The History Boys

December 1st, 2007
The Ahmanson, Los Angeles
Play, we went with Theresa

Well, despite the local reviews, it won 6 Tony Awards for a reason.

I can only say that I didn't find any of this story plodding or slow or boring at all. The actors were solid. We especially enjoyed the performances of Alex Brightman as Posner, Seth Numrich as Dakin and Brett Ryback as Scripps (we remembered him from On Your Toes at Reprise, where he stood out as multi-talented!), and we thought Dakin Matthews, Peter Paige (Queer as Folk), Charlotte Cornwell and H. Richard Greene were all solid and believable in the rolls they played in these boys' lives. Dakin Matthews' portrayal of a grandfatherly mentor with a less-than-palatable secret was very entertaining and lovable. The roll demanded that. The audience has to be feel empathy for his character, or the play's message would have gone the other direction.


Some of the criticism seems to revolve around the style and format of the story-telling, which is often the case when a playwright tries something fresh. We enjoyed the video interstitials for two reasons. It gave the audience a sense of the hectic break between classes and broke up the talky scenes, and gave a sense of a life outside the classroom. And in general, we thought this gave the piece an added freshness, keeping it from being just another melodrama about a British school for boys. We noted some criticism about it being too talky and scholastic, but we thought that, for the patient and watchful audience member, all things were explained quite well.

And we enjoyed the message of the play especially, about how things can't always be wrapped up in nice, neat little generic boxes with generic outcomes. Being set in the 80's was an added bonus that we appreciated.

We thought it was a solid evening of theater. An extra half-star for the cast.