That Championship Season /Good People

If it is a new theater season, a new group of celebrities must be appearing on Broadway. Some stars, like Kiefer Sutherland (TV’s “24”), are making their Broadway debuts. The revival of the Tony and Pulitzer prize-winning play, That Championship Season features Sutherland and Chris Noth (The Good Wife, Sex and the City) as two of the players of a championship high school basketball team. It’s 20 years later, and every year the “boys,” now all in their late 30s, meet for a reunion with their coach who is terminally ill. This reunion may be their last chance to be with the man they all emotionally depend upon.

With the celebrity factor, this show is guaranteed a certain advanced sale and the audience applauded enthusiastically as soon as the two stars appeared. However, the presence of stars doesn't ensure a good show. Sorry to say that Noth and Sutherland’s performances are unremarkable. Sutherland is lackluster, and his emotional scenes feel tepid. When his character, James, who has sacrificed constantly for all around him, becomes bitter, Sutherland’s anger doesn’t feel potent enough. Noth works too hard to suggest a sleazy womanizer. James' alcoholic brother is played by Jason Patric, son of the deceased Jason Miller, the play’s author. Inexplicably, Patric’s character has a slight Southern accent (strange for a play set in Scranton, Pennsylvania) and an affectation in his mannerisms. None of the actors is credible enough with the exception of The Coach, as played by Brian Cox, big with his passions, hatreds and affections. Despite the fact that he is a bigoted bully whose heroes are Senator Joseph McCarthy and Father Charles Coughlin, Cox’s portrayal makes the audience react to him.

Sadly, despite the presence of its celebrities, That Championship Season often feels lackluster and tiresome.