decades after Network earned four Academy Awards, Paddy Chayefsky’s brilliant screenplay is still one of the most eerily predictive and relevant works of art. Now, thanks to an adaptation by Billy Elliot’s Lee Hall and a staging by once-in-a-generation visionary Ivo van Hove, Network has been born again, first on London’s West End and now on Broadway, emerging from classic film to one the freshest pieces of live theater imaginable.
Angry prophets and corporate profits, fear of emerging new media and technology, the quest for ratings and eyeballs, the increasing interconnectedness of global elites, love, lust, losing one’s faculties publicly: Network’s themes from 42 years ago still manage to hold the absurdly reflective funhouse mirror under the nose of our times. Thankfully, Bryan Cranston is the messenger.
FOUR REASONS YOU GOTTA GET TICKETS NOW TO NETWORK:
1. Bryan Cranston. He really sells the psychotic descent into madness of Howard Beale, the UBS newscaster who follows up his firing over bad ratings by vowing to kill himself on live television. The Breaking Bad star’s infamous "We're as mad as hell, and we're not going to take this anymore" scene alone is worth the price of admission. If you thought Cranston embodied LBJ is All the Way, wait until you see what he’s done with Beale.
2. All About Ivo. Director Ivo Van Hove, King of the Stripped-Down Production, went entirely the other way for this one. The stage features a fully functioning TV control room, a live news studio, a green room for pre-show makeup and a swanky on-set restaurant that serves a three-course meal as part of an immersive dining experience. But the true brilliance comes in how the show is both performed in front of you and simultaneously broadcasted on a giant screen on the back of the stage. He also collects huge bonus points for a live walk-and-talk that begins outside the theater and ends up at a table on the front of the stage. Ivo is a god among mortals.
Photos : Jan Versweyveld
3. Diana Christensen. This is a villainously pitch-perfect role reserved for powerhouse actresses. Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey’s Lady Mary Crawley, embodied the intelligence, grace and charm of Oscar winner Faye Dunaway in London, bringing both business acumen and temptress-level seduction to the boardroom and the bedroom. For the Broadway run, we’ve got Orphan Black star (and Emmy winner) Tatiana Maslany making her Broadway debut. Diana is a true feminist icon that keeps the story moving, and her obsession with the sensational makes for a sensational turn in this show.
4. It works perfectly on the stage. The film’s many, many, many, many monologues, which in hindsight seem heavy-handed and over-the-top and seemingly gave birth to Aaron Sorkin, fit much better on the stage, a medium way more suited for bloviating and filibustering. You feel as though you’re watching something with incredible weight set before you.
This is exactly the right show for the times. You will leave feeling as if it were written just this year for the stage, blown away by the acting and the set aesthetic, and you will want to see it again after you eventually get your wits about you.
Network runs on Broadway through June 8.