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Judgment at Nuremberg |
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Author: Abby Mann
Reviewer: Carolyn Albert for Theatre Reviews Limited |
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"Judgment at Nuremberg" has been a Teleplay (Playhouse 90) in 1959, an Oscar-winning film two years later, a Teleplay again, and now a stage play. Yet, ABBY MANN's intelligent, well-crafted view of responsibility and human vulnerability still retains all its power to absorb, astonish and deliver an amazing punch to the mind, gut and heart.
  
At first I was reluctant to see "Judgment at Nuremberg" again, and did so only because a dear long-time buddy pushed me to go. I'd seen it in all its earlier incarnations; I'd been to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C. - twice! I kept thinking, "Enough, already!"
However, as soon as the drama began, I was glad I'd chosen to attend. Mann, an honored writer with a penchant for justice, has created a work of dramatic intensity. The trials that Mann chose to dramatize might not, at first glance, seem as important as those of the big guns like Goering, Speer, Hess, or von Ribbentrop, or as dramatic as the trials of the doctors who performed horrifying experiments on unwilling victims. These defendants had been indicted for various crimes - plus one unusual new charge: crimes against humanity, actions so atrocious, their criminality couldn't be denied.
But Mann demonstrates why the trials of judges was so significant. These were the men who had sworn to uphold justice. Without their compliance, other evils might not have been so easily perpetrated. Reportedly, he used but one line from the original "so-called Justice Case" of 1947 in which 14 Nazi judges and other legal officials were tried. That line, uttered by the original presiding American judge in that case was, "In this case, the dagger of the assassin was concealed beneath the robe of the jurist."
Mann's drama takes the form of a search by an unassuming American judge, here named Haywood (GEORGE GRIZZARD), a good man and retired jurist reluctantly impressed by his country into service. As the trial progresses, he realizes that he has a quest, to find out what happened among the seemingly decent people in this city of Nuremberg in this civilized country of Germany.
As a great dramatist, Abby Mann creates a character that was a judge among judges. If judicial acquiescence was the cornerstone in the corrupt Nazi system, then this man was its prime representative. Here is Haywood's "opponent," the defendant, Ernst Janning (MAXIMILIAN SCHELL), a judge of such aristocratic background and exalted judicial reputation that his writings are still used as texts throughout the Western world. What could have moved a man of that stature to participate in the Third Reich?
Courtroom scenes alternate with personal encounters, developing both the trial and Heywood's quest. Haywood will learn slowly, but well. His housekeeper, Mrs. Habelstadt (PATRICIA CONOLLY - truly excellent and memorable), motherly woman who lost both her son and her daughter in the war, will tell him that Hitler did accomplish some good things: before the war there was terrible inflation and hunger; Hitler gave people work and he built the Autobahn. Most revealing is her contradictory denial, a statement echoed throughout Germany: "As for the bad things - we didn't know about such things - and if we did know, what could we do?"
National amnesia is echoed in his meeting with the aristocratic widow whose family home was sequestered as his residence. Mme. Bertholt (MARTHE KELLER - beautifully convincing, although a mite youthful for the role) is the widow of one of Hitler's generals who had been hung like a criminal rather than given the military execution - shot by a firing squad - a breach in protocol that leaves her furious. Yet she insists: "We must forget if we are to go on living."
KELLIE OVERBEY was sincere as Janning's daughter Thea, telling her father how postwar anti-German sentiment in New York ended her music studies there, her bitterness emphasizing the irony of this reversal of anti-Semitism.
Supporting roles in the trial scenes were disappointing. As prosecutor, ROBERT FOXWORTH was credible and creditable but lacked fire. JOSEPH WISEMAN as an elderly jurist, a mentor of Janning's, is a respected actor. At the performance I attended, he went up on his lines, but recovered with the poise of a stage veteran.
Witness testimony that should have been riveting fell flat when given by MICHAEL MASTRO as a man who had been sterilized as one of 400,000 for political reasons - ostensibly because he was mentally slow, but actually because his parents were Communists. HEATHER RANDALL was pitifully dull as a young girl whose elderly Jewish landlord had been railroaded in a sensational case of racial mixing. As the pivotal case against Janning, this role required a deeper study.
Until Schell and Grizzard make their concluding statements, the trial did not seem as feverish as it had been in the film. Although MICHAEL HAYDEN seemed faultless as the defense attorney, the shadow of our memory of Maximilian Schell's award-winning performance was overpowering. One impediment might have been that Hayden opened his arguments speaking in German aided by a translator; soon, the translation was obliterated and he spoke English - but with an irritating German accent. Why? I think this choice diminished his power.
The unquestionably strongest performances came from the two opponents, both judges: one judging, one being judged. Both Grizzard and Schell were thrilling - exhibiting two very different styles of acting. Schell's Janning is like a simmering pot, the lid shut tight. We know that sooner or later he will explode, and when he does, it's a millennial display of fireworks. Schell defined Janning's torture as a man who knew he was doing wrong and perpetrated injustice for what he mistakenly believed was a greater good at that time. Once again, Schell demonstrated the actor's power to inhabit a role with convincing vitality that enhances that role as never before.
Speaking through Janning, Abby Mann indites the world. "If we didn't know, it's because we didn't want to know," Janning proclaims. Anyone who read "Mein Kampf," heard Hitler's broadcasts, knew of the various pacts made with Hitler by Russia or the Vatican, all industrialists who did business with Germany, all knew but chose to turn away.
Before passing sentence on the judges, Haywood is reminded by a General (JACK DAVIDSON) stationed in Nuremberg that the enemy that emerged after WWII is Russian Communism. He is warned that it wouldn't be smart to antagonize the Germans when they are needed as a buffer against this new enemy.
Under the excellent direction of JOHN TILLINGER, Grizzard takes the stance of the average man in extraordinary times who must rise to the occasion. In rendering the decision of the court (which is not even a unanimous decision of the Tribunal), Grizzard displays honesty and fairness under pressure. He observes that the defendants committed murder for the good of their country and now it has been suggested that "We let the murderers go for the good of ours."
On an allegorical level, this is a confrontation by an average (American) good man vs. a corrupt (German) great man. You know which will prevail; that part is history. Mann transforms it into drama. The question of survival at what cost will always be compelling. Abby Mann has created great art, a piece of theater not to be missed.
Technical support was of the highest order. The setting (by JAMES NOONE) of black marble squares also serve as screens for the projection (by ELAINE J. McCARTHY) of faces - victims who look down upon the proceedings as witnesses. Lighting by BRIAN MacDEVITT moves the action smoothly. Clear sound and effective original music by DAVID VAN TIEGHEM heighten the action.
One bad choice: a Holocaust film sequence presented during the trial was projected across a molded doorway so that it was nearly unintelligible. If this was intended to soften the harsh images, it was a nebbish idea; either do it, or don't.
Congratulations once again to the National Actors' Theatre for its courage in presenting this drama. By luck, after the performance, I was able to remain for a 40-minute panel with two main speakers, a journalist and a teacher. Both were fascinating and, even after the 2 ½½ hour production, I could easily have remained longer.
Legends and luck have kept this 1933 Academy Award nominated film musical on the edge of a heartbeat. When it was adopted for the stage in 1980, the producer was David Merrick, a legend unto himself. The Director/Choreographer, Gower Champion, was ill and by one of those strange quirks of fate, died on the day of the show's opening, August 25, 1980. The producer kept this information quiet until it was announced from the stage at bows. The publicity generated by this strange coincidental birth of a show/death of its creative force would help propel it into an eight-year run. Of course, it didn't hurt that the show was a looker too. It won the Tony Award as best musical for 1980. Expect it to win again as Best Musical Revival of the year, keeping the legend going, the public happy, and the backers soothed.
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Produced by The National Actors Theatre: Tony Randall, Founder and Artistic Director; in association with Earle I. Mack. Manny Kladitis, Executive Producer.
CAST: Maximilian Schell, George Grizzard, Michael Hayden, Robert Foxworth, Marthe Keller, Joseph Wiseman, Michael Mastro, Fred Burrell, Patricia Conolly, Jack Davidson, Peter Hermann, Jurian Hughes, Peter Francis James, Ty Jones, Susan Kellermann, Peter Kybart, Philip Lestrange, Peter Maloney, Kellie Overbey, Heather Randall, Reno Roop, and Henry Strozier.
Theater: Longacre Theatre, 220 West 48th Street.
Schedule: Tuesday - Saturday at 8, Wednesday & Saturday at 2, Sunday at 3.
Tickets: $29.50-75. Student rush with ID- $10. (All tickets subject to added $1.25 Shubert Facility Fee.)
Audience: All intelligent school-age children and up.
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