Alan Rickman - Review of his Broadway play - "Seminar"

Alan Rickman is head of a talented class in 'Seminar'

By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAYNEW YORK –

 

In the first scene of Theresa Rebeck's new comedy, Seminar (* * * out of four), we're introduced to a group of aspiring young writers who represent a compendium of clichés.

Kate is a wry feminist from a wealthy family, living in a rent-controlled (by her parents) luxury apartment. Martin is her high school friend, less privileged and more dour, with a glaring chip on his shoulder. Douglas has enjoyed perks similar to Kate's and oozes a glib confidence. Izzy is Kate's foil, an up-by-her-bootstraps hottie who wields her sensuality with no apologies.

The four have been brought together, in Kate's vast bachelorette pad, by a chance to study with Leonard, a revered author and editor whose teaching methods suggest a sadistic military commander with an unexpectedly fluid vocabulary.

Characters turn out to be different than they appear on the surface, though in predictable ways. Yet Seminar, which opened Sunday at Broadway's Golden Theatre, is consistently clever and entertaining — and, under Sam Gold's briskly intelligent direction, a fine showcase for extraordinary actors.

They include the formidable Alan Rickman as Leonard, who returned to the role Friday night after an "acute respiratory infection" led to the cancellation of Thursday's preview (and the first missed performance of his career). If Rickman was feeling under the weather, it registered as part of Leonard's emotional malaise. Perhaps the most banal figure in Rebeck's play — a brilliant roué whose brutish behavior toward others masks his own regrets — this literary lion nonetheless has some delicious lines, and the actor serves them with robust elegance while suggesting a wounded humanity that transcends stereotype.

Rickman has a superb sparring partner in Hamish Linklater, whose Martin comes closest to his tutor in both ability and contentiousness. It's obvious from the start that Leonard will eventually see something of himself in this nerdy, contrary young man. But Linklater ensures that Martin is also his own person — tender beneath his hard shell, funny and heartbreakingly real.

Those qualities also apply to Lily Rabe's Kate, a Bennington alum who responds to Leonard's first shot of venom by stuffing her face with ice cream and chips. Rabe's most recent triumph was her luminous Portia in last season's revival of The Merchant of Venice; here, she approaches what is in essence a smartly written sitcom character with reserves of wit, insight and exuberance that few actresses twice her age could summon.

Jerry O'Connell is a hilarious Douglas, managing just the right willful cluelessness, while Hettienne Park captures Izzy's lack of self-consciousness and matter-of-fact sass without overplaying her carnality.

Thanks to these performances, Seminar proves an enriching study.