The 2005-06 Broadway season is now officially over (whew!). In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column I review the last two new shows I saw, Faith Healer and Shining City:
If Brian Friel isn’t the finest of living playwrights, then he certainly belongs on the shortest possible list of candidates for that supreme honor. We don’t get to see his work often enough in New York, but the season just ended has been bracketed by superlative stagings of two of his strongest scripts. Last summer the Irish Repertory Theatre mounted a perfect production of “Philadelphia, Here I Come!,” the 1964 play that put him on the map, and now Broadway has imported the Dublin Gate Theatre’s revival of “Faith Healer,” first seen in this country in 1979.
Unlike the big-name revivals of “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” (with David Schwimmer) and “Three Days of Rain” (with Julia Roberts) playing next door on 45th Street, though, “Faith Healer,” which stars Ralph Fiennes and Cherry Jones, is a winner. In fact, I’ll go a giant step further: It’s the best show on Broadway….
I came away humbled by the collective mastery of the artists who are bringing “Faith Healer” to blazing life each night. Gifted as they are, though, it is Brian Friel who deserves the highest praise of all. Once again he has proved art’s power to narrow the fearful gap that separates soul from soul. Like every great writer, he reveals us to one another–and to ourselves.
Contrary to appearances, Irish playwrights are not infallible. I place in evidence Conor McPherson’s “Shining City,” which has just been given its American premiere by the Manhattan Theatre Club. Most of my fellow critics raved about this four-character play, but despite the acting of a crack cast led by the irreproachable Br