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 Set in a remote cabin, the three-person play that opened at
the Circle in the Square Theater on Sunday for a limited run won
praise for the "Wolverine" actor's portrayal of an outdoorsy man
on a romantic night fishing trip.
"Jackman is catch of the day in 'The River,' said the New York
Daily News, adding that his performance is "manly, measured and
speckled with melancholy."
The New York Times lauded the actor for conveying an impression
of self-contained silence and said he "ascends with assurance to
a new level as a stage actor."
Jackman, 46, is no stranger to Broadway and won a Tony award in
2004 for "The Boy From Oz." But unlike that rousing musical
based on the life of singer/songwriter Peter Allen, or his
Oscar-nominated role in the film "Les Miserables," "The River,"
is an intense, mystical one-act play and Jackman is the center
of it.
"It's one of the bravest, most carefully calibrated performances
he has ever given," said the newspaper USA Today.
Jackman's character in the play, which was previously staged at
the Royal Court Theater in London, is known simply as The Man.
He waxes lyrical about trout fishing and love, and he guts and
cooks a fish on stage.
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The Hollywood Reporter said Jackman "brings heart and a haunted
sadness to the brawny aesthete who quotes (the poet) Ted Hughes" but
it found the play lacking and not up to par with Butterworth's
earlier Tony-nominated play "Jerusalem."
"Any sense of enveloping menace, mystery and even thematic weight
that might mask the writing's more ponderously mannered aspects is
missing," it added.
While it found it intriguing, USA Today described the play as
'ultimately disappointing," which the trade journal Variety echoed.
"Aside from the charismatic star’s intense performance as a lovesick
fisherman who is given to poetic laments over the fish (and the
woman) who slipped away from him, just about everything else about
Jez Butterworth’s strange chamber piece, “The River,” is a downer,"
it said.
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