The play doesn't open until tonight, but some of the early reviews are starting to trickle in, like this comment and exchange from BroadwayWorld.com:
Aaron Sorkin has glibness down to a science; just take a look at any episode of “The West Wing” or his short lived “Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip” if one need proof of his snappy patter. What is so surprising then with his new clinking (ultimately clunker) Broadway play, “The Farnsworth Invention,” is that Sorkin’s signature slickness has been replaced by hesitation on the part of the playwright to make a really good play. Concerning itself with the invention of the television, the process it took to get the product made, and the effects it had on everyone involved may have been an intriguing tale. Instead, Sorkin gives Broadway audiences a banal and at times inaccurate history lesson minus his signature smart-ass attitude dialogue that normally crackles. What is left is a college classroom lecture that gets it wrong, leaving Sorkin and company looking like nothing more than an ass.
There are quite a few interesting comments posted after this post, some addressing the "fact -v- fiction" failures and successes of the play. There are even a couple of links to my own stuff online, although I'd have to admit that the change of sentiments from March to November are raising even my own eyebrows at this point...
I devoured Paul's book in one afternoon at the Hilton in Little Rock. What a journey!
Posted by: Chaim | December 03, 2007 at 11:45 AM
Aaron Sorkin was quoted as saying (about The Farnsworth Invention):
"I hope the jokes work."
In comedy, you've got to buy the premise before you buy the punchline. As I understand it, in the play, Mr.Sorkin has Phil drinking the night he asks Pem to marry him.
Drinking in Provo, Utah, during Prohibition?
If anybody out there buys that, I've got a bridge in San Francisco I'd like to sell you. It's a real money maker, easy to maintain, in fact, it's got a new paint job.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.
-Hamlet-Act 2-Scene 2-
I just don't get it.
Ronnie Farnsworth
Posted by: Ron Farnsworth | December 03, 2007 at 03:32 PM
while growing up you learn that everything you see on telivision is not always what it may seem to be!!! But while growning up you need to remember that "Education is the key to knowledge, and knowledge is the key to wisdom". In the position that I have you need to know the facts before reporting on a issue you might know little about. For someone to say that by holding back the truth or history has been muffled needs to take a look at what is really going on in life. My children can watch cartoons and comedies on telivision and laugh, and I can explain to them the difference in true and not true. When someone writes something about a historical event you would expect them to get the facts as close as possible. This is not to show the death of something, but yet the life in all things. I have yet to see the broadway show, but if there is any injustice to someones Achievements in life then where is the real injustice being done.
Posted by: Bowe Boecker | December 07, 2007 at 03:55 AM