GEORGE CLOONEY - FROST'S TV INTERVIEW WITH NIXON BECOMES HIT PLAY

FROST'S TV INTERVIEW WITH NIXON BECOMES HIT PLAY

On the heels of George Clooney's successful film drama about the clash between CBS News personality Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joseph McCarthy on television in 1954, a successful stage drama has been mounted in London about the 1977 TV encounter between former President Richard M. Nixon and British interviewer David Frost. The play, Frost/Nixon, which has a limited run through Oct. 7, stars Frank Langella as Nixon and Michael Sheen as Frost. Theater critic Nicholas de Jongh, writing in the Evening Standard, gives the play high praise and singles out Langella for special acclaim, calling his performance "amazing ... one which nobody interested in great acting should miss." Michael Billington in the Guardian also lauds the performances, and concludes: "I felt I had not only got a glimpse into the characters but became nostalgic for an era when television itself had a theatrical weight and power." Television screens in the back of the stage play an important role in the play itself. Looking at the live Nixon on stage, he appears "composed," Simon Edge notes in the Daily Express, but looking at him as a television camera captures him in closeup, "he is red-faced, sweaty and bug-eyed ... [revealing] the reductive power of a TV close-up. It is perfectly done." Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph concludes that Frost/Nixon "memorably nails the moment when politics and showbiz became inextricably intertwined."

23/08/2006