Did Critics Find the Off-B'way Revival of A Soldier's Play Commanding?

Where can you find familiar faces Taye Diggs, James McDaniel and Anthony Mackie together on the same stage? At Second Stage Theatre, which is presenting a revival of Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Soldier's Play through November 13. The production, directed by Jo Bonney, officially opened on October 17. Did critics think it was commanding?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Rob Kendt in his Broadway.com Review: "This is a by-the-book military procedural, in which one honest man rattles the chain of command, breaks the code of silence, is told he can't handle the truth, etc. We might endure the genre's clunky conventions more gladly if the intriguing racial layers Fuller added to the familiar Mister Roberts/Caine Mutiny Court Martial template didn't also come off so awkwardly, or if director Jo Bonney's new production at Second Stage had more rhythm or nuance. Instead it's a heavy-spirited affair that only highlights the play's weaknesses; it fails as a mystery and mostly fumbles its pointed observations on race and power... As the irritable white commander Taylor, Pasquale renders the impossible character arc of the slowly recovering racist with impacted intensity. And the even-keeled Diggs manages to pierce through the embalming virtue of his role in a few soliloquies, in which he subtly and movingly teases out some bittersweet ironies."

Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "Charles Fuller's Soldier's Play continues to subvert expectations. As the movingly acted revival that opened last night at the Second Stage Theater demonstrates, clichés of form, plot and character shatter like skeets at a shooting range in this anatomy of the murder of a black sergeant at a Louisiana Army base during World War II... The great pleasure of Ms. Bonney's revival, which features a top-of-the-line cast led by Taye Diggs and James McDaniel, comes from the dexterity and emotional depth with which many of its actors meet this challenge. The scenes among the enlisted men, in particular, achieve the kind of fluid, generous, of-the-moment ensemble work that has blessed recent first-rate revivals like the New Group's production of David Rabe's Hurlyburly and Ms. Bonney's staging of Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "Unlike many plays about race, which simplify knotty issues, Fuller's work is uncompromising and painful. Taye Diggs makes Davenport as elegant as he is commanding. Mike Colter has a captivating soulfulness as the country boy who enrages Waters. Anthony Mackie is impressive as a soldier with a very short fuse and Steve Pasquale has a wonderful sense of reserve as the white officer. James McDaniel, who plays Waters, conveys his rage with great intensity. What is missing is a sense of the pain that has to accompany such twisted self-hatred. Under Jo Bonney's direction, the cast is a tight ensemble, bringing out all the play's harshness."

David Rooney of Variety: "A murder investigation that serves to explore the complex shades of racism, the 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winning play perhaps remains too entrenched in whodunit mechanics to bring a full charge to its deeper issues. But Second Stage's taut revival enlists a strong ensemble to tell an engrossing story of deeply rooted injustice... Director Jo Bonney perhaps fosters a too-contemporary feel for a play set in 1944, but her staging is commandingly vigorous and spare, fueled by conviction and tension. If there's something oddly muted at the production's core, it's as much in the writing as in Taye Diggs' solid interpretation of central figure Captain Richard Davenport. Despite the relative power of his rank, Davenport remains something of a cipher next to the more volatile elements around him, and Diggs' natural charisma and authority inevitably seem slightly dimmed."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "The playwright's dialogue is courtroom crisp and most of his characters sharply etched, particularly members of the black company. All have earned the wrath of the sergeant, particularly the good-natured, blues-playing C.J. Memphis, portrayed with affable charm by Mike Colter. Also coming under intense fire is a combative private. Mackie plays him with a fierce determination as he questions the sergeant's authoritarian rule. If there is any standout performance in this ensemble cast, it is by McDaniel, who first came to notice as the young con man in the original Lincoln Center production of Six Degrees of Separation... Diggs gives a controlled, laid-back performance, while Pasquale is mostly bluster. You want to know more about these guys. Yet it doesn't seem to matter since the rest of director Jo Bonney's fast-paced production is so strong."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "The play, with its tidy flashbacks, always has been more mechanical than its reputation promised. And Jo Bonney's production, despite a diligent and attractive cast including Taye Diggs, James McDaniel and Anthony Mackie, finds neither the crackle in the courtroom atmosphere nor the music in the language. Much of the life-and-death tension never gets past hokey and the big revelation straddles the unenviable fence that separates the self explanatory and the ho-hum."