Rex Harrison delivers one of his most gripping performances as Shaw's crusty Capt. Shotover as he presides over his seaside home filled with family and guests. Shaw uses the Shotover cottage as a substitute for England itself in this, his most profound work. The flavor owes much to Chekov and the performers evoke the right balance between Shavian humor and Chekovian slyness,in addition to Harrison George Martin's Boss Mangan is a particular standout. But the whole cast is fine and the production a rare treat.
4 Reviews
Excellent
alluvus230328 July 2005
I managed to find this very rare video from a Canadian seller, and spent more money than I could spare to get it. For the most part, I was glad I did. As a Shaw fan, I was thrilled to get to see one of his lesser known works performed by a top-notch cast.
Rex Harrison was in rare form as Captain Shotover, playing well not only with Amy Irving (in her Broadway debut as Ellie Dunn) but with the formidable Rosemary Harry as the airy, yet surprisingly complex Hesione Hushabye. Harrison captured not only the humor, but the pathos of this man who has seen better years and still has the gumption to grasp at happiness in the face of a world quite madder than he himself has become. Theatrical diva Rosemary Harris is brilliant as Hesione, grand and sweeping like a flock of butterflies, yet still a strong enough character to anchor the play. She is the glue that holds the family together, and she is as warm and sensual as her sister Ariadne (Dana Ivey) is cold and manipulative. Even so, in her own unconventional way, she can be as manipulative as her sister when she wants to be.
Dana Ivey, who garnered one of her two Tony nominations in 1984 for her work in this play, was cast somewhat against type as man-killer Ariadne Utterwood. She pulled off the haughty, shallow, angry character quite well, managing a sort of frigid sexuality that drives her suitors to distraction. But she's Ivey through and through, and there's more bite than nibble to this siren.
That being said, no one in the cast could stand against the utter domination of Harris' and Harrison's bravura performances. Difficult to find, but Heartbreak House is definitely worth the search for serious theater fans.
Rex Harrison was in rare form as Captain Shotover, playing well not only with Amy Irving (in her Broadway debut as Ellie Dunn) but with the formidable Rosemary Harry as the airy, yet surprisingly complex Hesione Hushabye. Harrison captured not only the humor, but the pathos of this man who has seen better years and still has the gumption to grasp at happiness in the face of a world quite madder than he himself has become. Theatrical diva Rosemary Harris is brilliant as Hesione, grand and sweeping like a flock of butterflies, yet still a strong enough character to anchor the play. She is the glue that holds the family together, and she is as warm and sensual as her sister Ariadne (Dana Ivey) is cold and manipulative. Even so, in her own unconventional way, she can be as manipulative as her sister when she wants to be.
Dana Ivey, who garnered one of her two Tony nominations in 1984 for her work in this play, was cast somewhat against type as man-killer Ariadne Utterwood. She pulled off the haughty, shallow, angry character quite well, managing a sort of frigid sexuality that drives her suitors to distraction. But she's Ivey through and through, and there's more bite than nibble to this siren.
That being said, no one in the cast could stand against the utter domination of Harris' and Harrison's bravura performances. Difficult to find, but Heartbreak House is definitely worth the search for serious theater fans.
Bitter WWI recriminations leavened by Shavian style and great performances
eschetic-213 September 2009
GBS was in a bitter mood in 1919 when he sprang back from the English public outrage at his objection to the waste and muddled politics of World War I with this brilliant allegory of disintegrating British and Continental society having lost its way and was facing the catastrophe of a war that reflected its own lost values. He didn't let his personal disillusionment detract from his dissection of his topic with some of his most fascinating, conflicted characters. The too seldom produced HEARTBREAK HOUSE is one of his masterpieces.
In this particularly brilliant production, first staged at Broadway's Circle In The Square Theatre in 1983 & 4, perennial Shaw interpreter (MAJOR BARBARA and PYGMALION's scion MY FAIR LADY on film and stage along with CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA and this HEARTBREAK HOUSE) Rex Harrison* (Captain Shotover, captaining his seaside estate onto the rocks - he keeps a supply of dynamite in the gravel pit near the mansion) leads a cast that included Rosemary Harris* (Hesione Hushabye), Amy Irving (in her Broadway Debut as Ellie Dunn), Dana Ivey* (Lady Utterword), Jan Minor (Nurse Guinness) and Bill Moore (Randall Utterword) to six Tony Nominations (* plus Costumes and Best Revival).
It is inexplicable why this superb Showtime production, aired a year after the Broadway revival closed has not been issued on DVD. There is an alternative HEARTBREAK HOUSE available in a Box Set of BBC Television productions of Shaw plays, but to American eyes, this starry Broadway cast and production (under Anthony Page's direction - he also directed the Showtime version) is not surpassed. Three of the male actors from the Broadway cast (Philip Bosco*, Stephen McHattie and William Prince) were unavailable for the taping, but were ably replaced respectively by George Martin as Boss Mangan, Remak Ramsay as Hector Hushabye and Tom Aldredge as Mazzini Dunn.
With the usual Shavian tangle of societal striving with strong women confronting men firm in their opinions and making us smile at their predicaments while we think about our own - all while waiting for the wartime Zeppelins to arrive with their loads of overt destruction, this HEARTBREAK HOUSE may never supplant PYGMALION, ARMS AND THE MAN, CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA, his Nobel Prize winning SAINT JOAN, MAJOR BARBARA, MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION or even THE APPLE CART, THE MILLIONAIRESS or ANDROCLES AND THE LION as Shaw's most popular works, but this superb production makes a strong case that it should be in the pantheon of his most respected.
In this particularly brilliant production, first staged at Broadway's Circle In The Square Theatre in 1983 & 4, perennial Shaw interpreter (MAJOR BARBARA and PYGMALION's scion MY FAIR LADY on film and stage along with CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA and this HEARTBREAK HOUSE) Rex Harrison* (Captain Shotover, captaining his seaside estate onto the rocks - he keeps a supply of dynamite in the gravel pit near the mansion) leads a cast that included Rosemary Harris* (Hesione Hushabye), Amy Irving (in her Broadway Debut as Ellie Dunn), Dana Ivey* (Lady Utterword), Jan Minor (Nurse Guinness) and Bill Moore (Randall Utterword) to six Tony Nominations (* plus Costumes and Best Revival).
It is inexplicable why this superb Showtime production, aired a year after the Broadway revival closed has not been issued on DVD. There is an alternative HEARTBREAK HOUSE available in a Box Set of BBC Television productions of Shaw plays, but to American eyes, this starry Broadway cast and production (under Anthony Page's direction - he also directed the Showtime version) is not surpassed. Three of the male actors from the Broadway cast (Philip Bosco*, Stephen McHattie and William Prince) were unavailable for the taping, but were ably replaced respectively by George Martin as Boss Mangan, Remak Ramsay as Hector Hushabye and Tom Aldredge as Mazzini Dunn.
With the usual Shavian tangle of societal striving with strong women confronting men firm in their opinions and making us smile at their predicaments while we think about our own - all while waiting for the wartime Zeppelins to arrive with their loads of overt destruction, this HEARTBREAK HOUSE may never supplant PYGMALION, ARMS AND THE MAN, CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA, his Nobel Prize winning SAINT JOAN, MAJOR BARBARA, MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION or even THE APPLE CART, THE MILLIONAIRESS or ANDROCLES AND THE LION as Shaw's most popular works, but this superb production makes a strong case that it should be in the pantheon of his most respected.
Shavian's Delight
card5311 July 2015
I haven't seen this film in 33 years, so I can't offer much insightful commentary. I only remember that this was one of the most perfect productions of one of Shaw's most wonderfully confounding plays. Harrison in his next-to-last performance--and in a Shaw role, no less. Harrison does Shaw. Of course he's brilliant.
Rosemary Harris and Dana Ivey were beyond perfect, as was the rest of the cast, but they deserve special mention.
The pleasant surprise in the cast was Amy Irving. I can't conceive that any actress ever so captured the 1000 layers of Ellie Dunn. Anyone who's seen this film has to agree that she deserved a better career. A brilliant actress whose main claim to fame was horror films (albeit some good ones), MICKI + MAUDE and being married to Spielberg. She's now doing occasional guest spots on TV series.
Please, somebody, release a DVD! I have to see this once more in my lifetime.
Rosemary Harris and Dana Ivey were beyond perfect, as was the rest of the cast, but they deserve special mention.
The pleasant surprise in the cast was Amy Irving. I can't conceive that any actress ever so captured the 1000 layers of Ellie Dunn. Anyone who's seen this film has to agree that she deserved a better career. A brilliant actress whose main claim to fame was horror films (albeit some good ones), MICKI + MAUDE and being married to Spielberg. She's now doing occasional guest spots on TV series.
Please, somebody, release a DVD! I have to see this once more in my lifetime.
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