{"id":7509,"date":"2025-05-23T18:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T18:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/23\/hugh-jackman-in-sexual-misconduct-of-the-middle-classes\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T18:35:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T18:35:18","slug":"hugh-jackman-in-sexual-misconduct-of-the-middle-classes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/23\/hugh-jackman-in-sexual-misconduct-of-the-middle-classes\/","title":{"rendered":"Hugh Jackman In \u2018Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes\u2019\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hugh Jackman and Ella Beatty in Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes<\/em> at Minetta Lane Theatre Emilio Madrid<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hugh Jackman<\/a>: Do Stand So Close to Me.<\/span><\/i> Not a rejected title for the Wolverine actor\u2019s residency at <\/span>Radio City Music Hall<\/span><\/a>. One would be hard-pressed to get within screaming distance of the star at that airplane hangar. Any fan of the Police will clock my allusion their 1980 hit, about a schoolteacher tormented by an affair with a student. In Hannah Moscovitch<\/a>\u2019s engaging <\/span>Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes<\/span><\/i>, Jackman does indeed play a professor entangled with a young woman enrolled in his lit class. Here\u2019s the meta kicker, though: at the relatively teensy Minetta Lane Theatre, audiences can enjoy an intimate view of the Oz icon as he entertains 300-plus of us within leg-hugging distance. (Don\u2019t hug his leg.)<\/span><\/p>\n

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After so many years shredding fasciae at the gym or scowling in front of green screens, Jackman must savor the chance to simply stroll onstage, not pause for an ovation, and act. His 11-month turn in <\/span>The Music Man<\/span><\/i> on Broadway notwithstanding, it\u2019s a relief to see the gifted actor use his soothing voice and agile body in the service of nuanced, adult storytelling. Canadian writer Moscovitch has structured her two-hander (which premiered in Toronto in 2020) primarily as a monologue delivered by successful novelist Jon Macklem (Jackman), interspersed with dialogues between him and 19-year-old Annie (Ella Beatty<\/a>). Over the course of 85 minutes, Jon recalls a chapter in his life when he was teaching at an unnamed college while separated from his third wife. He\u2019s struggling with his latest book (lumberjacks at the turn of the century) when the image of girl wearing a red coat pops into his head; he realizes this is Annie, a moon-faced nymph in his class who, it turns out, is a fan.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ella Beatty in Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes<\/em> Emilio Madrid<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First there\u2019s a meet-weird on Jon\u2019s front lawn as Annie interrupts his mowing of the grass with halting, elliptical small talk. Turns out her student housing is close enough to Jon\u2019s house that he can see her window from his front porch (surely there\u2019s a campus policy about that). Jon is charmed and perhaps a little annoyed by Annie\u2019s spacey, deadpan speech, until she drops this confession: \u201cI want the living version of the feeling I get when I read your work.\u201d Speaking his love language\u2014whether it\u2019s a calculated seduction or simply the truth\u2014Annie begins to chip away at the wall of propriety that Jon has maintained between himself and his students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That is, if we take him at word: He sees temptation, but has laughed it off in the past. Does Jackman play a reliable narrator? As Moscovitch\u2019s story reveals itself as a series of authorial Russian dolls, we begin to question who\u2019s telling this story, and whose story is being told. At first, we might assume that Jon is cannibalizing his experiences for fiction; he doesn\u2019t describe his actions with \u201cI did\u201d but \u201che did,\u201d as if shifting the voice to third person absolves him of responsibility for crossing an ethical line. His defining character trait is the desire to live a respectable, bourgeois life (hence the title) and not become a stereotypical reckless artist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ella Beatty and Hugh Jackman in Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes<\/em> Emilio Madrid<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ian Rickson<\/a> has directed Jackman before, notably in the atmospheric Jez Butterworth drama, <\/span>The River<\/span><\/i> on Broadway a decade ago, and he again brings out the movie star\u2019s relaxed, natural charm and humor, in his native Aussie accent. Beatty has the harder task of bringing a na\u00efve cipher to life, and her mannered deer-frozen-in-the-headlights affect can grow repetitive. Unless the character is medicated or neurodivergent or simply millennial, we could use more fleshing out from the playwright, or added quirk\/warmth\/slyness from the performer. The line-to-line writing is smart and self-aware, if also prone to purple passages\u2014which we might blame on either Jon or Moscovitch. As they make love (a cruder expression is warranted) inside his parked car, Jon indulges in this sub-Rothian reflection: \u201cAnnie clutched him and the whole time she had dark life in her eyes\u2014depth, depth\u2014alongside a certain odd knowing look: the blankness was gone, and he suddenly wondered if that blankness had been\u2026<\/span>youth<\/span><\/i>?\u201d Blankness replaced by darkness: talk about an unsentimental education.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In spite of the odd wince-inducing moments, the script moves fast and scores laughs, driven by genuine erotic heat between its attractive leads. The physical production looks tasteful and spare, with stylish wooden furnishings from Brett J. Banakis<\/a> and Christine Jones<\/a>, flattering and oft-removed couture by \u00c1sta Bennie Hostetter, and story-supporting lights and sound by Isabella Byrd<\/a> and Mikaal Sulaiman<\/a>. <\/span>Sexual Misconduct<\/span><\/i> runs in repertory with a new version of August Strindberg\u2019s <\/span>Creditors<\/span><\/i>, also directed by Rickson, and also centered on the messy implosion of a relationship. Liev Schreiber and Maggie Siff star in that. Coproduced by Audible and the newly formed Together\u2014a company that presents new work in intimate venues free of commercial expectations\u2014the shows are drawing crowds, for obvious celebrity reasons. Let\u2019s hope less famous names get the spotlight, once Jackman heads back to Radio City and the MCU.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes <\/i><\/b>| 1hr 25mins. No intermission. | Minetta Lane Theatre<\/a> | 18 Minetta Lane |\u00a0<\/b>Buy Tickets Here<\/i><\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Review:<\/p><\/div>\n