ABSTRACT
A performance of unarguable greatness is taking place under our noses. Let me not hesitate. Zoë Wanamaker’s Electra is a magnificent achievement. Ms. Wanamaker, in David Leveaux’s remarkable production of Sophocles’s Electra at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, has the audience spellbound. Who would have imagined that a 2,400-year-old story of matricide would prove so popular—and on Disneyfied Broadway? There’s a thought! Neither Sophocles nor Ms. Wanamaker are star names in New York. Which is why the usual bottom-line producers wouldn’t invest in the production—though it had already played to acclaim in England and at the McCarter Theater at Princeton University. If only the ruling elites of Broadway would have a little more faith. This production shows the way, and its extended run is sweet justice.
