|
|
"Support businesses and organizations that support Chelsea Now" Theater
Joan Marcus Jimmi Simpson as Philo T. Farnsworth in Aaron Sorkin’s “The Farnsworth Invention,” now at The Music Box Theatre. The Farnsworth Invention A play made for the screen By Nicole Davis The days before television may be hard to imagine for those of us weaned on cable, but Aaron Sorkin tries to give us a clear picture in “The Farnsworth Invention,” about media mogul David Sarnoff and how he wrested control of TV from its true inventor, Philo T. Farnsworth. Just minutes in, Sarnoff, played by Hank Azaria, establishes Farnsworth as a boy genius — and alludes to the lawsuit that would later strip him of his glory. We meet him in the classroom of 9th grade science teacher Mr. Tolman, as the boy (Christian M. Johansen) asks his future teacher if he can just skip Basic Science and go straight to Chemistry. Tolman says no, and Young Philo politely acquiesces, but he has one more question he wants to ask.
In some ways, this is exactly how it feels to be watching “The Farnsworth Invention.” Through the deft staging of the narration — both Sarnoff and Farnsworth take turns telling each other’s stories — director Des McAnuff allows us to stay glued to the show, which is densely packed with everything from the properties of light to the day the stock exchange took its famous nosedive. Aaron Sorkin, best known for his intelligent television drama “The West Wing,” also delivers on clear, quick-witted dialogue that entertains throughout. But the pace at which everything unfolds — we go from Idaho to Minsk, Russia to Manhattan to San Francisco in the first act alone — can be dizzying at times. For the next two hours, we’ll be shown, but more often told, the highlights of these men’s lives, and trying to keep up with the names and dates and places is sometimes so hard, a rewind button would have come in handy. Jimmi Simpson plays the adult Farnsworth, a messy haired, self-effacing but self-assured eccentric whose mastery of all things — car engines, television, the violin, cold fusion — came enviously easy. When he approaches local investors George Everson (Bruce McKenzie) and Leslie Gorell (Michael Mulheren, who is marvelous in all his roles) to fund his idea, his ability to fix their broken down car instills enough faith in them to introduce Farnsworth to William Crocker (James Sutorius), who has even deeper pockets. Soon he is set up in a lab with a crackpot team consisting of his wife, sister, brother-in-law, and the refrigerator technician next door. And yet, within six months they have something to show for their work: a moving image on a screen, transmitted from one end of the lab to the other — success, with just a few kinks that need tweaking… Sarnoff, meanwhile, has grown from a boy whose family is driven from their shtetl in Russia, to the Lower East Side, to Midtown, where he worked his way up in the radio business from a wireless operator with the American Marconi company — announcing, in one captivating scene, the names of the Titanic survivors — to the head of RCA, where he founded NBC. All along he recognized the power of radio for edification and entertainment, knew it would be a coup if someone could perfect television, so people could see and hear his programming. Azaria fills the cookie-cutter role of CEO-with-a-slight-conscience easily — so easily, it seems his talents are wasted here. Far more interesting to watch is Simpson, whose life unravels in the second act when he loses the patent on his beloved invention. Throughout, Klara Zieglerova’s set, a simple, two-tiered stage — whose blank boxiness calls to mind a television — allows for the multiple story lines to be told coherently, much like a split screen TV. But for all the razzle-dazzle of this play, the sharp lines and the pitch-perfect delivery, there are very few entry points into these character’s psyches. More often we are merely bemused by them, simply because of our vantage point in history. “It’s gonna change everything” Sarnoff corrects his wife, when she insists television will just be a gadget for the rich. “It’s gonna end ignorance and misunderstanding. It’s gonna end illiteracy. It’s gonna end war.” Oh, if only he knew… But we know, and so did Sorkin, who, as has been well publicized now, seriously tinkered with the facts in this show (TheFarnsworthInvention.com details the derivations, and Sorkin’s rebuttal.) However much this is The Sorkin Invention, though, it’s a still an impressive show. He and the cast, many of whom play multiple roles, manage to bring to life one of the biggest technological revolutions of the 20th century in the span of two hours on a single stage. As we learn in the first scene, tele means distance, and sometimes, to tell a dense, complicated story concisely, you have shorten the distance between the dots, so they’re easier to connect. Sorkin does an impeccable job of this, but ultimately his story would be far better serviced on film, where effects and voiceovers could free up more time for the truth, and feelings from the talented cast.
|
Artigiano our latest family addition:
|
|
Chelsea Now is published by |
Written permission of the publisher must be obtainedbefore any of the contents |
