Helen Mirren Reigns as Queen in ‘The Audience’

GOOD SHOW: Helen Mirren brilliantly portrays Queen Elizabeth II in ‘The Audience.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

THE AUDIENCE
Written by Peter Morgan
Directed by Stephen Daldry
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
236 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), www.TheAudienceBroadway.com

By Scott Harrah

American theatergoers need not be experts on British history and politics to appreciate this engrossing saga of Queen Elizabeth II (portrayed by the always magnificent Helen Mirren) and 12 of her prime ministers throughout her 63-year reign. Her Majesty’s weekly “audiences” with prime ministers are cloaked in secrecy, so this gives playwright Peter Morgan (who also wrote the film The Queen, for which Ms. Mirren won the Best Actress Oscar) lots of artistic license to speculate on whatever he thinks the iconic sovereign and her PMs said. It is a fascinating evening of theater regardless of how accurate the conversations are, with Ms. Mirren giving the most richly textured performance of her illustrious career.

Even the most vehement anti-monarchy republican would have difficulty resisting Her Majesty as depicted by Ms. Mirren, with Mr. Morgan’s brilliant narrative, because she is never characterized as an anachronistic figurehead. Instead, Ms. Mirren and Mr. Morgan’s Queen Elizabeth II transcends her critics and emerges as a conscientious, intelligent woman who has been devoted in service to the United Kingdom and the entire British Commonwealth for more than six decades. Here, Her Majesty is consistently multifaceted and never comes across as a caricature because Ms. Mirren imbues her with a palpable dignity and vulnerability that makes us appreciate the sense of duty and the incredible weight, burden, and sacrifice involved with wearing the crown.

Some may think Ms. Mirren would simply rehash her role in The Queen, a film that portrayed the sovereign’s controversial reaction to Princess Diana’s death in 1997 and how the monarchy almost crumbled as a result. As illuminating as the script and Ms. Mirren both were in that film, Her Majesty is revealed as a far more complex woman here, and that’s why The Audience is such a masterpiece. Much of what Americans know about Queen Elizabeth II and her famous family is tabloid fodder, but here we learn that there is far more to her than her simply being the world’s most famous woman, a dowdy dowager with children and grandchildren that have been involved in scandals throughout the years. She is, after all, one of the longest serving heads of state anywhere.   Of course, all the famous aspects of Queen Elizabeth II are shown, from her poofy hairdos and pearls to real Corgis that run around the palaces at times.

All but one of the 12 prime ministers (Harold McMillan) that have served Queen Elizabeth II pay visits to Buckingham Palace in London and Balmoral in Scotland in The Audience, from Winston Churchill (Dakin Matthews) to Harold Wilson (Richard McCabe) to Margaret Thatcher (Judith Ivey) to John Major (Dylan Baker), Gordon Brown (Rod McLachlan) and Tony Blair and David Cameron (both played by Rufus Wright).

The most incredible thing about the show is how Ms. Mirren morphs flawlessly in scene after scene to show Her Majesty throughout the decades, with only minor costume changes and an arsenal of spot-on facial expressions to depict Elizabeth at different points in time. There is no need for excessive make-up to show the monarch aging, and Ms. Mirren never simply tries to impersonate the Queen. Ms. Mirren’s is an all-around, richly layered portrayal of the many roles of Elizabeth II: wife, mother, sovereign and, most all, a woman who has defined her era

This is no easy task considering that Elizabeth II, as a constitutional monarch, is expected to support her prime ministers at all times and remain objective, but we see the myriad critical points she has experienced in her reign, from the Suez Canal crisis under Anthony Eden (Michael Elwyn) in 1956 up to Tony Blair leading Britain, along with the United States, into the invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.

Of all the “audiences,” the most fascinating in the drama is Judith Ivey’s incandescent performance as Margaret Thatcher. Ms. Ivey has the late Thatcher’s accent and mannerisms down to a science, and she almost steals the show here when discussing, with heated, volatile passion, why she opposes economic sanctions against South Africa during the apartheid era, when the United Kingdom was that nation’s largest trading partner. This was one time when the Queen allegedly disagreed with a prime minister—the row was chronicled in the Times of London—because the monarch respected the beliefs of the African leaders in Commonwealth nations. Live theater simply doesn’t get any better than watching Ms. Ivey and Ms. Mirren playing two of the political world’s strongest all-time leaders in a lively debate.

In addition, we also see present-day Elizabeth talking in certain scenes with Young Elizabeth (alternated by Sadie Sink and Elizabeth Teeter). In these sections, Elizabeth speaks to her younger self and at first these scenes appear strained and unnecessary, but by the show’s end—with young Princess Elizabeth giving her famous BBC radio address from Cape Town, South Africa, in which she vows to live her life in service to the people of the Commonwealth—they make sense and we realize the scale of the woman’s life, and how she has remained devoted in a role she never planned on taking. We see how, even as a young girl, she was uncomfortable being called “Ma’am” and had trouble adapting to the numerous formalities that became requisite parts of her everyday life and the internal trappings of being royalty.

Stephen Daldry directs everything with seamless precision, and what is outstanding is how a story that covers more than 60 years flows so effortlessly and is never confusing or stilted, making The Audience one of the best new dramas of 2015.

MARGARET THATCHER & HER MAJESTY: Judith Ivey (left) & Helen Mirren. Photo: Joan Marcus

TONY BLAIR & HER MAJESTY: Rufus Wright & Helen Mirren. Photo: Joan Marcus

QUEEN ELIZABETH II & YOUNG ELIZABETH: Helen Mirren & Elizabeth Teeter. Photo: Joan Marcus

HER MAJESTY AT WORK: Helen Mirren in ‘The Audience.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

PRIME MINISTER HAROLD WILSON & HER MAJESTY: Richard McCabe & Helen Mirren in ‘The Audience.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 8, 2015
Reviewed at press performance on March 7, 2015