A Free Man of Color
Opening Night: November 18, 2010
Closing: January 9, 2011
Theater: Vivian Beaumont
A Free Man of Color looks at the complex racial, social, sexual and political culture of New Orleans in 1802.
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November 18, 2010
To call a work of art "sprawling" is not necessarily a bad thing. Some canvases are naturally larger than others, and critics who (like me) have a built-in bias in favor of careful craftsmanship must always be on guard lest it cause them to underrate a masterpiece whose corners aren’t tucked in. If neatness is what you expect from John Guare’s "A Free Man of Color," you’ll be doomed to disappointment.
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November 18, 2010
The initial draft of John Guare’s new play "A Free Man of Color" apparently first arrived as a five-hour epic. Even cut down to less than three, it still feels unwieldy. The playwright’s ambition cannot be denied: It is a geographically sprawling, frantic affair set primarily in New Orleans about the chaotic years at the turn of the 19th century as the Great Powers squabbled and swapped land at a whim. Fictional characters are mixed with historical giants.
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November 18, 2010
Earlier this season, Lincoln Center Theater placed a risky bet on an adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. They opened it cold, without the benefit of an out-of-town test run, and hoped Patti LuPone could carry it. Tonight, L.C.T. effectively doubles down by opening another ambitious, new play. A Free Man of Color is playwright John Guare’s first work on Broadway in 18 years. This time, in a role written expressly for him, actor Jeffrey Wright does the heavy lifting— swathed in velvet and lace, no less.
READ THE REVIEWNovember 18, 2010
"A Free Man of Color" is a mad, glorious mess of circa 1804 world history, quasi-Restoration comedy and conflicting racial issues created with wild ambition and intermittent flashes of brilliance by one of our best playwrights, John Guare, the maker of "Six Degrees of Separation" and "The House of Blue Leaves."
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November 18, 2010
Theatergoers looking to experience the wittiest part of John Guare’s “Free of Man of Color,” the spangled white elephant now rampaging at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, need only pick up a program. You know how practically every Playbill handed out on Broadway these days features a list of producers as long as Shaquille O’Neal’s arm?
READ THE REVIEWNovember 19, 2010
You can’t say John Guare’s new play "A Free Man of Color" isn’t ambitious in scope or awash in extravagant eye candy. Or that the huge cast of 33 isn’t fully committed. But unfortunately that doesn’t add up to a satisfying evening.
READ THE REVIEWNovember 18, 2010
When he was a teenager, John Guare saw a production of Tamburlaine the Great in which the title conqueror unrolled a map of the world and walked across it. "That one image so overwhelmed me," he writes in his book The War Against the Kitchen Sink, "that I could no longer watch TV miniatures like the original Marty set in living rooms like mine … I wanted attention to be paid only to Tamburlaine or his mirror, the hilarious fools who thought they were Tamburlaine striding over the map of their own private world."
READ THE REVIEWNovember 18, 2010
In the issue of the Lincoln Center Review that accompanies John Guare’s new play "A Free Man of Color," a joint interview with Guare and director George C. Wolfe is headlined "An Exhilarating Collision." The title is entirely apt. The collaboration is exhilarating because both men are among the top artists in their respective disciplines and bringing formidable skills to fascinating subject matter. But the result of a collision is usually painful and messy, and that’s certainly the case at the Vivian Beaumont, despite the lavish and loving production.
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