Don’t expect fireworks from Scarlett Johansson, making her Broadway debut in Gregory Mosher’s gripping production of “A View from the Bridge” at the Cort Theatre. Expect integrity. A brown-haired Johannson in modest attire delivers a truthful, quiet performance as Catherine, leaving the heavy lifting to Liev Schreiber as her uncle Eddie, the doomed protagonist of Arthur Miller’s 1955 tragedy.
Brooklyn longshoreman Eddie and wife Beatrice (Jessica Hecht) have raised Catherine since her mother died years earlier. When she is smitten by Beatrice’s cousin Rodolpho (Morgan Spector), an illegal alien just off the boat from Sicily, Eddie reacts like a spurned lover. His jealousy, fueled by disdain at what he considers Rodolpho’s effeminacy, evolves into seething rage. As Miller keeps raising the temperature, Schreiber comes to a boil, one degree at a time. And the more we know Eddie is wrong — blindly, bullheadedly so — the more we feel for him and with him.
If “A View from the Bridge” ultimately waxes operatic, it’s because it aims high: an everyman’s Greek tragedy. Mosher taps into its raw power, keeping it simple and allowing Schreiber to immerse himself in the desire, anger, pride and denial that ultimately destroy Eddie.
‘A View from the Bridge’
Cort Theatre
138 W. 48th St.
$42.50-$126.50, 212-239-6200
www.telecharge.com
