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Nixon On Stage Or Screen: Your Choice

Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center

Stacy Keach stars as Richard Nixon in "Frost/ Nixon" at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center through Sunday.

By KATHY L. GREENBERG

Tribune correspondent

Published: February 12, 2009

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TAMPA - A rare opportunity has presented itself: "Frost/Nixon" will be at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and in movie theaters at the same time. It's a chance to compare and contrast two versions of the same story that captivated the nation in 1977.

Peter Morgan based his Tony-Award-winning play on a series of television interviews that British journalist David Frost conducted with former president Richard Nixon. Well into the nearly 29-hour-long face-off, Nixon sort of, kind of, mostly apologized for betraying the American public in the Watergate scandal.

Thirty years ago, this was jaw-dropping news, not to mention as riveting as the proverbial train wreck. Morgan harnessed that drama and created an accessible, modern interpretation.

"Obviously there are people who remember watching those interviews, when Nixon came out and made the statements that he did," said Arielle Tepper Madover, one of the original producers of the show. "Speaking as someone younger, I think we all feel a lot of similarities between what happened then and what goes on now in our government. The timing of the show is perfect, falling between how people felt about the Bush years and going into the Obama administration."

The show premiered at London's Donmar Warehouse in 2006, then moved to the West End and finally made its way to Broadway, all within the span of a year. Its on-stage success inspired the Oscar-nominated movie starring Frank Langella, who originated the role of Nixon. Stacy Keach is Nixon in the upcoming production at TBPAC.

Morgan has taken some guff for his historical inaccuracies, but then he never intended to make a documentary.

"The play as we produced it was not supposed to be a piece of history. It was a fictional account of what happened. We've never said, 'Here are the interviews live on stage.' I understand people who were there at the time would feel that this isn't how it happened. But in a theatrical retelling, our play does a really good job," Madover said.

The stage and screen versions naturally have parallel story lines. It's the differences that beg for analysis. Film allows for special effects that live theater can't accommodate. But, as Madover pointed out, movies can't conjure the magic of live theater.

"There's something spectacular about the staged production that brings you into the story and makes you feel part of a thriller," Madover said.