The Country Girl
From: Wednesday, 6th October 2010
To: Saturday, 22 January 2011
Our Review: 
Your Reviews:
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Synopsis
Frank Elgin, once a great theatre star, is down on his luck, but when he is offered a major role by hotshot director Bernie Dodd, he has the chance to make a major comeback. Will Frank regain his confidence and save his turbulent career? Will he be supported in his quest for a second chance by his long-suffering wife? .
Our Review:
Michael Coveney - 12 October 2010
Thirty years after Martin Shaw played a demanding young theatre director in The Country Girl at the Apollo, he returns to the same stage in the same play (and with the same producer, Bill Kenwright) as the washed-up, alcoholic old actor Frank Elgin in Clifford Odets’ not too sentimental 1950 backstage drama.
The play takes time to get going in Rufus Norris’ production, handsomely designed with standing flats, pipes and pulleys by Scott Pask, mainly because it’s slightly miscast.
The characters never seem like they sound, and vice versa. Shaw is rough as sandpaper as the old trouper, and he does the dishevelled collapse in the dressing room very well; but he’s never magnificent or really leonine, not even in flashes, just angry.
And Jenny Seagrove - while suitably clenched and worn-out as his loyal wife Georgie, the country girl - never encompasses that dimension of mystery, and magic, that she spots in a dark theatre...
Latest User Review
David Baxter - 22 January 2011:
Although any play would suffer in comparison to Hamlet, seen the day previously, Clifford Odets' The Country Girl did little to inspire. It was difficult to care about any of the characters to the point where the alcoholic actor's return to Broadway was mundane rather than the intended triumph over adversity. Martin Shaw did not entirely convince as either a formerly great actor or a raddled drunk and Mark Letheren as the young director was presumably cast as a cheaper alternative to Christian Slater. Jenny Seagrove's performance left me confused and conflicted. At first I thought she was flat and devoid of emotion, but as the play developed there were subtle suggestions of the turmoil churning underneath the blank exterior. It's not dissimilar to Nancy Carroll in After the Dance which had the critics raving but Ms Seagrove seems to be doomed to be permanently undervalued. Perhaps people resent her for being Bill Kenwright's partner, unjustly suspecting favouritism. There were good moments here, particularly the imaginative scene changes, but The Country Girl will not lead to me rushing to see Rocket to the Moon at the National this spring....
Cast
Martin Shaw (Frank Elgin)
Jenny Seagrove (Georgie)
Mark Letheren (Bernie Dodd)
Nicholas Day
Peter Harding
Thomasin Rand
Luke Shaw
Creative
Clifford Odet (Author)
Bill Kenwright (Producer)
Rufus Norris (Director)
Scott Pask (Design)
Mark Howett (Lighting)
Ben Harrison (Sound)
Jonathan Lipman (Costume)
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