Shakespeare’s plays generally fall into three genres: comedy, history, and tragedy. Some historians like to add a fourth—romance, or tragicomedy. And then there are the problem plays, but that’s a whole other, well, problem.
Inevitably there’s crossover; Richard II and III, for instance, are history plays that come off as tragedies. But there’s never been any doubt about Macbeth, a cautionary tale of a man brought down by his own bloody ambition—if not Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy, then certainly in his top three alongside Hamlet and King Lear. Until now: The much-anticipated Sam Gold–directed Broadway production of Macbeth, which just opened at the Longacre Theatre, appears to be a comedy.
The laughter starts during the warmup. (Apparently Shakespeare needs an opening act.) Michael Patrick Thompson—who plays Lennox, in addition to one of Macbeth’s hatchet men—comes out to talk about King James I and his obsession with the occult as a sort of preface to the Bard’s most supernatural play. He also goads the audience into saying, or at least mouthing, “Macbeth.” Fun! Now let’s go play with some witches.
[Read David Finkle’s ★☆☆☆☆ review here.]
After Macbeth (stage and screen vet Daniel Craig, who seems strangely disoriented) and Banquo (Hadestown Tony nominee Amber Gray, in an inspired bit of casting) run into the weird sisters (Phillip James Brannon, Maria Dizzia, Bobbi MacKenzie) and hear their prophesies—they say Macbeth will be king, and that Banquo’s children will be kings—his wheels start turning. Macbeth comments when King Duncan (Paul Lazar) anoints son Malcolm (Asia Kate Dillon) his successor: “The Prince of Cumberland!” Craig’s Macbeth is incredulous rather than introspective, turning to the audience with a do-you-believe-this-crap expression. Laughter, inevitably, ensues.
You know what else is funny? Regicide! After he knocks off Duncan, Macbeth comes back, proclaims “I have done the deed,” and tosses down the daggers like a toddler who’s tired of his toys. Then he and Lady Macbeth (a divine Ruth Negga, who was a spectacular Hamlet at St. Ann’s Warehouse in 2020) start bickering like a couple on a CBS sitcom, and he pounds a Miller Lite. Scottish royals…they’re just like us.
Fair warning for anyone bothered by the sight of blood shooting across the stage: You might want to cover your eyes. This production certainly goes for the gore. A curious choice, considering the dramaturgical note in the program (it prepares the audience for “minimal scenery,” “no major scene changes,” and double- and triple-casting): “This simplicity and flexibility, in which the play’s language carries most of the narrative and expressive weight, enables a high level of imaginative participation.” Yet Gold—who previously helmed King Lear, Othello, and Hamlet—turns Duncan’s stabbing, usually an offstage moment, into something out of Psycho, complete with horror-movie lighting and chilling sound effects.
Deep down, Macbeth is not a cold-blooded killer. He has to give himself two soliloquy pep talks before he can bring himself to do it (“If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well/ It were done quickly” and “Is this a dagger which I see before me…”). That’s why he makes such a mess of the murder that his wife so meticulously planned. But now he’s slashing the guy like something out of Halloween.
Seeing so much violence mid-play also robs us of the cathartic climax, when the “hellhound” is finally destroyed by Macduff (Grantham Coleman)—the only one who can bring him down, because he “was from his mother’s womb/ Untimely ripp’d” (Shakespeare speak for a C-section).
Gold actually has something else in mind for the end; we won’t reveal the specifics, other than to say it’s more restorative than the usual Macbeth closer. And that it involves a song by Gaelynn Lea, whose intriguing original music underscores the entire production. It’s lovely, but—yet again—tonally simply wrong.
Macbeth opened April 28, 2022, at the Longacre Theatre and runs through July 10. Tickets and information: macbethbroadway.com
