{"id":2411,"date":"2025-03-24T22:34:44","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T22:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/24\/denzel-washingtons-othello-has-star-wattage-but-no-illumination\/"},"modified":"2025-03-24T22:34:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T22:34:47","slug":"denzel-washingtons-othello-has-star-wattage-but-no-illumination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/24\/denzel-washingtons-othello-has-star-wattage-but-no-illumination\/","title":{"rendered":"Denzel Washington\u2019s \u2018Othello\u2019 Has Star Wattage But No Illumination"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal in Othello<\/em> Julieta Cervantes<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First time I saw Denzel Washington<\/a> do Shakespeare it was free. Central Park, 1990: He was a stone-cold Richard III worth waiting hours for at the Delacorte. Thirty-five years on, I still get to see him declaim the Bard gratis\u2014through the privilege of a press comp. It would be unaffordable otherwise. Perhaps you\u2019ve read about the extortionate prices at Broadway\u2019s latest <\/span>Othello<\/span><\/i><\/a>: $921 for the mezz?! Much has changed since the summer Washington gave his crookback Richard. For one thing, people are willing to part with much greater sums to ogle celebrities in the flesh. But whereas Denzel then was hungry and had something to prove, now he\u2019s a megastar doing his best, we must suppose, in a maddeningly bland production.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It doesn\u2019t hurt when Washington stars in a bad movie. You pay $15, he snaps a couple dozen bad guys\u2019 necks, you forget it on the subway. But to see him rush numbly through Othello\u2019s blood-chilling poetry before he strangles the woman he loves is to feel robbed of tragic beauty\u2014while seeing an actor filched of the chance to plumb a text and shatter an audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jake Gyllenhaal in Othello<\/em> Julieta Cervantes<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you talked to any of your oligarch friends who attended this <\/span>Othello<\/span><\/i>, you know that director Kenny Leon<\/a>\u2019s big concept appears to be: What if Venetians spokerealfastallthetime? Theater geeks know the \u201cspeed-through\u201d\u2014when actors gather pre-curtain and do lines crazy fast, to bolster memory and ensemble spirit. Did we arrive at the Barrymore Theatre an hour early?<\/span><\/p>\n

When the other name jolting the box office\u2014Jake Gyllenhaal<\/a>\u2014takes pauses in articulating Iago\u2019s plan to poison Othello\u2019s mind with thoughts of jealousy, you lean forward, gratefully. But it\u2019s only a blip. Back to blizzard of lingo that\u2019s 400 years old and needs interpretation and vocal attack to land properly on the ear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The velocity denies us the ironic echoes that even the intelligent Gyllenhaal runs roughshod over. Iago is duping a Venetian playboy named Rodrigo (Anthony Michael Lopez<\/a>) with promises of setting him up with the beautiful Desdemona (Molly Osbourne<\/a>)\u2014even though she just married Washington\u2019s Moor. At one point, when Rodrigo sighs that the woman is \u201cblessed,\u201d Iago cynically debunks the sentiment (\u201cblessed fig\u2019s end!\u201d). Later, when Iago urges the disgraced Cassio (Andrew Burnap<\/a>) to appeal to Desdemona so she may influence her husband the general, he notes, \u201cShe is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition.\u201d Shakespeare has given you a cookie. Any actor would (subtly) indicate Iago wickedly recycling the word. That\u2019s his M.O.: He observes, he steals, he uses people\u2019s words and frailties against them. Gyllenhaal ignores the echo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Molly Osborne and Denzel Washington in Othello<\/em> Julieta Cervantes<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And so, this is a remarkably unmusical rendering of Shakespeare. Very few characters enjoy the language they have. The actual <\/span>music<\/span><\/i> we hear at the top of the show and during the transition into the bedroom murder scene is pure kitsch: Andrea Bocelli\u2019s saccharine cover of the 1920 love song, \u201cAmapola.\u201d The orchestration is lushly purple, like late Sinatra. The title means \u201cpoppy.\u201d Some allusion to Iago\u2019s gloating over Othello\u2019s distress suspecting Desdemona unfaithful? \u201cNot poppy nor mandragora \/ Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world \/ Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep \/ Which thou owedst yesterday.\u201d One has time to mull over minor details when Leon breezes over the big picture.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a rare version of the tragedy in which supporting actors shine, but here we are. Lopez doesn\u2019t overdo the fop comedy of Rodrigo, achieving moments of dignity that make his death almost pitiable. As golden boy Cassio, Burnap is crisp and appealing, his drunk scene and the aftermath quite touching. It\u2019s hard to find a straight-up hero in <\/span>Othello<\/span><\/i>, but Iago\u2019s plain-spoken wife, Emilia, comes close. And Kimber Elayne Sprawl<\/a> brings a dry, no-b.s. wit to Emilia\u2019s skeptical view of gender roles. Molly Osbourne crafts a more mature and poised Desdemona, but she too suffers from a director\u2019s lead foot on the pedal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington has too much natural charisma and physical grace to not excite interest and throw sparks, and his imploding descent into murderous jealousy can be scarily contained. The actor brings grace notes of sweetness and vulnerability in first half, such as when Othello spontaneously embraces Desdemona\u2019s father, despite the old man\u2019s outrage over his daughter marrying a Black man. But it\u2019s hard to discern a unique, dimensional Moor here, just as Gyllenhaal\u2019s shaved-head Iago is a malevolent, racist force, just not a credible human being. This world is colorless and impersonal (Derek McLane<\/a>\u2019s towering gray columns on wheels), and so are its inhabitants. At the top, a supertitle says the story takes place in some unspecified tomorrow. How I longed to jump to that near future, in which Washington has taken his bow and I\u2019m sipping a martini at Joe Allen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Othello <\/i><\/b>| 2hrs 35 mins. One intermission. | Ethel Barrymore Theatre | 243 West 47th Street | 212-239-6200 |<\/b> Buy Tickets Here<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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