Did Critics Thank Heaven for the New Cast of Doubt?

The original cast of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt--Cherry Jones, Brían F O'Byrne, Heather Goldenhersh and Adriane Lenox--all received Tony nominations, with Jones and Lenox winning for their performances. Now three of the four original performers Jones, O'Byrne and Goldenhersh have departed the Tony-winning play. The new cast, which features Eileen Atkins as Sister Aloysius, Ron Eldard as Father Flynn and Jena Malone as Sister James, faced critics on February 14. Did the reviewers praise the heavens for the new leads?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Rob Kendt in his Broadway.com Review: "Atkins' holy terror fits perfectly within the prickly contours of John Patrick Shanley's deft, invigorating moral inquiry… Atkins is unrelentingly wintry, and in a way that movingly suggests the spiritual cost to herself as much as to those in her warpath… Atkins isn't the only reason this new-model Doubt works as well, or better, than that of the original cast. As Father Flynn, the friendly young priest Sister Aloysius labors to destroy, Ron Eldard is both cagey and charming, conveying his own arduous struggle with his faith as well as the priest's desperate defensive crouch when attacked… It is in the part of Sister James, though, that this new cast has its strongest asset, and the play takes its biggest leap… What Jena Malone does in the part is astonishing: She all but claims this as Sister James' story."

Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "The delicate balance of power between priest and nun has shifted in ways that transform Doubt from an unsettling moral guessing game into a tidy topical detective story. Certainly, the production, directed by Doug Hughes, feels looser and funnier than it did when it opened on Broadway last year. The audience with whom I recently saw the show laughed and applauded throughout as if they had been recruited for the studio taping of a sitcom. But most of this drama's anxiety and urgency has evaporated… Dame Eileen's Sister Aloysius registers as roughly 10 years older than Ms. Jones's, and there is an attendant frailty about her… [Eldard's] Father Flynn is handsome, rangy, almost brutishly masculine, with a rigidly upright posture and a declamatory mode of speech that seem meant to intimidate and to conceal what lurks beneath the armor. This rearrangement of yin and yang makes Doubt feel a bit like a comic thriller about a feisty little old lady out to trap a big bad wolf."

Clive Barnes of The New York Post: "While the dramatic gist remains the same, the dynamic of the play has shifted… The magnificent Dame Eileen, breathing ice and vinegar and composing her features into a church gargoyle, is exultant in her moral certitude, proud of her insights into the natural wickedness of the human race, especially the male of that species. It is a performance both fantastic and fantasticated. Eldard has perhaps a more difficult role--innocence, supposed or otherwise, is harder to suggest than righteous malice--and makes a splendid victim for her. At his best when addressing the audience directly in his sermons, he is sweetly convincing as a good-guy priest who might possibly be too good-guy to be true."

David Rooney of Variety: "Recasting the role with a considerably older, less physically imposing actress might have dulled the character's brittle outlines. But Atkins' steely resolve keeps them sharp. What she shortchanges, however, is the humanity Jones brought to the character… The sly humor is still there, but Atkins' Sister Aloysius is a less nuanced harridan… Eldard, whose perf is less contained [than O'Byrne's was], pushes the pendulum distinctly toward Flynn's guilt, compromising the delicate psychological balance of the play and making it a more conventional drama. Somewhat handicapped by comparison with the supreme ease of Atkins' command, Malone's lack of stage experience shows in the forced delivery of her early scenes, in which her focus seems largely to be on her thick Bronx accent. But the actress improves as her character finds the backbone to question Aloysius' rulings."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "The avenging angel at the center of Doubt, John Patrick Shanley's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, has just gotten bigger, bolder and less subtle… Atkins, sporting a pronounced Irish accent and what looks like a permanently pinched profile, blazes with an aggressive theatricality. Right from the first moment she appears on stage, you know this is a woman who has definite opinions. There is no room to maneuver in this technically accomplished yet black-and-white performance… As Father Flynn, Ron Eldard is not as charismatic as the role's original actor, Brían F. O'Byrne, depending more on bluster to get through the priest's big confrontation scene with his accuser. And Jena Malone, the play's third newcomer, hasn't yet made the role of Sister James, the impressionable, goodhearted young nun, her own."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "It should be no surprise that this magnificent British actress [Atkins] would find her own dry, reedy, deliciously shrewd voice as the nun whose suspicions about a priest and a black boy drive Shanley's ambiguous questions in a Bronx convent and rectory. Atkins is matched, tight fist and glove, by Ron Eldard as Father Flynn in the emotionally concise production directed by Doug Hughes. While the charismatic Brían F. O'Byrne made a slippery, charming maybe-monster in the role, Eldard brings the boyish, deceptively puppyish quality of an 'Our Gang' kid who finds himself surprised to have grown up… Jena Malone has much the same joyful childlike quality, mixed with reluctant disillusionment and humanity, that Heather Goldenhersh brought to Sister James."