Celebrated Director Kenny Leon Guides Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, Among Others, Through a New Production of ‘Othello’

Denzel Washington first tackled the title role in “Othello” nearly a half century ago, in a Fordham University production, and it was always just a matter of time before he got around to playing it on Broadway. During close to four decades as a movie star, Mr. Washington has repeatedly found time for high-profile stage outings, notable among them two other Shakespeare plays: a Public Theater production of “Richard III” and a Broadway staging of “Julius Caesar,” in which he played Brutus. More recently, the two-time Oscar winner has earned praise in more modern classics, among them August Wilson’s “Fences” — which scored him a Tony Award — and Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun.”It could be argued (and was, by some) that Mr. Washington was a little long in the tooth to play Walter Lee Younger, the protagonist of “Raisin,” in a 2014 revival, but the blazing energy of his performance put all reasonable doubts to rest. At 70, the actor is also older than most who have taken on Shakespeare’s noble but tragically gullible Moor, but in this case, age presents an opportunity to emphasize both Othello’s gravitas and his ultimate emotional fragility. Mr. Washington and Kenny Leon, the celebrated director who also guided him in “Raisin” and “Fences,” seem wise to this. The Othello we meet in this new production appears dignified and disarmingly gentle at first, projecting an almost grandfatherly warmth. In style as well as substance, he poses an immediate and sharp contrast to Iago — played here by Jake Gyllenhaal, another film star who has acquitted himself nicely in numerous theater projects.Molly Osborne and Denzel Washington in ‘Othello.’ Julieta CervantesClearly, the only thing this protagonist and arch villain have in common is the buzz cuts both actors have adopted. Where Mr. Washington’s Othello radiates benevolence, with a touch of goofiness that tickled the audience notably at a recent preview (more on that later), Mr. Gyllenhaal’s Iago is all chilling calculation; only occasionally does he appear to break a sweat while plotting the general’s downfall. Iago’s coldness is matched by Derek McLane’s artfully forbidding set, marked by columns and shades of gray that are intermittently splashed with color by Natasha Katz’s lighting. Mr. Leon has set this “Othello” in the near future, though this aspect is not underlined, except perhaps by the industrial-edged electronic music that pops up between scenes.The cast also includes Molly Osborne, a British actress who is sturdy and winsome as Desdemona, Othello’s doomed wife, and Andrew Burnap as Cassio, the virtuous soldier who becomes a tool in Iago’s scheme to undo Othello by stoking his jealousy. Mr. Burnap, last seen on a Broadway as a boyish King Arthur in a misguided revival of “Camelot” — he’s also the male lead in the new live-action “Snow White” movie — has a better vehicle here for his ingenuous tenderness, and he also brings compelling grit to the role.Messrs. Washington and Gyllenhaal are the main attractions, of course, as was obvious by the rapturous applause that greeted their entrances at the performance I attended. I was more distracted, as the show progressed, by some of the peals of laughter they elicited at the strangest times. Granted, there’s humor to be mined in this tragedy, and Mr. Washington in particular could occasionally teeter on mugging in accommodating it, with both gestures and facial expressions.At other points, though — such as the scene in which Othello, preparing to kill Desdemona, praises her fair beauty but resolves, “Yet she must die” — the sprinkling of giggles and guffaws in the orchestra section suggested that at least a few of the mostly well-heeled patrons were less interested in the action onstage than they were in gawking at their favorite action star. That’s not the fault, though, of Mr. Washington, who in the end summons his character’s fury and then his regret with a force that’s made more potent in contrast to his jocularity early on. If this superstar’s Othello wasn’t the most jolting or haunting I’ve ever seen, it was good enough to make me look forward to his inevitable King Lear.

Celebrated Director Kenny Leon Guides Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, Among Others, Through a New Production of ‘Othello’

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