{"id":58452,"date":"2017-12-01T02:20:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T07:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/uma-thurman-opens-in-the-parisian-woman-a-fiction-thats-no-match-for-reality-review\/"},"modified":"2017-12-01T02:20:32","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T07:20:32","slug":"uma-thurman-opens-in-the-parisian-woman-a-fiction-thats-no-match-for-reality-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/uma-thurman-opens-in-the-parisian-woman-a-fiction-thats-no-match-for-reality-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Uma Thurman Opens in \u2018The Parisian Woman,\u2019 a Fiction That\u2019s No Match for Reality: REVIEW"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uma Thurman Opens in \u2018The Parisian Woman,\u2019 a Fiction That\u2019s No Match for Reality: REVIEW<\/b>
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There are times when real drama outside the theatre overshadows what\u2019s on stage. <\/span>The Parisian Woman<\/span><\/i>, which opened on Broadway last night at the Hudson Theatre, presents an unusually extreme example. <\/span><\/p>\n

Uma Thurman, leading the production in her Broadway debut, recently promised to share <\/span>her own potentially explosive story<\/span><\/a> about Harvey Weinstein as soon as she feels ready. Playwright and <\/span>House of Cards<\/span><\/i> creator Beau Willimon, also making his Broadway debut, has seen his <\/span>Netflix series embroiled in controversy<\/span><\/a> with the downfall of its star Kevin Spacey. Though ostensibly unrelated to the play, the presence of these stories in the room is hard to deny \u2014 and one has to think, adds to the production\u2019s allure.<\/span><\/p>\n

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All that aside, the real events outpacing <\/span>The Parisian Woman<\/span><\/i>\u2019s slack political storyline are the ones cascading down our Twitter feeds from Washington. Just keeping up with every outrageous plot twist can feel nearly impossible \u2014 so how are artists meant to respond to the current moment? Doing so on stage <\/span>has proven especially difficult<\/span><\/a>. Incidentally, Willimon\u2019s play, inspired by\u00a0Henri Becque\u2019s 1885\u00a0La Parisienne,<\/em> suffers from the same problem as recent seasons of <\/span>House of Cards<\/span><\/i> (though Willimon left as showrunner after season 4). The truth is far, far stranger than fiction \u2014 never more so than now \u2014 and it\u2019s moving too fast for anyone to capture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here, Thurman plays Chloe, a self-professed woman<\/a> of pleasure who takes full advantage of her open marriage, thumbs the occasional vampire novel, and ministers to the finer points of advancing her husband Tom\u2019s career. Tom (Josh Lucas), a tax attorney serving Republican bigwigs, is angling for a judgeship (a position for which he\u2019s hardly qualified, so if not now, when?). Chloe is determined to help.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The setup is simple, the stakes feel low, and for the first half of these 90 minutes, it\u2019s not very clear what we\u2019re doing here when real breaking news likely awaits on our switched-off phones. Pam MacKinnon\u2019s characteristically serviceable direction does little to generate heat. Willimon, a keen observer and wordsmith, turns out some memorable truisms (e.g. \u201cin the land of sinners, the whore is Queen\u201d). Then he delivers the kind of twist that usually arrives by episode 4, with a relish that feels thrilling for a moment, until you realize this is still about one mid-level player moving up a notch, albeit to a lifetime appointment.<\/span><\/p>\n

That thrill, such as it is, comes largely thanks to Ms. Thurman, whose poise and assurance is impressive, if not equal to the total self-possession and command of the stage her character would seem to require. In that pivotal scene, she plays opposite a superb Blair Brown, in the role of a party-line Republican appointed to lead the Federal Reserve. In Brown\u2019s Jeanette, we\u2019re privy to the utter delusion of GOP leaders who think their erratic president can be controlled \u2014 though she can hardly know the half of it without tracking Twitter in real time. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Lucas, previously on Broadway in a 2005 production of <\/span>The Glass Menagerie<\/span><\/i>, seems least at ease, and his scenes opposite Thurman find them both on shaky ground. He\u2019s also tasked with delivering the play\u2019s denouement, eulogizing his own crisis of achievement (the title\u2019s focus on her is one bait and switch among many). It\u2019s another testament to the pervasive power of current discourse that no one is likely to shed a tear for the frustrated ambitions of an affluent white dude, even one who started with nothing. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a nice townhouse,\u201d Tom says (and they do, Derek McLane\u2019s set is a Restoration Hardware lover\u2019s dream). \u201cWe wear nice clothes\u201d (though, Jane Greenwood\u2019s blue-and-red palette is a little on the nose). So what?\u201d Tom asks. \u201cDoesn\u2019t it feel empty?\u201d Unfortunately, it does.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar<\/a>
\n(photos: matthew murphy)<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Uma Thurman Opens in \u2018The Parisian Woman,\u2019 a Fiction That\u2019s No Match for Reality: REVIEW<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Uma Thurman Opens in \u2018The Parisian Woman,\u2019 a Fiction That\u2019s No Match for Reality: REVIEW<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n