Matthew Broderick Sucks
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009According to Gatecrasher, audiences who attended Monday’s preview performance of Matthew Broderick’s new play were ready to shoot “The Starry Messenger.”
When a Broadway-bound show does a preview, you can expect that there will still be some kinks to work out, however Broderick’s performance was plagued from the beginning. The actor didn’t know his lines and had to ask for a prompt ten times in the first act. It could be a loooooong week for the actor, as shows are scheduled through Friday.
“Broderick should be fined for this sort of thing,” one angry user wrote. “The theater, the producers, Kenneth Lonergan (the director) and Broderick should be ashamed to have let an audience in for this.”
Another Broadway fan who hadn’t even seen the show chimed in: “For God’s sake, they are charging good money for this, and it is indeed unconscionable to use these as rehearsals. I only hope they do cancel this week of performances because I, too, have a ticket, and I don’t want to endure this either.”
Perhaps audience members were being a bit harsh. It was just a preview, after all, and a source close to the show says that a recent casting change may have led to the play’s rocky start. Merwin Goldsmith replaced Jonathan Hadary just this past weekend.
But our insider says Broderick’s flubs were more than just a few butchered lines. “It was an overall mess,” said the source. “He kept apologizing under his breath after he forgot a line, and everyone in the audience started to feel awkward.”
It’s a bad start for Broderick and his “Starry Messenger” run, which comes right after some unkind critical notices for Sarah Jessica Parker’s hubby. Several outlets panned his performance in “The Philanthropist,” which ran from April to June. While one review commented on his “dullness,” others even got a little personal, dissing the sideburns he grew for the part.
Audiences can be so harsh. He was probably too busy taking care of the newborn twins he shares with SJP to be studying lines. Cut a dork a break. The producers of the show obviously agree that there’s lots of work yet to be done. The show’s release date has been bumped a week to November 23rd.
















