Jeremy Daniel
The acoustics of Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre are not only unkind to the four performers of The Collaboration (to January 29); swathes of dialogue are lost to the theater’s puzzling physical atmosphere. Happily, this does not go for the pulsing, fabulous ‘80s pop that welcomes the audience into this Manhattan Theatre Club show, and which punctuates scene changes. This author particularly liked hearing Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy,” a classic gay anthem of declaration and escape that feels particularly piercing when thinking about the play’s protagonist’s Andy Warhol (Paul Bettany) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (the Emmy and Tony-nominated Jeremy Pope).
Anthony McCarten’s play imagines the mix of confrontation, competition, flirtation, care, and understanding that blooms between the two legendary artists when brought together to collaborate on a group of paintings made in the mid-1980’s, now worth many millions of dollars. At the time Warhol was already the superstar and iconic cultural changemaker that he is still known as today. Basquiat’s legend was in progress, red-hot and still coalescing. Initially, they both wonder what they have to both gain and lose by working together.
The acoustics, and the effect they have on the staging of a play which already feels too set back from the audience, are a shame; Bettany and Pope are both stars and brilliant actors, and the play was warmly received when it first played in London this year. Filming for the big screen has just been completed on The Collaboration, and a movie may turn out to be the better format to appreciate both men’s performances.