“All My Sons” Roundabout Theater Co. at the American Airlines Theater. Opened April 22, 2019. Ends June 23, 2019

Tracy Letts and Annette Bening   (photo credit: Joan Marcus)

What irony there is having productions of Arthur Miller’s excellent emotions-extracting drama “All My Sons” emerge with apparent frequency and acclaim after it was decried as a Communist play and a blatant undermining of the American business ethos. It is back again courtesy of the Roundabout Theatre Company. It remains terrific.

There is no question that the accusations and allegations have proven to be woefully  misguided both  by the passage of time and the more open debate regarding the play’s social and political point of view. Today especially it seems a good time for this probing, skillfully written play to be reassessed for what it really is: one of the more distinguished works in American dramatic literature.

Without overstating the place this drama has within the Miller canon, I believe that this production under the direction of Jack O’Brien continues to insure the play’s status and stature. Critics have pointed out the plot’s contrivances since the play opened in 1947. 

The play, however,  stands firmly and more importantly on the moral and ethical values that Miller’s characters are made to confront. Recognizing and acting upon the necessity to find a strong enough cast able to deliver the play’s many emotional peaks without losing the essential honesty of Miller’s conflicted characters, O’Brien leads the characters through Millers’ logical but terrifying conscience-stretching conflict with a splendid clarity of purpose.

The story centers on how a ruthless and reckless business decision that allowed defective cylinder heads to be delivered to the Army thereby caused the death of 21 pilots and how it affects the lives of two entwined families. Miller dramatized it in a boldly unpretentious style that appears to grow more timeless with each year.

Tracy Letts can add Joe Keller to his list of great performances (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, “The Realistic Joneses”) as the manufacturer who has not only committed perjury to avoid a jail sentence but has allowed his innocent business partner to take the rap. 

At first we are ingratiated by his lazily good-humored facade. But that begins to visibly fester as the crippling fraudulence of his act is faced, an act to which his second son fell victim. Joe has not only committed perjury to avoid a jail sentence but has allowed his business partner to take the blame.

  

Benjamin Walker is more than persuasive as Chris, the older son who has fallen in love with his brother’s fiancé even as he remains loyal and blindly supportive of his father. Watch this fine actor (“American Psycho” “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”) as he subtly shifts gears from strength to sensitivity to disillusionment. Francesca Carpanini is winning as the conflicted fiancé who must face the combined anxieties in regard to her jailed father, her love for Chris and the disapproving presence of Mrs. Keller.

Annette Bening may be better known for her acclaimed film roles (“Bugsy” “The American President”) but her commendable stage work reaches a peak as the heartbreaking, frightened, neurotically ascribed Kate Keller who remains a shield to her tortured husband. 

Other fine performances are registered by Hampton Fluker as the enraged son of the scapegoat as well as by Nehal Joshi, Michael Hayen, Chinasa Ogbuagu, Jenny Barber, and the impressive youngster Alexander Bello as the involved neighbors.  Set designer Douglas W. Schmidt stays close enough to absolute realism with his house and backyard setting-- enhanced effectively by video and projections by Jeff Sugg. All the technical credits are first-rate as is this altogether fine production of a first-rate play.

"King Lear" at the Cort Theatre, 138 W. 48th St. (through July 7, 2019)

Ruth Wilson and Glenda Jackson  (photo credit: Brigitte Lacombe)

It is to be expected that a seasoned critic would have seen William Shakespeare’s “King Lear” more than once, perhaps in my case quite a few times. That Glenda Jackson is playing the (monumental) role makes it unique for many reasons that should be obvious. But before we go too deeply into the production and the performances that will inevitably invite pros and cons, I want to share a program quote from Bonnie J. Monte, the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey who directed an excellent Lear eleven years ago. "It is about a world completely out of balance, awash in chaos, and leaderless." To which I wrote at the time: "It is the right time for the politically and artistically progressive Monte to put her stamp on this classic.”

Apparently it remains the right time in the light of the way things are politically and socially volatile. A modernist but not a revisionist staging is what award-winning director Sam Gold (“A Doll’s House, Part 2” “The Glass Menagerie” “Fun House”) is giving us with this production. That Jayne Houdyshell is playing the Earl of Gloucester completes the untypical casting.

At the performance I saw, a very fine member of the ensemble Therese Barbato making her Broadway debut stepping into the role of Goneril due to the illness of Elizabeth Marvel. 

Did we ever doubt that Jackson would be able to throw her crown as a renowned classical actor into the circle of great Lears? Do we doubt that the 83 year-old Jackson has what it takes to objectify Lear’s madness well enough to make it good theater. No doubt about it. I suspect all who see her portrayal will be led into the abysmal darkness of Lear’s deteriorating mind. Having only recently been thrilled by her award-winning performance in “Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women,” I can now attest to her Lear being as emotionally real as it is realized. Despite her petite size and occasionally raspy voice, she scales the heights. Jackson’s furies, however, are undermined only in the famed storm scene, the setting, lighting and sound are woefully amateurish. .

The action for the most part played within the production’s primary unit setting designed by Miriam Buether. Long formal tables, a back row of black and gold flags and a modest display of regal-looking furnishings dress the set, its walls flecked with gold. Transformations to other locations beyond the palace are easily accomplished. There is a one major and stunning visual change to the same setting that I won’t spoil. The costumes designed by the genius Ann Roth are best described as contemporary modernist chic. Roth’s palette provides for nice bursts of color for the daughters.  

There is no denying that filial ingratitude plays a large part in “King Lear” even as our attention will be mostly on watching Jackson’s every move. However, she is surrounded by an impressive troupe of players and supported by Gold’s keenly focused staging.

This bi-level tragic tale of misjudging a person's character and royal deception is hugely enhanced by a string quartet that plays some gorgeous music composed for the play by Philip Glass. It is used not only for underscoring but to accompany the singing, the impish doings and wise discourse of the Fool, brilliantly acted in Chaplinesque fashion by Ruth Wilson (currently seen in the BBC/PBS TV series “Mrs. Wilson”) who is also splendid as Cordelia, the daughter who has found the key to unlock the uncomplicated affection for her father.

One has to be in awe of the way the play masterfully blends two plot-lines. The themes of old age and the different relationships of each child to his/her parent, in both the main and sub-plots, bring universal timelessness to each new generation of viewers.

Briefly, the story details King Lear's misapprehension of his one daughter's honest devotion causing him to divide his kingdom between the remaining two daughters, who have feigned their love through flattery. 

The resulting web of deception by the wicked daughters to strip their father of all power, and at the same time involve and seduce Edmund, the bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester (who has the similar function in the sub-plot of deceiving his father by denouncing his brother Edgar as a traitor), results in a downward spiral of devastating proportions. The majestic sweep of the poetry is hardly surpassed in all of Shakespeare. Be aware that guns have replaced swords and that they are loud and frequently used.

Despite Lear's unstable mental state and his sheer physical deterioration, Jackson creates an image of him that also expresses Lear's loss of empowerment, more heartbreaking for being “more sinned against than sinning” amid the show of senile foolishness. Lear’s heartbreak reaches its peak with Cordelia’s death in a climactic scene that also tests the many dimensions of reality in this production.

The second daughter, Regan, Aisling O’Sullivan unravels her mischief with despicable conscientiousness. Sean Carvajal as the maligned Edgar, gains our empathy for his plight. Pedro Pascal connives with the best of them as the false brother Edmund and John Douglas Thompson offers a stirring Earl of Kent. Deaf but deft performer Russell Harvard is terrific as Goneril’s duplicitous husband the Duke of Cornwall. The signing and translating throughout is well done.

It is good to report that all the poetry is heard with an understanding of its meter. Not something to be taken for granted. Not to be taken for granted is that any fine actor of a certain age should attempt Lear. Jackson’s has done it admirably.