Art can divide as easily as it connects. This is one of the quandaries at the heart of Art, Yasmina Reza’s smash-hit 1994 play about three men whose friendship is tested when one buys a contentious painting. Yet there was no division over this work of art last night, as a happy assemblage of stars gathered at the Music Box Theatre on 45th Street to celebrate the premiere of the play’s buzzy revival, starring Bobby Cannavale, Neil Patrick Harris, and James Corden. Goldie Hawn, Jodie Foster, Rose Byrne, Paul Rudd, Sarah Paulson, Victor Garber—who starred in the original 1998 Broadway production—and Andrea Martin, with her date Nathan Lane, all turned out to revisit the current state of Art. Inside the theater, anticipation bubbled as Chris Rock gladhanded before taking his seat, and Barry Diller chatted with Mark Conseulos as the lights fell and the curtain rose.
Directed by Scott Ellis, the piece, translated by Christopher Hampton from its original French, is a compact (around 100 nimble minutes) meditation on taste and friendship. Serge (Harris), a well-to-do Parisian dermatologist, buys an abstract painting for $300,000, much to the vexation of his classically minded friend, Marc (Cannavale), who has a traditional landscape of Carcassonne hanging in his apartment. Then there’s Yvan (Corden), a buffoonish stationery salesman, who variously placates and agitates his two friends.
Serge’s new painting, a barely discernible melange of white brushstrokes, is but a fuse that ignites lingering resentments about class, women, and philosophy among the trio. Suddenly finding oneself on the opposing side—whether the subject is art, or gasp, politics—as a longtime friend, is a predicament that Ellis finds as timely as ever, three decades on. “We’re in a tough situation in this country, and listening and having disagreements doesn’t seem to be possible,” said the director before the show. “It tests a friendship: can you survive it if someone disagrees with you? Politics, religion, art, all of that. Is love of a friend going to carry you?”
James Corden, Bobby Cannavale, and Neil Patrick Harris taking their bows on Tuesday night.
Bruce Glikas
