‘Frost/Nixon’: Up close and personal

By Barbara Mackay
Special to The Examiner 11/19/08

WASHINGTON – “Frost/Nixon,” at the Kennedy Center, is a cleverly constructed blend of history and fantasy. It explores the period in 1977 when talk show host David Frost conducted a series of televised interviews with ex-President Richard Nixon, three years after his resignation.

The interviews were initiated by Frost to refresh his sagging television ratings. Nixon agreed to talk because he thought that his appearance on television would persuade the American people to forgive him — and help sell his memoirs.

Alan Cox stars as David Frost in "Frost/Nixon" at the Kennedy Center. -- Courtesy Photo

Many elements work to make this production successful, beginning with Peter Morgan’s skill as a playwright. His Nixon is a complex character: a hard-headed, experienced politician and an insecure, lost soul. Frost is a simpler person, a playboy whose reputation rests on his chats with the likes of the Bee Gees. But despite their differences, both Nixon (Stacy Keach) and Frost (Alan Cox) hunger equally for a positive place in America’s consciousness.

Keach is powerful as Nixon in his many moods, joking and affable or angry or broken. Keach doesn’t try to impersonate Nixon but rather creates the essence of the president, with his hunched shoulders and deep voice. Cox, meanwhile, captures all the insouciance, suavity and street smarts of the amiable Frost.

Director Michael Grandage keeps the pace of “Frost/Nixon” alternating effectively between lightning-fast scenes and slower, more deliberate moments. One of the most fascinating facets of this production is that it illuminates the era when television was just beginning to have the crucial relationship to politics that it has today. That relationship is played out on a huge monitor hanging above the stage. The screen is most telling when it reveals Nixon in a close-up as he admits his true complicity in the Watergate cover-up.

When “Frost/Nixon” ends, there is in fact only one winner even though there are still two men standing, because Morgan doesn’t simply write up what happened in 1977. He takes the facts and transforms them, making “Frost/Nixon” more than a political or historical play, turning it into a rich, multi-layered investigation of character, choice, honesty and accountability.

If you go
“Frost/Nixon”
Where: The Eisenhower Theatre, The Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 1:20 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; through Nov. 30
Info: $25 to $80; 202-467-4600; kennedy-center.org

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