THE PHILANTHROPIST at Roundabout's AA Theatre

(Seen 4/30/09)

Someone must have thought that Christopher Hampton's play would be an ideal vehicle for Matthew Broderick. Unfortunately, his performance has such a throwaway quality to it, everything is for naught.

This revival is peopled with unbelievable characters doing uncharacteristic things. Hampton's skewed portrait of British academia, instead of "examining the empty insular life of college intellectuals", as described by the press material, is itself empty and insular.

It becomes a boring study of what not-to-do on stage. It morphs into what it is trying to demean. David Grindley's erratic staging and pacing only adds to the sense of hopelessness and helplessness of all the characters.