Farragut North OFF-BROADWAY REVIEWS

• NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF Farragut North

  

  Those Who Traffic in Spin Can Get Caught in the Cycle

  Ben Brantley

  November 13, 2008: "The projected images that flicker and fade like pale fireworks between scenes of “Farragut North” — Beau Willimon’s predictable but enjoyable play about spinmeisters on the campaign trail — are so immediately and overwhelmingly familiar that sensitive, CNN-watching theatergoers may flinch. Overgroomed anchors spewing poll numbers, sloganeering posters, headshots of leonine figures doing their best to look presidential: haven’t we had enough of this during the past two years? Doesn’t the (pardon my language) closure offered by last week’s national elections mean that we can take a breather?"

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• CURTAIN UP REVIEW OF Farragut North

  

  Farragut North

  Elyse Sommer

  October 28, 2008: Like Stephen Bellamy, the central character he portrays in the Atlantic Theater's world premiere of Farragut North, John Gallagher is something of a wunderkind of the theater world. He's been hosannaed from the moment he first appeared on stage — when he created the role of Jeff in David Lindsay Abaire's Kimberly Akimbo; for his brief but memorable Broadway debut in another Lindsay-Abaire play, Rabbit Hole; as the Tony Award winning Moritz in the musical Spring Awakening; and in his last gig at the Atlantic Theater, as one of the monologists in Conor McPherson's Port Authority. Small or large, each role was different, but sympathetic. Until now, when he plays the ruthless central character in this behind the scenes picture of a Presidential campaign!

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• THEATERMANIA REVIEW OF Farragut North

  

  Farragut North

  David Finkle

  November 13, 2008: You might think post-election euphoria would make Beau Willimon's presidential-campaign drama Farragut North, now at the Atlantic Theatre, hit the ground as if it were out of step with the times. But the drama is so well-conceived and persuasively written that nothing will stop the cynicism seeping over the edge of the stage like spilled acid from jarring audiences into shock and awe. And director Doug Hughes has taken expert care to bring out the scary implication of every one of Willimon's characters' nuances, nasty plot turns, and lines of barbed-wire dialogue.

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• VARIETY REVIEW OF Farragut North

  

  Farragut North

  David Rooney

  November 12, 2008: As of last week, New York's mostly liberal-leaning theatergoers have found themselves with the unaccustomed prospect of having a national leader they can believe in. So it's easy to imagine Beau Willimon must have experienced a moment of anxiety, wondering was it suddenly out-of-sync with the prevailing mood to premiere a play steeped in political disenchantment. He needn't have worried. Even for those of us who overdosed in recent weeks on a compulsive diet of MSNBC and CNN, and who may now be cautiously ready to renew our faith in the system, "Farragut North" is juicy entertainment.

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• TIME REVIEW OF Farragut North

  

  Farragut North

  Richard Zoglin

  November 3, 2008: The perfect palate cleanser after an exhausting political campaign: Beau Willimon's lively drama about a presidential candidate's crafty young press secretary, whose political gamesmanship goes one step too far, is as slick and skin-deep as a typical episode of The West Wing. But it rings truer, thanks to the author's ear for dialogue, and sure feel for the mix of cynicism and desperation in modern political campaigning. Next stop: Hollywood.

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