‘The Iceman Cometh’ to BAM
From the moment he burst on scene, throwing money into the air and laughing heartily, it was clear that Nathan Lane was going to give a memorable performance in “The Iceman Cometh.” And he delivered on his initial promise, bringing humanity, humor and audible volume to a character who spent most of the four-and-a-half-hour play exploring his own murky depths as he tried to pry a cadre of hopeless drunks from their hazy numbness.
This is the second time Chicago’s Goodman Theater Company has staged Eugene O’Neill’s classic play, which is showing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) until March 15. It’s also the second time Lane has played the role of Theodore “Hickey” Hickman — the traveling hardware salesman — and the second time Brian Dennehy has inhabited the skin of Larry Slade — the “Foolosopher” and disillusioned former Syndicalist-anarchist — at the direction of Robert Falls.
Many remember Dennehy as the cantankerous sheriff on the hunt for Rambo in “First Blood.” But he’s an old pro at O’Neill pieces, having performed in several of the playwright’s titles over the years, as well as having played Hickey himself in the early ’90s. But, from his “rawboned” Irish look to the bitter scowl he wore throughout the play’s entirety, it was clear that Dennehy was made to play Slade. He didn’t even seem to be acting and was a natural, cloudy foil for Lane’s energetic, almost sunny (if such a thing can be possible for so sad a character as Hickey) disposition.