Critiquing P. Diddy: Fair comment or bad rap?: Former J.Lo beau makes stage debut to mixed reviews
National Post
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Arts & Life
J. Kelly Nestruck
Though he proved himself capable of running the New York City Marathon last year, P. Diddy couldn't scramble fast enough to evade all the slings and arrows of a roomful of theatre critics on Monday night.
Still, considering he made his Broadway debut in front of a pack of journalists ready for the kill, Sean Combs -- the entrepreneurial rapper better known as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and the guy who used to date J.Lo -- can take the mixed notices he received for his performance in the revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun as a success.
With a lot of pent-up hostility about the Hollywoodization of the Great White Way and Combs's nerve in taking on a role originated by the great Sidney Poitier, some sharpshooters went straight for the jugular in critiquing his portrayal of Walter Lee Younger, an angry 34-year-old man still living with his widowed mother in 1950s Chicago's black ghetto. "Sean Combs, otherwise known as rap mogul and fashion impresario P. Diddy, is giving a sadly N. Adequate performance," Variety squawked gleefully, dipping into a previously untapped reserve of Diddy-related wordplay.
In a review headlined "A Raisin shrivelled by laughter," the Washington Post reported that hip hop's jack-of-all-trades could not get up the gravitas necessary for the part. His flaccid acting abilities made members of the audience laugh at inappropriate moments, critic Peter Marks wrote: "When he drops to the floor in a heap, sobbing at the realization that he's lost the family's entire savings -- 'That money is made out of my father's flesh!' he cries -- it's about as persuasive as a Teamster dancing Swan Lake."
Not all critics were so quick with the harsh zingers, however. Newsday gave the American classic's revival a positive review, writing, "Combs is better than OK. He has presence playing someone besides his own formidable self. He projects."
But as USA Today's Elysa Gardner remarked, "projecting is not the same thing as acting, and the finely textured work of Combs's accomplished co-stars makes his own lack of experience and depth all too apparent."
Marks made it clear he wasn't just condemning Combs, but the overall trend of bringing untrained stars in to boost Broadway's box-office receipts. "[Broadway] is eternally groping for cool-kid validation, for relief from the impression that it is a haven for hipness solely to Grecian Formula users and people from Altoona," he complained.
The New York Times' Ben Brantley agreed that whether Diddy did or didn't meant a lot to the future of the Great White Way. "Will he prove that you don't need long years of experience and training to knock 'em dead on Broadway?" Brantley asked at the beginning of his review.
Then, after putting off his conclusion for a couple of breathy paragraphs, Brantley answered in the negative. "Though the production features sterling work from Ms. [Audra] McDonald [as Walter Lee's wife] and Ms. [Phylicia] Rashad, who plays Walter Lee's formidable mother, it lacks the fully developed central performance from Mr. Combs that would hold the show together. This Walter Lee never appears to change, in big ways or small. Happy or sad, drunk or sober, angry or placating, his evenly measured words and debating team captain's gestures remain pretty much the same," he wrote, bringing to mind an image of Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
But Brantley did have some kind things to say about the hip hop artist. "Mr. Combs is not the wholesale embarrassment that connoisseurs of schadenfreude were hoping for. The Donald Trump-like confidence that has made him the success he is keeps him from dissolving into a spotlighted puddle."
Not all praise was so damningly faint. In fact, The New York Post gave P. Diddy his best review. "Confidently stepping into the role made famous by Sidney Poitier, Combs was -- believe it or not -- pretty damn good," critic Clive Barnes wrote, as if he couldn't believe that he was actually writing that sentence himself.
"Admittedly, Sidney Poitier he was not -- and Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Samuel L. Jackson need not shake in their boots, at least for now. But Combs exceeded expectations as the petulant, truculent and brooding young hero ..."
While Combs, who has previously acted in films such as Monster's Ball and Made, can take heart in reviews like that one, the producers of A Raisin in the Sun made it clear yesterday the critics were not a big concern for them.
"Our audience is not an audience that needs to be validated by reviews," Eric Schnall, marketing director for the show, told The Associated Press. "A lot of them don't read them."
posted by J. Kelly 4:09 PM