From the Donmar Warehouse in London - which brought you Frost/Nixon, Mary Stuart and this season's Hamlet with Jude Law - comes the thrilling new American play, Red. This critically acclaimed, 90-minute drama comes direct from a sold-out run in London, starring two-time Tony Award nominee Alfred Molina and breakthrough British star Eddie Redmayne.
Master American expressionist Mark Rothko has just landed the biggest commission in the history of modern art. But when his young assistant gains the confidence to challenge him, Rothko faces the agonizing possibility that his crowning achievement could also become his undoing. Raw and provocative, with ground-breaking performances, Red is a searing portrait of an artist's ambition and vulnerability as he tries to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting.
Written by Academy Award nominee John Logan (The Aviator, Gladiator) and directed by Olivier winner and Tony Award nominee Michael Grandage (Frost/Nixon, Hamlet), Red is an award-winning production coming direct to Broadway, offering a moving and compelling account of an artist's struggle for integrity amidst fame and self-doubt.
There's a little too much talk of how paintings 'pulse' and a few of the assistant's background details seem unnecessarily maudlin. No doubt these were inserted to give his character depth, so he'd be more than just Rothko's sounding board. While the role may not be as well-drawn as Rothko's, Redmayne certainly knows what to do with it. But what would any work about a tortured artist be without a few rough patches? Art, as Steven Sondheim wrote in Sunday in the Park With George, isn't easy.
John Logan's Red (Golden Theatre) is, simultaneously, as wonderfully astute and as dishearteningly naïve a piece of playwriting as I can recall. Much that's meaningful gets said, during this 95-minute study of the interactions between the painter Mark Rothko (Alfred Molina) and his new assistant (Eddie Redmayne), but meaning isn't drama, and the bulk of Red's dramatic substance is conveyed by Christopher Oram's sets and Neil Austin's lighting, which focus on several simulated Rothko canvases. They highlight the tense, tormented undercurrents of battle that churn through Rothko's late works; relatively little in the spoken text does so, despite the combative energy of Molina's performance.
2010 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2018 | West End |
Michael Grandage Company Revival West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Redmayne |
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Alfred Molina |
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Michael Grandage |
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design | Neil Austin |
2010 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Set Design | Christopher Oram |
2010 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Alred Molina |
2010 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Production of a Play | 0 |
2010 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | John Gassner Playwriting Award | John Logan |
2010 | Theatre World Awards | Performance | Eddie Redmayne |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Michael Grandage |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Play | Neil Austin |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Eddie Redmayne |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Alfred Molina |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Stephanie P. McClelland/Hageman-Rosenthal |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Neal Street Productions/Matthew Byam Shaw |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Fox Theatricals |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Ruth Hendel/Barbara Whitman |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Play | The Donmar Warehouse |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Arielle Tepper Madover |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Play | John Logan |
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Christopher Oram |
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