ATL Theater Review: Thurgood
If you're in New York today (Sunday) and looking for something to do in the afternoon, consider checking out Thurgood. It's a one-man show about the life of Justice Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993), starring Laurence Fishburne (best known as Morpheus of The Matrix, but with a long list of other film and theater credits).
It's an entertaining and educational production, and Laurence Fishburne turns in a superb performance. As one friend of ours, an ex-theater major, put it, "Fishburne was able to make the audience forget that this is a one-man show."
As one might expect from a play based on the life of a heroic historical figure, Thurgood occasionally verges on the pedantic and preachy ("one person can make a difference"; "we know how far we've come -- but we also know how far we still have to go"). Law nerds might find feel patronized by the more expository parts of the play, like the mini-reviews of Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education. You can often sense the "message" button being pushed.
But hey, everyone needs a refresher course every now and then. And there are enough interesting bits of biographical trivia -- as well as ample entertainment, in the form of humorous anecdotes from Marshall's life, well-told by Fishburne -- to make you forgive the more didactic or heavy-handed elements.
If you'd like to see Thurgood, you need to act fast; it's closing today. The 3 p.m. matinee is the final performance. You can probably get discounted tickets at the TKTS booth (since Thurgood was there last week, and there were definitely a few empty seats at the performance we attended yesterday).
Additional thoughts -- if you're planning on seeing the play, save these for later, so you can form your own opinions free of taint -- after the jump.
The play proceeds in roughly chronological fashion. It starts with Marshall's childhood in Baltimore, covers his education (Lincoln University, Howard Law School), and then hits its stride in recounting his career as a civil rights litigator for the NAACP. The play focuses on his career as a litigator (and properly so); his years as a Second Circuit judge, Solicitor General, and Supreme Court justice receive relatively limited coverage.
The framing device for the play is a lecture at Howard Law School, in which an aged Marshall looks back on his life and legal career before an audience of law students, essentially played by the audience. The story proceeds largely in flashbacks, with both general exposition and specific anecdote. (A quibble: some of the transitions between exposition and storytelling could be smoother.)
Fishburne, as noted, is excellent. His performance is naturalistic -- he disappears into the role, morphing away from Morpheus -- and compelling. He's especially adept at capturing Marshall's talent as a raconteur, folksy and funny. He has excellent stage presence and the ability to connect with a live audience, unlike many Hollywood types who head to Broadway. (But recall that Fishburne has significant theatrical experience; in 1992, he won a Tony Award for his performance in the August Wilson play, Two Trains Running.)
In terms of production values, Thurgood is "no frills," as noted in Charles Isherwood's review for the New York Times, but it's effective. The barebones staging lets the story speak for itself, free of the distraction of Broadway bells and whistles. (One nice touch: dramatizing a SCOTUS argument by having the justices represented by nine squares of light on the stage, with the square representing the questioner illuminated more intensely.)
In sum, Thurgood is definitely worth seeing. If you're free this afternoon and in New York, check it out. But if you miss it, no worries; according to NPR, the producers plan to take the show to other cities. So there will be other chances to see the show (although perhaps not with Fishburne in the starring role).
Trials and Triumphs on the Road to Justice [New York Times]
Next on His Docket: A Supreme Challenge [New York Times]
On Broadway, Laurence Fishburne, Yale Profs Discuss Marshall Legacy [WSJ Law Blog]
'Thurgood' Plays To Standing Ovations On Broadway [NPR]
(24) Comments
Justice Frankfurter was represented by a square on the extreme left of the stage. When Brown was argued, he was neither the most junior or second most junior.
I feel like a huge nerd for noticing that.
It was a great play! I second Lat's recommendation.
Man, Thurgood Marshall would eat Clarence Thomas for lunch (and I wish he had).
3, read "My Grandfather's Son." Then, if you don't retract your statement, shoot yourself.
Great play.
This play's been going on for months, Fishburne got nominated for a Tony Award, and on **the last day** of the play Lat comes out with a recommendation???
4 - Not 3 here, but I've read Thomas' book and Marshall still runs circles around that bitter misanthrope.
Aw, Lat, come on... "best known as Morpheus in The Matrix"? I'm sure Fishburne would much rather be remembered as "Clean" in Apocalypse Now (or any of his other roles in movies we'll still remember in ten years). You're audience isn't entirely comprised of ignorant teenagers!
Seriously--is that Al Franken in blackface in the top picture?
why would one expect a play about the life of TM to be free of "preachy" messages, especially concerning race? it never ceases to amaze me how otherwise intelligent people (at least on paper) can be so dense.
Summer associates were taken to this as a diversity event.
My off-broadway one-man-play, Tony, opens next week in Raritan, NJ.
I wrote the play, but do not star in it, as I am too short to play the subject, Anthony Kennedy. Act I is Tony as boy genius and law student
Act II is Tony as hog-butcher-turned-commodities trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (a fictional element as a device)
Act III is really about Tony's lifelong love affair with the 9th Circuit. The set is experimental. He's sitting on a park bench set up in front of a dimly lit Supreme Court dais.
Well, Fishburne probably is "best known" for his Matrix role, whether that's a good or a bad thing. It was certainly the highest-grossing movie he has appeared in. His role in Apocalypse Now was fairly minor.
I prefer to remember him as Othello (which was not a particularly well-known role for him), but having re-watched that movie recently, it's incredible how much of the actual play they cut. Still, Fishburne is flat-out excellent in it.
Re: 3
Of course Marshall would, because demagoguery and not constitutional interpretation was his thing. News flash: not everybody agrees with you or Obama on Thomas - for some of us, Thomas is the most principled, consistent judge out there (at least in his judicial opinions).
The GOD Thurgood, may he rest in peace.
I wish to sit with Justice Thomas and reflect on passages from his novel.
I think they were/are both good.
fantastic play!
3, Marshall, for all his great accomplishments, was a poor justice. He was disengaged from the court, had his clerks write the opinions and barely changed them, and held views so beyond the constitutional pale as to be grounded in nothing more than his own personal whims at the moment. Thomas is principled and disciplined. You may not agree with his views, but he can back them up.
Guys in my high school did one-man shows about Clarence Thomas, in which no words are spoken, all the time. It was no big deal.
Didn't Marshall, after his retirement, admit that he purposely never gave a drug dealer a favorable vote, regarding of what the issue was? Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I'm right... sounds like a great man to me!
Didn't Marshall, after his retirement, admit that he purposely never gave a drug dealer a favorable vote, regarding of what the issue was? Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I'm right... sounds like a great man to me!
Marshall gave many, many, many favorable votes to drug dealers. Examples that come easily to mind are Murray v. United States, 487 U.S. 533 (1988), and United States v. Dunn, 480 U.S. 294 (1987), but there are scores of others. There was at least one Term when Marshall voted in favor of the criminal defendant in every single argued criminal case.
Any fool with a d*ck can make a baby, but only a real man can raise his children.
- Furious Styles
"If it's a dope case, I won't even read the petition. I ain't giving no break to no drug dealer." Thurgood Marshall to Life Magazine, 1987
# 21, I guess Thurgood forgot about the cases you refer to.
23 - triple negative in the Thurgood Marshall quote, so... that means he DOES give breaks to drug dealers...?