In part three of The Coast of Utopia, Tom Stoppard continues exploring the hopes and naïvete of early Russian revolutionaries mid-1800's. Although the gorgeous pageantry designed by Bob Crowley and Scott Pask scattered throughout the play when there are short scenes with lots of people totally engage us with their beauty and flowing imagination, the conversations do not, except when there is a break in form about them, such as a section in lively sprichstimme - a kind of lively spoken operetta with music.
Instead of seriously zeroing in on just a few events and getting inside them, we remain observers from the outside as we attend sketchy outlines of too many events.
Brian F. O'Byrne comes through nicely believable in this section of the trilogy, and Martha Plimpton as a woman between two men brings a dimension to her work I haven't seen before.
So here we have marvelous scenic design, fine costuming by Catherine Zuber, terrific lighting by Natasha Katz, powerful music and sound by Mark Bennett, and long, not very thrilling conversations, many of them repetitions of arguments in parts one or two.
Director Jack O'Brien is at his best when people are moving, especially crowds. So my favorite playwright, Stoppard, is unstoppered in his logorrhea, and after three hours of the play, I applauded the hard work and dedication of the huge cast, designers and crew, and was glad it was over.
