Talk Radio

photo: Joan Marcus

I was never all that wild about Eric Bogosian's peek at a shock jock behind his microphone: it seems to me a shallow character study that says the main character, an abrasive radio talk show host, spews abuse at his listeners because, surprise, he hates himself and has a God complex. Busy with a lot of dramatic business that now feels dated in a more media-saturated and more shockproof culture that has mainstreamed talk radio, this Broadway revival lacks the original's illusion of socio-political urgency. However, it does have Liev Schreiber, and if you're going to have someone star in a character study you'd have a hard time doing better than that. Schreiber plays a good deal of the sadness just below the surface in the volatile, edgy shockjock, and he peels back layers as he gets deeper into the performance. By his final monologue, he makes you believe you've seen a man almost eat himself alive with disgust. See this for that.