Doctor Faustus: Theater review by Diane Snyder
Andrei Belgrader’s last collaboration with Classic Stage Company, Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, triumphed by acutely blending laughs and pain. But they don’t coexist as harmoniously in the artful director’s intimate, pared-down production of Christopher Marlowe’s morality play Doctor Faustus. It doesn't help that Chris Noth, a charismatic presence on TV series like Sex and the City, is too muted as the eminent titular scholar. When he sells his soul to Lucifer, he's meant to be craving knowledge, fame and power; in Noth's account, he might as well be doing it out of ennui.
Although Belgrader and David Bridel have condensed the text and reworked the dialogue into a mix of modern and old, Faustus’s inner turmoil doesn’t resonate with as much force as the buffoonery of yokels Robin and Dick (Lucas Caleb Rooney and Ken Cheeseman) or the wonderfully weary malevolence of devil Mephistopheles (Zach Grenier). Danger in this madcap production comes largely from smashing the fourth wall, especially when Faustus meets the Seven Deadly Sins. Gluttony gobbles doughnuts, Covetousness eyes audience members’ bags and Mephistopheles tracks the scent of Pride into the house. It’s a form of terror, sure, but not the sort that plumbs the depths of hell.—Diane Snyder
Classic Stage Company (Off Broadway). By Christopher Marlowe. Directed by Andrei Belgrader. With Chris Noth, Zach Grenier.