FARNSWORTH ALERT! LAST WEEKEND...

One of the best and most interesting shows on Broadway, Aaron Sorkin's The Farnsworth Invention, directed by Des McAnuff, is closing (sadly) on March 2.

Check out our review! and our preview with more information on the show.

This is the last weekend. Don't miss it!

THE FARNSWORTH INVENTION

The play is fantastic!

Brilliantly acted, written and directed!

Interesting, stimulating and fun!

THE FARNSWORTH INVENTION centers around the bitter conflict that pitted Philo T. Farnsworth (Jimmi Simpson), a boy genius who invented television as a high school student in 1927, against David Sarnoff (Hank Azaria), the head of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). The legal battle between Farnsworth and RCA would later become known as one of the great, tragic examples of legal and industrial force combining to crush a rightful patent owner.

The play was written by the great Aaron Sorkin, (Charlie Wilson's War, Studio 60, The West Wing), and is brilliantly played by Simpson and Azaria.

Des McAnuff, who is known for his direction of such important works as "A Walk In The Woods," did a flawless job of directing.

The story is spun mostly in a series of anecdotes, some told by Sarnoff, some by Farnsworth, played out by an exceptional cast including Kyle Fabel, Nadia Bowers, Maurice Godin, Christian McCarthy Johansen, Aaron Krohn, Kate MacCluggage, Bruce McKenzie, Malcolm Morano, Spencer Moses, Michael Mulheren, Jim Ortlieb, Michael Pemberton, Javier Picayo, Katharine Powell, Steve Rosen, Brian Russell, James Sutorius, Margot White, Alexandra Wilson, William Youmans -- who take a wide range of characters.

Sorkin is perhaps the most skillful writer today at integrating powerful and important issues into popular and entertaining drama. The play takes dead aim on questions critical for the survival of an entrepreneurial economy like ours -- notions like invention, bragging rights, financial rights, strategy, pride, ego, business decisions, secrecy, espionage, theft, intellectual property, and success.

This is one of the most interesting, stimulating, exciting, different, and enjoyable shows on Broadway.

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR

Charlie Wilson's War is an excellent film about the way that Congress came to back a large, covert CIA operation in Afghanistan, funding the Mujahideen rebels against the Soviets, through the efforts of Congressman Charles Wilson.

Acting by Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks (who actually looks something like Charlie Wilson), and Philip Seymour Hoffman is excellent. The film was written by Aaron Sorkin (who currently also has The Farnsworth Invention on Broadway) and directed by Mike Nichols, based on a book by George Crile.



It is superb story telling, based on things that really happened: the film takes advantage of the star power of the actors; their skill; Aaron Sorkin's brilliance at writing political drama; Mike Nichols sense of humor; and the fact that Charlie Wilson was both a colorful, drinking, ladies man, and a liberal congressman from Texas.

Politically, the film gently encourages us to root for the Mujahideen against the Russians; and suggests that the withdrawal of the Russians from Afghanistan was a factor in the break-up of Soviet Communism; then, still gently, it reminds us of how the US failure to rebuild Afghanistan after the war helped lead to the rise of the Taliban. It suggests that we must fight one war at a time, but we need to continue to do what is necessary at the end of a war. (This could be taken to suggest that in Iraq we need to stay and rebuild that country. Of course, the current debate is not about whether or not we should successfully rebuild Iraq, but whether our present actions are going to help or hinder that process.)

The film is fun, well made and interesting. It's basically a caper movie, where the caper is secretly funding a war.

THE FARNSWORTH INVENTION

Written by the great Aaron Sorkin, The Farnsworth Invention, about the invention of television, and the struggle to obtain the patent -- and the credit -- for the invention, is currently in previews and opens on November 15 -- at the Music Box Theatre, 239 West 45th Street, and is certainly the show that I am currently most interested in.

The informative, official website for The Farnsworth Invention contains credits for the complete cast (headed by Hank Azaria as Robert Sarnoff), the author, Aaron Sorkin, the director, Des McAnuff and the principal creative team. It also contains a history of the invention of television.