The New Criterion
It operates as a refuge for a civilizing element in short supply in contemporary America: honest criticism
- The Wall Street Journal
TheaterJanuary 2010 Starry mess On Starry Messenger, The Age of Iron, The Great Recession & Merrick, the Elephant Man Starry Messenger has for its star Matthew Broderick, and, like a star, he is cold and remote. This is the story of an emotional- ly dead man who achieves resurrection through adultery—oh, boundless self-serving theme!—but this particular Lazarus never manages to shake off the dirt of the grave. They might well have titled this production Portrait of Ferris Bueller as a Very Sad Middle-Aged Man, except that Bueller did not, after all, grow up to be a fry cook on Venus, as prophesied, instead contenting himself with becoming a planetarium lecturer, his gaze falling not upon the stars themselves but upon facsimiles of them. Mr. Broderick plays Mark Williams, a character you have met before. You have met him in novels written by adjunct professors of English, about adjunct professors of English, for adjunct professors of English. You have met slightly more ribald versions of him as P ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 28 January 2010, on page 39 Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Starry-mess-4362
rate this article for your user profile
E-mail to friend
|
On the new adaptation of War Horse, the Folding Chair's Titus Andronicus & Rip Torn in Julius Caesar.
Webcasts
Anthony Daniels on the Euro Crisis
Andrew C. McCarthy: The Muslim Threat
Roger Kimball: The Grim Future of Statism Weblog 
|
add a comment
you must have an account to post a comment. {register now}