Forest Whitaker in ‘Hughie’

‘HUGHIE’: Frank Wood (left) & Forest Whitaker. Photo: Marc Brenner

HUGHIE
By Eugene O’Neill
Directed by Michael Grandage
Through March 27, 2016
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), www.HughieBroadway.com

By David NouNou

In all my years of writing, the thing I always found to be the hardest was to criticize a most honorable actor/movie star. I have admired Forest Whitaker for a long time. I first noticed him as a standout in Good Morning Vietnam, then Bird, The Crying Game, The Butler (robbed of an Oscar nomination), and, of course, his Oscar-winning role in The Last King of Scotland. He is an incredible actor to watch and so it pains me to say he is making his Broadway debut in Hughie, a non-existent Eugene O’Neill play and his interpretation of the beleaguered character Erie Smith is all wrong. To be sure, Mr. Whitaker is giving an earnest performance, but unfortunately it is a misplaced one.

Erie Smith is a lost soul. He is a drunken gambler who on this particular 1928 night happens to be sober and is returning to his hotel room. Also on this night he meets the new night clerk (the wonderful Frank Wood). The topic of choice by Erie is the former night clerk, the now deceased Hughie. Erie is trying to engage the night clerk with stories of his lucky halcyon days and anecdotes about Hughie. For Erie is afraid of the outside due to his debts, and afraid to go up to his room and be left alone with his demons. His safe haven is the dilapidated hotel lobby.

That’s the play, a 60-minute monologue by Erie prattling on about what he imagines to have been his glory days. Erie has to be full of bravado and has to have a certain charm to be likable. Mr. Whitaker has the charm but has chosen (or maybe it is a joint decision by him and the director Michael Grandage) to lose all of Erie’s bravado and play him as a schlemiel. Considering there is no plot or point to this play, the bravado has to be an essential part of the show, for without it the show becomes a big snooze.

The set by Christopher Orem, a decaying hotel lobby, is a piece of art and the ghostly lighting by Neil Austin is a vision. The expressionless, almost silent night clerk, Frank Wood, is as otherworldly as the set and the lighting and just as effective. Although it is not intentional, the three conspire to envelop and swallow up Erie/Forest Whitaker as if he never existed.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 3, 2016
Reviewed at press performance on March 2, 2016

‘HUGHIE’: Frank Wood & Forest Whitaker. Photo: Marc Brenner