Tony, Olivier, Emmy and Golden Globe winner Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad," All the Way) makes his "electrifying" (The New York Times) return to Broadway in the National Theatre's critically acclaimed production of Network, now a New York Times Critic's Pick.
In Lee Hall's adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky's Academy Award-winning film, anchorman Howard Beale (Cranston) unravels live on-screen. But when the ratings soar, the network seizes on its newfound prophet, and Howard becomes the biggest thing on TV.
"You owe yourself the thrill of watching Bryan Cranston in Network," raves Ben Brantley of The New York Times. Tony and Olivier winner Ivo van Hove (A View From the Bridge) directs this unique, immersive multimedia spectacle, also starring Tony Goldwyn ("Scandal") and Emmy Award winner Tatiana Maslany ("Orphan Black").
Catch the must-see theatrical event of the season, now through June 8.
Yet even if this 'Network' doesn't entirely hang together, it's still a fabulous piece of entertainment, directed and performed with verve and showmanship. Just about every directorial choice here - the clocks that count down to Beale's news broadcasts; the applause signs demanding the audience's interaction; a final scene magic trick straight out of 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' - manages to be audacious without feeling show-offy. If you're going to transfer a movie to the stage, this is exactly how to do it, by respecting both forms and then taking a sledgehammer to them. Let the pieces land thrillingly where they may.
With its continual sensory overload and its darkly vague intimations about populism and corporate power, this Network certainly looks cool. But it’s beyond cool: It’s icy. We seem intended to nod our heads and think about how prescient it all was—the mob appeal of anger, a mention of Saudi Arabia—but then to think no more. Network isn’t galvanizing, it’s numbing: emptily flashy in its condemnation of empty flash, inhuman in its wan defense of humanity. It has a superb TV star and a killer catch phrase, but behind the sound and fury is only a shadow of significance.
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