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.
The adaptation by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) sticks close to Chayefsky's original script, with mixed results. References to, say, The Mary Tyler Moore Show once gave Network a startling contemporaneity, but now seem a tad camp. And hearing, with fresh ears, that melodramatic monologue that won Beatrice Straight an Oscar does little but suggest just how good Straight was. That's no slight against Alyssa Bresnahan, who plays the role on stage, but lightning can't strike twice.
Anyone familiar with the movie will be prepared for the bleak malevolence of the ending. But van Hove and Hall save their most significant addition for last, replacing Chayefsky's omniscient narrator with a coda in which an out-of-body Howard warns of 'the destructive power of absolute beliefs.' Given the adaptation's shift to make Howard its monumental center, plus the fact that Cranston blows everyone else off the stage, it's fitting that he has the final word.
Videos