Will Ferrell's Broadway debut divides US critics
Story by Jack Foley
WILL Ferrell’s Broadway debut has divided US theatre critics.
The popular actor is currently appearing in You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush, a new production directed by Adam McKay, Ferrell’s longtime collaborator and director of the comedy films Anchorman, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and the recent Step Brothers.
The publicity for the show states: “It’s time for a change in America, but not without a few parting words from the 43rd President of the United States. Don’t miss your chance to discover the man behind the myth, the truth behind the lies, and the logic behind the illogical in the outrageous limited Broadway event.”
However, while some critics found the ensuing political satire funny, others simply failed to see the point.
“I laughed, I yawned,” wrote the New York Times critic of the 90-minute monologue, while USA Today called the show “a witless, pointless spectacle”.
But The Washington Post praised Ferrell’s performance for its “gleeful, adolescent spirit”, and Vanity Fair suggested the show “is perhaps just what the country needs most right now – a chance to exhale, guffaw, revel in the pure comic if criminal absurdity of the Bush era”.
Ferrell perfected his impersonation of the bumbling, gaffe-prone former President Bush on the popular American comedy show, Saturday Night Live.
And the show sees Ferrell as Bush addressing the audience directly about his eight years in office. It also includes a break-dancing Secret Service agent, played by the star’s brother Patrick Ferrell, and Condoleezza Rice re-imagined as a lap dancer.
You’re Welcome America: A Final Night with George Bush is currently playing at New York’s Cort Theatre until Sunday, March 15, 2009, with US network HBO planning to broadcast the penultimate show live on March 14.