To a large extent, "Hedda Gabler" stands or falls by the performance of its lead actress, and by that measure, this was a spectacular success - Mary-Louise Parker is predictably brilliant, convincing us that someone as manipulative, sharp-tongued, stand-offish and at times even shrewish as Ibsen's anti-heroine does indeed have the power to captivate the men around her, and the intellectual and emotional depths and restlessness, that the play demands she possess, and also bringing us to care about what end she will meet by play's end despite her many unsympathetic traits...so, for that alone, I enjoyed this one a lot, even though the pacing seemed just slightly off, so that the dramatic arc of the play seemed to stutter at points instead of building, as I think it was intended to, to a shattering close. (A couple of bonuses: Peter Stormare as the curiously mannered but strangely menacing Judge Brack, and the evocative music written by PJ Harvey.)
Comparing this and "All My Sons" to what I've seen of Australian theatre, and particularly the MTC (a closer equivalent than most of what goes on at the Malthouse or elsewhere in Melbourne), what sets the Broadway productions apart is, I think, the calibre of the casts - those that I've seen have included big names, but they've shown serious acting chops, too, and the 'personality' of the actors hasn't seemed to get in the way at all of the characters they've been playing.
Comparing this and "All My Sons" to what I've seen of Australian theatre, and particularly the MTC (a closer equivalent than most of what goes on at the Malthouse or elsewhere in Melbourne), what sets the Broadway productions apart is, I think, the calibre of the casts - those that I've seen have included big names, but they've shown serious acting chops, too, and the 'personality' of the actors hasn't seemed to get in the way at all of the characters they've been playing.
