Though J.T. Rogers is an American playwright, his new work Corruption at Lincoln Center’s Off-Broadway Mitzi Newhouse Theater, has a distinct British feel to it. And it’s not just because of the subject matter—the phone-hacking scandal of 2010-11 that temporarily damaged Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and forced the closing of his sensation-seeking English tabloid, News of the World. Corruption examines a political issue and how it impacts society as a whole, not just in one country but the entire world. The British tend to tackle contemporary issues in their theater while Americans are mostly content with escapist musicals or dramas of personal or family dynamics. Rogers has become the preeminent American dramatist addressing such political topics. His multiple award-winning Oslo (2016) chronicled the complex negotiations leading to the 1990s peace accords between Israel and Palestine, while Blood and Gifts (2010) shone a spotlight on the international struggle for power in Afghanistan in the 1980s. (Both were also presented at the Newhouse and directed by Bartlett Sher, who stages Corruption.)
Based on “Dial M for Murdoch: News Corporation and the Corruption of Britain” by Tom Watson and Martin Hickman, both characters here, tackles a trend which may have an even greatest impact than those scrutinized in his earlier plays. As Murdoch and his son James use their massive media might to acquire even more influence with the purchase of Sky Television, member of Parliament Watson, rival reporter Hickman and several others seek to expose and punish the gigantic corporation for their unscrupulous use of hacking phones, blackmail, and perverting the truth. As Watson and his allies soon discover, Murdoch’s minions can twist the facts to their advantage with little consequence since they have bought off huge numbers of the British police and politicians.
Even after a qualified victory with the News of the World folding, the play delivers an ambiguous conclusion, foreshadowing Murdoch’s expanding his reach to our shores with his gobbling up of the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, and Fox News. The ultimate message is Murdoch and his ilk including a certain former president now trying to recapture the White House, have made this a post-truth world and a truly fair and balanced media is the subject of a constant battle.
Rogers’s script encompasses dozens of characters and locales, endowing them with a specificity and detail that keeps the play from becoming a dry documentary. Watson is rumpled, complex figure, formerly the political attack dog from Prime Minister Gordon Brown, he now is the crusader against the dragon of Murdoch’s NewsCorp. His main antagonist is not Rupert Murdoch (who does not appear onstage), or even his son James, but Rebekah Brooks, the shark-like editor of the News and CEO of Murdoch’s tabloids who will go as low as possible for higher circulation. Toby Stephens and Saffron Burrows create formidable and gripping opposites in this pitched combat on the field of journalism. Stephens beautifully embodies Watson’s ambivalence and his slow-burning indignation at the corruption he finds in Murdoch’s monolithic enterprise. Burrows is the perfect foil, a machine driven by ambition, who even treats her infertility issues and hiring of a pregnancy surrogate as a business matter to be managed. But she also lets small cracks show in her otherwise invulnerable facade.
The large supporting cast takes on multiple roles with dexterity. Many have outstanding moments. Michael Siberry is droll as a rich anti-Murdoch donor with an unusual fetish. Dylan Baker coolly embodies both the upper-crust attorney for Murdoch and the Cockney criminal who carries out the company’s dirty work. Seth Numrich brilliantly creates two distinct personalities as the smarmy James Murdoch and the sniveling editor Andy Coulson, one of the few News of the World culprits to be indicted—but he did not serve any jail time. Robyn Kerr provides emotional depth as both Watson’s worried wife and Brooks’ suspicious surrogate. K. Todd Freeman bristles brightly as an opposition politician. John Bellman has some funny moments as Brooks’s obsequious but elegant husband and as one of Watson’s assistants. Sanjet De Silva as Hickman and T. Ryder Smith as reporter Nick Davies also give sharp portraits.
Bartlett Sher stages this wordy, idea-dense play like an action thriller. There is a lot going on and much information to remember, but thanks to Sher’s fluid and sure-footed direction, there is no confusion as to who is who or what is what. Michael Yeargan’s arena-like set is transformed by Donald Holder’s versatile lighting and by rolling tables and chairs into several restaurants and pubs, committee meeting rooms, elegant apartments and homes and the House of Commons. Projections and videos of 59 Productions shown on the back wall and a bank of TV monitors provide context for this magnificent multi-media production.
