The acting could hardly be better. (While I'm loathe to make direct comparisons, personally I preferred this cast to the original production's.) Riley could have come right out of a Jane Austen novel; he's witty, dashing, and completely crushable (a very important plot point). Williams is wonderfully prickly and has terrific chemistry with both Crudup and Raúl Esparza, who plays Valentine, the eccentric mathematician descendant of Thomasina. Crudup — who made his Broadway debut as Septimus, then won a 2007 Tony in Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia — appears to be acting in overdrive; perhaps he's just excited to be in a Stoppard play without being stuck in the 19th century. But even with an over-the-top Crudup, it's still a pretty fantastic evening.