Image Credit: STEPHANIE BERGERNext Sunday, Geoffrey Rush could be on stage at L.A.’s Kodak Theatre collecting his second Oscar for The King’s Speech, but this week he began treading the boards at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as a midcentury Russian paper pusher who’s losing his marbles in The Diary of a Madman. EW stage editor Thom Geier finds the Tony-winner (for 2009’s Exit the King) a “superlative stage actor” and “a gifted physical comedian.” He gives the show an A- review, writing that “Rush rules the stage with utter fearlessness, shuttlecocking between low comedy and high tragedy with remarkable skill and bouncy energy.”
In other stage news, Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark proved on Monday that it might be critic proof, as grosses rose three percent despite terrible early reviews (and two safety citations from the New York State Department of Labor). Two audience members who claim to have been injured by flying crate during a 2009 performance of Billy Elliot hit the usually less-dangerous-to-watch musical with a $4 million lawsuit. And the revolving door between Hollywood and Broadway spun some more when stage vets Laura Bell Bundy and Laura Benanti announced their roles the upcoming pilots TBS’s Hound Dogs and NBC’s Playboy, respectively, and Tom Cruise confirmed he was closing a deal to star in the movie version of Rock of Ages.
Rush should get an Oscar/some award for even attempting the crazy schedule of doing a play during this award season. I can’t believe he made all those 30-hour round trips to and from US when the play was in Sydney earlier this year just to see Christian Bale beat him to the Globe and SAG.
Really classy actor and for me, the heart of The King’s Speech. Colin Firth wouldn’t have been that great without Rush.
Wow….that’s kinda sad that they are about to ruin the movie version of Rock of Ages.
I saw this play last week. He was really wonderful. The play is a little intense and (I hate to admit it for fear of appearing uncultured) a little boring. But Rush was a study in perfection with the way he owned that stage. A master class in performance.