Let’s not judge Ethan Hawke solely on the basis of “Clive”: For two decades, he’s been a frequent presence on New York stages, both intimate and large, venturing into classics and championing new plays. Here, excerpted from The Post’s archives, is a look at earlier performances.
“Ivanov” (Classic Stage Company, 2012) ★★★ 1/2
It’s easy to imagine Chekhov’s depressive title character as “a Russian Hamlet,” but Hawke took a different route. “Under a shock of permanent bed hair, Hawke’s Ivanov isn’t limp and passive, but neurotic and irritable.” That memorable portrayal drove an “energetic, sharp revival.”
“Blood From a Stone” (Acorn Theatre, 2011) ★★
Tommy Nohilly’s overwrought working-class-family drama lacked “both wit and traction,” but Hawke gave “his best performance in years” as “a pill-popping former Marine now looking for a purpose in life.”
“The Winter’s Tale” (BAM, 2009) ★★★★
Hawke was “particularly terrific” in this Sam Mendes staging, in two parts of the Bard, “hilariously [playing] the rogue Autolycus as a Bob Dylan-esque troubadour.”
“Things We Want” (Acorn Theatre, 2007) ★1/2
Hawke helmed Jonathan Marc Sherman’s dark comedy for the New Group, co-starring Zoe Kazan. It wasn’t “convincing for a single second.”
“The Coast of Utopia” (Vivian Beaumont Theatre, 2006-07) ★★★★
Hawke played “the wayward spiritual father of anarchism” in all three installments of Tom Stoppard’s Tony winner, set among 19th-century Russian intelligentsia. He “has never been better than here as Bakunin, a cadging, shining-eyed monster of opportunistic anarchy.”
“Hurlyburly” (Acorn Theatre, 2005) ★★
In the New Group’s revival of David Rabe’s gritty tale of the Hollywood underbelly, Hawke, “onstage for most of the play’s running time, has his powerful moments, but lacks the charisma and intensity necessary to make us sustain interest in his repellent character. ”
“The Seagull” (Lyceum Theatre, 1992) ★★★ 1/2
For his Broadway debut, Hawke was part of a “really excellent ensemble” that “sensitively” played mismatched lovers as if they had been “choreographed by a half-smiling Ingmar Bergman one Swedish summer white night.”