“Corruption,” JT Rogers’ sweet new phone hacking play, takes place the weekend of Rebekah Brooks’ wedding. In a village in the English countryside, a flame-haired power broker and one of Rupert Murdoch's favorite tabloid editors attracted key figures in British politics to her celebration.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Conservative successor, David Cameron, are also there. But Brooks (Saffron Burroughs) finds herself isolated after a conversation with her unattractive boss, Rupert's son, James (Seth Numrich). He informs her that television and new media are currently the focus of her company.
“Newspapers are relics,” says James. So when he told her she was the new CEO of News International, the British newspaper group owned by Murdoch, his disdain was already evident. congratulation?
In any case, it would be on Brooks' watch that numerous scandals erupted with revelations that his journalists had secretly obtained voicemail messages from celebrities and politicians, as well as missing children who were later found dead. Several arrests followed on charges of phone hacking, police corruption and perversion of justice. Rupert Murdoch has closed News of the World, his best-selling Sunday tabloid newspaper. Through it all, he remains loyal to Brooks.
The scandal made jaw-dropping reading as news stories unfolded in real time. But as a play, “Corruption” is unconvincing. It's counterintuitive, given the inherent drama of crime, cover-ups, appearances (or not), and clashes of personalities. There are also risks, including for the well-being of democracy, where one media mogul has too much influence in shaping culture.
As the scandal grows, Labor member Tom Watson (Toby Stevens) is the central figure. (Murdoch, as it is often said, is invisible.) Crumpled and surrounded, Watson is determined to expose a wide-ranging covert operation of surveillance, blackmail, and secret gathering. Meanwhile, the police are strangely curious about the extensive records of a private investigator who knows about the News of the World's phone hacking.
Watson teams up with lawyer Charlotte Harris (Sepideh Moafi, bringing an aching warmth). journalists Nick Davies (T. Ryder Smith) and Martin Hickman (Sanjit De Silva); Max Mosley (Michael Siberry, wonderfully snobbish), a wealthy one-time target of the newspaper who is willing to spend big bucks to exact revenge; and Labor MP Chris Bryant (K. Todd Freeman, with welcome energy), who joins the cause despite his dislike of Watson. By reporting for the tabloids, they risk their own safety and the safety of their families.
“Corruption,” directed by Bartlett Sher for Lincoln Center Theater, opened at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater on Monday, the day Murdoch turned 93. But the ominous thrum at the heart of the conspiracy has here been silenced by the barrage of information coming our way. : On the stage, on the hooks of the screen hanging above it, on the huge wall above the stage. Should a large portion of the play be conveyed through video and projected text? (Sets by Michael Yeargan and projections by 59 Productions.)
It feels undermined by the busyness of the show itself. Even at the last moment when the actors take their bows, they are excited by the projection. That is, a photo of the real person the character is based on, captioned with their name. In what should be a performer's moment, these fleeting images demand the audience's immediate attention.
The play was inspired by the 2012 book “Dial M for Murdoch: News Corporation and the Corruption of Britain” by Watson and Hickman. The book is so comprehensive that it includes a list of “drama characters” as a reference for the reader. It's a chronicle too complex to be easily adapted into a drama.
This is an obstacle that Rogers (“Oslo”) cannot find his way through. However, he has been extensively simplified. For example, the team of New York Times reporters is represented by just one tough guy, Jo Becker (Eleanor Handley). Rogers also created a scene where Brooks and her husband Charlie (the affable and funny John Behlmann) meet a wary surrogate mother (Robyn Kerr) carrying their child.
But with a throat-clearing first half full of exposition, “Corruption” struggles to tap into the visceral and help us feel what’s human about the story. More fundamentally, it does not lead us through a maze of events, characters, and entities in a way that tempts us to follow.
Hanging in the balance is a lucrative TV deal that Murdoch's News Corp. desperately wants the British government to approve. But I'm not confident that audiences, even those primed by “Succession” to become emotionally invested in the mystery of a corporate takeover, will understand its significance amid the richness of the play.
There's a spark of life throughout “Corruption,” and Dylan Baker does a double take as the two villains. But swagger stalks the play from the beginning, and everything feels very distant. You are so entangled in the thicket of information that you cannot hack it.
Corruption
At the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater in Manhattan through April 14; lct.org. Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes.