I reviewed Trumbo, a new play about the life of Dalton Trumbo, in this morning’s Wall Street Journal. Here’s the lead:
So you’ve been waiting all summer for yet another play about the Hollywood blacklist? Well, breathe easier. “Trumbo,” which opened last night at the Westside Theatre, is a left-wing version of “Love Letters” in which Nathan Lane reads from the correspondence of Dalton Trumbo, the screenwriter best remembered as one of the “Unfriendly Ten” witnesses who refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee’s 1947 probe of Communist activities in Hollywood and were later jailed for contempt of Congress. Gordon MacDonald plays Christopher Trumbo, Dalton’s son and the author of “Trumbo,” who in the play doubles as his father’s straight man. Both actors use scripts, and Peter Askin’s direction consists of having Mr. MacDonald walk from one side of the stage to the other and back again. (Mr. Lane sits at a desk.)
To read the rest of the review–which is considerably less enthusiastic than this paragraph, to put it as mildly as possible–pick up a copy of the Journal and turn to the “Weekend Journal” section. Even if you don’t like my review, you’ll get your dollar’s worth.