A Bullet Review : The Audience (by Peter Morgan starring Helen Mirren 2/15/15)

Last night, at the end of the first act of "The Audience", in previews at the Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway, Helen Mirren has the crown placed on her head in a re-enactment of Queen Elizabeth’s 1953 coronation and the audience broke into applause. It gave me the creeps.
It was the same strain of the creeps I felt at the start of the currently running delightful production of “On The Town” when they light up a massive flag and the audience stands up for the Star Spangled banner. Something other than theatre was going on.
OK Helen Mirren is one of the world’s greatest actresses and it’s probably worth the overpriced tickets, in an overheated theatre with zero leg room seats to see her on stage but Helen – make this the last one. One more Queen Elizabeth imitation and you risk crossing over into the land of Elvis impersonators.
There are some hardwired problems. Much of the play assumes a knowledge of British politics and history that at least this American does not have. It is, however, an interesting fly on the wall look at the weekly chats in Buckingham Palace between the Queen and British PMs from Churchill to Cameron. You get a snapshot of Elizabeth as a well meaning woman, raised in a pampered form of institutionalized isolation, capable of tart questions but ultimately a vestigial relic.
Its worth mentioning the strikingly skillful creation of iconic historic images like the appearance of Churchill's hulking cigar smoking form (played by Dakin Mathews) which is, I dare say, spot on.
But ultimately it’s as if Disney’s Magic Kingdom hired world class talent to put on a "Rule Britannia" patriotic pageant to compete with “Impressions De France” in the pavilion next door.
I don’t feel ripped off but this production is something other than a play.