“his play is the story of two men, both in love with power. Their addiction to it is made all the more engrossing by Michael Grandage's taut, perfectly cast production…Langella's unfaltering journey from paranoid, bullish confidence to painful, ruined hope is balanced by the mercurial Michael Sheen, who brings a well-observed nasal charm edged with more than a little smarm to the freewheeling Frost” David Benedict Variety.com
“a terrific new play that is as thought-provoking as it is gripping and entertaining. What's more, like all good history, it illuminates the present while examining the past…Sheen brilliantly captures Frost's scary ambition and the eerie impression of vacancy that underlies it. He presents us with a man who only really comes alive when he is in the limelight, and who will fight to the death to stay there.” Charles Spencer - Telegraph.co.uk
“A refreshing essay on the politics of power and the power of image” By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer, Yahoo News
“a typically astute, un-caricatured turn by Welshman Michael Sheen as the master interlocutor David (now Sir David) Frost….Sheen needs no build-up as a master of slipping into the skin of the famous, always in a way that honors the actual person without pastiching him” Matt Wolf Theatre.com
"Frost/Nixon, in a fashion at once chilling, memorable and comic, warns us that politicians now live and die by television."
4 Stars by Thisislondon.co.uk from the Evening Standard
On the heels of George Clooney's successful film drama about the clash between CBS News personality Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joseph McCarthy on television in 1954, a successful stage drama has been mounted in London about the 1977 TV encounter between former President Richard M. Nixon and British interviewer David Frost. The play, Frost/Nixon, which has a limited run through Oct. 7, stars Frank Langella as Nixon and Michael Sheen as Frost. Theater critic Nicholas de Jongh, writing in the Evening Standard, gives the play high praise and singles out Langella for special acclaim, calling his performance "amazing ... one which nobody interested in great acting should miss." Michael Billington in the Guardian also lauds the performances, and concludes: "I felt I had not only got a glimpse into the characters but became nostalgic for an era when television itself had a theatrical weight and power." Television screens in the back of the stage play an important role in the play itself. Looking at the live Nixon on stage, he appears "composed," Simon Edge notes in the Daily Express, but looking at him as a television camera captures him in closeup, "he is red-faced, sweaty and bug-eyed ... [revealing] the reductive power of a TV close-up. It is perfectly done." Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph concludes that Frost/Nixon "memorably nails the moment when politics and showbiz became inextricably intertwined." 23/08/2006 www.contactmusic.com/news
For his first stage play, Peter Morgan - whose The Deal dissected the Blair-Brown relationship on Channel 4 - tells the behind-the-scenes story of the Frost-Nixon interviews. In it, he shows how the British celebrity journalist and playboy managed to get something resembling an apology from one of the most corrupt presidents in history.
Morgan’s play is engrossing, humorous and completely convincing. Michael Sheen positively glows with Frost’s shatterproof bonhomie while Frank Langella, although he lacks Nixon’s shiftiness, does give his character an almost tragic stature. As the narrator, Elliot Cowan takes us through a complex story with efficiency and charm. Supporting actors include Corey Johnson, Rufus Wright, Kerry Shale and Lydia Leonard.
As directed by Michael Grandage on Christopher Oram’s set, which is dominated by television screens, Frost/Nixon resonates with significance about the relationship between the media and politics. If Morgan is better on the motivation behind Nixon’s final collapse than on explaining why Frost initially gave him such a soft ride, the play in general is a highly intelligent piece of political theatre that entertains as well as instructs." By Aleks Sierz, http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/13917/frost-nixon
Read more reviews here: http://www.whatsonstage.com/dl/page.php?page=greenroom&story=E8821156323932