Dangerous Linneyiasons

I find there is something a little tragic about realizing a truly talented actor has limitations, like when the world discovered that not even Meryl Streep could make something like She Devil funny, or that Cate Blanchett's Russian accent is shoddy at best (oh and poor Ewan Mcgregor and HIS attempts at an American accent...). This was my feeling while watching Laura Linney in Les Liaisons Dangereuses presented by the Roundabout Theatre Company at the American Airlines Theatre.

In movies like You Can Count on Me and The Squid and the Whale, Laura Linney is fantastic, creating complex characters full of contradictions - loving traits mixed with selfishness, standing aloof to loved ones while seeking to do what is best for them. You like or hate these characters because they are real, they are your mother or your sister or your wife. But...Laura Linney as the Marquise de Merteuil? Surely not.

The Marquise de Merteuil was a great role for Glenn Close in the 1988 film (oh also Annette Bening in the 1989 film Valmont and Sarah Michelle Gellar in the Dangerous Liaisons-for-teens film Cruel Intentions). But whereas Glenn Close can cast a disturbing warm/cold radiation, like she is a minor god toying with her subjects, Laura Linney does not have the same armor - there is always some sort of vulnerability there. And the role, whether played in feminist revision (as in this production) or not, needs to come across as a woman who has learned very well how to play a manipulative game to not just succeed but win in a battle of sexes where women are viewed openly as the lesser sex.

Laura Linney comes from a theater background, and I would definitely be interested in seeing her on stage more often, but perhaps as characters who can express need a little more. She would have made a marvelous Joyce in Top Girls now that I think about it...

This however is not to say that she did not have moments or that there weren't other highlights to the show. The men in general were strong (and the show tipped its hat in other feminist directions by having male nudity but no female nudity), and several supporting female players made the production seem more alive while onstage - Sian Philips comes to mind. The set and direction were fine as well - mirrors and filigree that slowly decay as the spider web created by the Marquise becomes fragile and dirtied.

The show also marked the Broadway debut of Mamie Gummer, Meryl Streep's daughter. Her role was too small to really be able to forecast her future, but again I look forward to seeing her on stage in the future. Maybe as the daughter in Sisters Rosensweig, with the sisters played by Meryl Streep, Laura Linney, and Glenn Close? Ha. Okay I'll leave casting to others.