Hughie

Written by Eugene O’Neill in 1942, Hughie is a short two-character play taking place in a hotel lobby in Midtown Manhattan at an early summer morning hour in 1928. It mostly consists of a monologue by Erie Smith, a gambler and a hustler, who recently lost his friend Hughie and claims he lost his luck since then. The new night clerk reminded Erie of a beloved companion, or rather he was just looking for any set of ears to pour out his sole. And so begins an hour-long monologue full of grief and self-pity.

What a wonderful opportunity for a talented actor to shine, one might think. Forest Whitaker was cast for the fourth Broadway production of Hughie, another movie star making his Broadway debut. Clearly the producers bet on a famous and beloved movie actor for this intimate play, which is basically a sketch of one character. Unfortunately the “horse” they bet on did poorly, the first night of previews was a disaster.

I want to believe that there were some external forces and circumstances that caused Whitaker’s terrible performance. There is simply no way that an actor of such experience in a production on such a level could not memorize his words. It was too obvious that he was concentrating on just pronouncing everything the prompter was saying, which caused unnecessary pauses and was, over all, a very flat and dull performance. It was painful and sad watching him stumbling through the play. His movements seemed inorganic and rehearsed, his energy level very low.

At times I could identify myself with the night clerk falling asleep and having trouble following the story. Frank Wood did well in this role but unfortunately it didn’t read distinctly because his partner failed him.

The monumental scenic design by Christopher Oram looked gorgeous by itself. It consisted of a lobby and a stare case and even had an elevator. Furniture, lamps and every little detail were deliberately placed. The tile floor alone was a masterpiece and I hate to admit but I enjoyed examining it more than following what was happening on it. The entire movie could be shot in this set and director Michael Grandage barely used it.

The lighting design by Neil Austin was rich and moody. A revolving door and a large window above it occupied a large part of the back wall, which gave an opportunity to play with the light coming through it. The Hotel sign was peeking in from outside and filling the entire room with cold green light during the pauses in Erie’s monologue. Along with the sound design by Adam Cork, which consisted of remote street noises and instrumental pieces, flashes of colored light defused by haze created an atmosphere of some weird limbo or purgatory. Large windows and noises form the street gave the illusion of a presence of the outside world. Sometimes Erie came to the door as if he was checking something outside. But the glass is matte and we can’t see anything except for the hotel sign. This again suggests that we are trapped in this world with its guard, a night clerk.           

Unfortunately the show didn’t come together. I don’t know what was the case but it seemed that, while designers spend a good amount of time and money preparing the stage, Forest Whitaker had only three days to memorize his text and one and a half days to rehearse, of which the first day the director, Michael Grandage, was present via Skype. I hope that as the show runs Whitaker will improve his performance and will stop walking on stage like he is afraid of performing. Otherwise it will be a terrible failure and an embarrassment for everybody involved.