Red Tickets
Red is the dramatic new play by A-list Hollywood screenwriter and playwright John Logan. To many aspiring writers, John Logan may be best known for scripting The Aviator, Any Given Sunday, Sweeny Todd, and for co-writing Gladiator, but Logan first started out as a playwright in Chicago before breaking into feature films.
Red is the story of Russian artist, Mark Rothko, whose work was considered abstract expressionist. Rothko is played by acclaimed British actor Alfred Molina, who had featured roles in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Boogie Nights, and who also starred as Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2. Molina said he agreed to star in the play when he got to the 24th page of the script.
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What makes Red unique is along with the dramatic story, we see Rothko and his protégé creating paintings on stage. “You actually get to see art being made,” Molina said. “The physical labor that goes into creating art, I think that’s something that audiences haven’t seen very often.”
To Stage and Screen and Back
“My roots are as playwright,” John Logan said. “My youth was spent going back and forth on the train to the half-priced ticket booth watching Broadway shows from the time I was twelve. [Broadway] has always been a dream of mine.”
John Logan was a playwright in Illinois for years before he got the fateful phone call from Oliver Stone, who wanted to make his screenplay about football, Any Given Sunday, which starred Al Pacino and Jamie Foxx. Logan also wrote an acclaimed movie for HBO about the making of, and controversy over Citizen Kane called RKO 281, for which Logan was nominated for an Emmy.
Logan also co-wrote Gladiator, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the film. He was also nominated for the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and directed by Martin Scorsese. Logan’s other screenplays include Star Trek: Nemesis, the remake of The Time Machine, The Last Samurai starring Tom Cruise, and Sweeney Todd.
Dark Red
Like many great artists, Rothko is a tough character, and as Logan said, “I’m never concerned about making the audience cheer for a character. My job is to present a character and explain them honestly; let them live to serve the play. Frankly, I’m attracted to dark, interesting, thorny characters. In my film work, Howard Hughes, Sweeney Todd, I’m not drawn to sweetness and light and domestic tranquility.
Red won the Tony award for Best Play, and Eddie Redmayne, who plays Rothko’s assistant, won Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play. Red has also won Drama League Awards for Distinguished Production of a Play, and Alfred Molina won Distinguished Performance. Red also won a Drama Desk award for Outstanding Play.
