Zig and zag

• Tune into Charlie Rose tonight (Wed 7) to catch his interview with Tom Stoppard. Thanks to Paula for the tip!
• At ATC there's a review-count for Shipwreck:

  12 pro
  New Yorker, Post, Times, Time Out, Daily News, USA Today, AP, New York Mag., Newhouse, WSJ, NY1, Newsday
  4 mixed
  Village Voice, Bergen Record, Gannett, Bloomberg

• Brendan Lemon at the LCT blog responds to the Isherwood-lead backlash (eg. at the Washington Theatre Review blog and Amy Ettinger's).
  
• Eccentric Iguana reflects on completing Utopia - and is eager to come back for more!

  Second in theater news, I finished The Coast of Utopia Trilogy. Each play stands out on it's own. Voyage was a Chekhov-esque drama, with many characters to be introduced and each scene moving by the year. What Stoppard did that was brilliant was how he lead you into the mood of the show through a character who in fact wasn't the main character of the series. It was like giving the audience exposition, but first hand.
  
  Shipwreck soon showed you who the next two plays would revolve around. Of the three I enjoyed this one the most. It started off with the same grandeur as Voyage, but in the second act soon became much more human and intriguing to watch. As well as heartbreaking.
  
  The final, Salvage, brought the series to a close, or did it? Do we forget that after 1866, Russia still went through much more historical events.
  
  Hello Lenin.
  
  But for the final piece I have to say it combined the complexity of the first part with the enjoyability of the second. It was great. So after the show naturally I bought a ticket to a marathon day...
  
  Yes that's one day, ALL THREE plays. It's a 12 hour day kids. Starting at 11 am, and ending at 11pm. Granted I get a lunch and dinner break. It's going to be intense!!! I can NOT wait. To see it all together.

• More love for Salvage at ATC from WilliamHacker, concluding:

  [...] But after seeing the conclusion, it just felt immensely moving and satisfying seeing the story of such an influential, important figure, who is yet almost unknown in this country, brought to such complete and rich life on stage.
  
  Obviously this type of work isn't for everyone, but for me, I found it to be one of the best things I've seen in thirty years of seeing theatre in NYC.

  Also from jesse21:
  

  [...] However, inside the theatre, I sat among as savvy an audience one is likely to encounter in this city. Our attention was riveted on the stage as "The Coast of Utopia" roared to its conclusion, magnificently rewarding us with one of the most memorable experiences of, not just this, but any season.

• Film blogger Emma, who's raved about Jennifer Ehle in Alpha Male in the past, gives one more special mention:

  [...] It’s been over 10 years since Jennifer Ehle showed graced our TV screens as the wonderfully sweet Lizzie Bennet, and Alpha Male is probably her best performance since. Her portrayal of the put-upon mother who loses a husband and slowly loses her family is wonderfully realistic and sweet. She steals every scene she’s in, and provides the basis for a potentially dull film, making it totally watchable. [...]

• Sunshine shoutout from funky_cowgirl:

  [...] It seems that the love stories are used as a breathing space, because those do take up a bit of time (busy filming schedule for Fiennes, love scene wise! ;-) ) but I didn't find it problematic. The relationships with the women do make the story flow. Especially Jennifer Ehle and her real life mum (as her older version) are amazing...She's as much in love with life as her character in Pride & Prejudice. [...]
  

• There's constant baseline squeeing for Pride and Prejudice on blogs which we largely ignore, but Adam's is notable because c'mon, he's a he (and wants to be Darcy) and also somehow finds a connection with CS Lewis' biography.
  

  Beth and I sat down to watch our newly acquired 1995 BBC/A&E 5 1/2 hour version of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" on Sunday afternoon. I was expecting to appreciate it, even enjoy it. Instead, I craved it and hated stopping. We watched half Sunday and finished it Monday. I dreamt about it both nights.
  
  Part of it was the ridiculously talented interpretive acting of Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in the main roles. I loved the commitment in their eyes at all times. Ehle in particular connected her words with body language that fit the character perfectly and often resulted in movements that I had never seen on film before. So, anyway, point A: I'm very much in love with those two actors right now...but mostly Ehle...because she's a girl...and looks strikingly like Beth (but she'd heard that already). [...]