Opening Night

Opening night of Cyrano de Bergerac starring Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner is the star-studded event you’d expect it to be — red carpet, TV crews, young fans, Ben Affleck in the lobby.

And the show? It’s just okay. The actors are wonderful, but the writing just seems so flabby and indulgent. A play about the beauty of language shouldn’t be a license to overwrite, but that’s exactly what this show feels like. I’m sure the style and language made sense in a historical context, but a 2007 Broadway production with movie stars isn’t an academic production by any means, and a little tightening up would have served the actors and audience much better.

(Richard Rodgers Theatre, Manhattan)