Good evening, and welcome to Broadway News’ Broadway Review by Brittani Samuel — our overview of reactions, recommendations and information tied to tonight’s Broadway opening of “Patriots.”
RUNDOWN
Peter Morgan’s “Patriots” is a mannish backroom play about the men who rose to power in post-Soviet Russia, particularly slick oligarch Boris Berezovsky (Michael Stuhlbarg) and his political puppet Vladimir Putin (Will Keen). The show blurs historical facts, figures and legitimate research with Morgan’s indulgent imaginings of how these men interacted. You can practically feel how drunk with excitement Morgan is over this type of brutish representation of historymakers — lots of fists banging on tables, slamming of landline telephones, shooing away hapless assistants and, of course, dismissing women. (Throughout the play, “Mother Russia” is the only woman to which either of the main characters shows respect.)
