Frost/Nixon

★★★★★

Ahmanson Theater, 2009

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but the stage version is very good. Oddly enough, while it’s narrated by one of the journalists working with Frost, and is largely told from David Frost’s point of view, it’s really Richard Nixon who ends up being the main character. Frost himself is mainly in it for the ratings (if it does well, it’ll jump-start his career), but Nixon is really in it to rehabilitate his reputation – which, of course, doesn’t end up happening. (“Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”)

The larger-than-life presence of TV is a huge factor as well, with a bank of TV screens frequently upstaging or highlighting the interactions on stage. (For the interview sequences, they actually bring out a pair of TV cameras as if they were filming, and put that picture live onto the screen above the stage.) I’m especially curious to see how well that aspect translates to the film version.