Saturday, November 2, 2013

Stephen Lang in Beyond Glory

Stephen Lang, award winning playwright, stage and screen star, brings the stories of eight different men to the stage in a one-man show that will reach into your very soul and keep you thoroughly spellbound:  Beyond Glory, adapted from Larry Smith’s stirring book. 

Commended for film portrayals of Babe Ruth to Stonewall Jackson to AVATAR’s Col. Quaritch, Lang began his career on Broadway and maintained a managing role at the Actor’s Theatre.  It is through Lang’s stage adaptation of Beyond Glory that he has reached his most memorable, his most brilliant work. Beyond Glory enjoyed a celebrated run on Broadway and in Chicago’s Goodman Theater; Lang is now taking it coast to coast.

Beyond Glory presents the stories of eight veterans from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, rendering first hand accounts of valor which resulted in the nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor.  As a tribute to fallen soldiers, Lang performed the show on military bases, and gave a command performance on the floor of Congress with Medal of Honor recipient Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii in attendance.

The oral histories of these eight men are brought to life through Lang’s commanding performance, with a backdrop of video screens which occasionally evoke the turmoil of combat. Lang subtly moves through each man’s story with a slight alteration of posture and vocal coloring to suggest a new personality.  This illusory magic suggests the magnitude of this performer, the brilliance of his talent that will light up your stage with one of the most memorable presentations you will ever have the honor of presenting.

"Mr. Lang's one-man play is no simple-minded piece of flag-waving.  It is an unsparingly direct portrait of men at war, pushed into narrow corners and faced with hard choices. It is also one of the richest, most complex pieces of acting I've seen in my theatergoing life" - Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal

“Adapted by Mr. Lang from a book by the journalist Larry Smith containing the oral histories of veterans of several wars, Beyond Glory allows the voices of servicemen to be heard without the filter of the conventions of drama or the prerogatives of deadline-driven journalism. Its sobriety, simplicity and lack of histrionics are the show’s signal strengths." - Charles Isherwood, The New York Times

”What makes a reluctant warrior - a man able to kill for his country and come out a hero?
It’s a question that gets answered with remarkable poignancy in Beyond Glory, Stephen Lang’s stirring examination of the lives of eight men who received the Medal of Honor for their bravery in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.  Lang, who adapted the evening from the book Beyond Glory by Larry Smith, lets these military men speak for themselves in this spare yet emotional 80-minute evening of theatre." - Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press

"Recipients of the Medal of Honor, each of these men went above and beyond the call of duty to a place where bravery and humility meet. In a stunning tour de force performance, actor Stephen Lang leads us on a journey through WWII, Korea and Vietnam, taking us to a realm beyond." - Broadway.com

“Stephen Lang has always had that fanatical glint in his eye… Inasmuch as he is the sole actor [in Beyond Glory] the glint gets to occupy the stage unchallenged for 80 heroic minutes [as he presents] eight heroes who survived three wars (in Europe, Korea, and Vietnam) and represent different ethnic groups, social strata, and regions.  Ages and accents also differ from one hero to the next. Lang manages all this impeccably, finding both the differences and the similarities among these men. He has idiosyncratic readings that fall compellingly into place; dynamic range and, where needed, speed of delivery that are enormous; also gestures and facial expressions that are arrestingly idiomatic.” - John Simon, Bloomberg

Stephen Lang in Beyond Glory

Saturday, November 9 at 7:30PM
Tickets: , , and ... 10% Discount for Active Military & Veterans. Half-Price Student Discounts in the Balcony


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