SOURCE: Isherwood, Charles. “Public's Julius Caesar Squanders Wright Stuff.” Variety 380, no. 2 (28 August-3 September 2000): 48, 56.

In the following review, Isherwood offers a mixed appraisal of Julius Caesar as directed by Barry Edelstein. Isherwood comments that the production suffered from a failure to create a sense of gravity, and contends that Jeffrey Wright's praiseworthy performance of Marc Antony was the only redeemable aspect of the production.

If Al Gore possessed a mere fraction of the oratorical charisma of the young actor Jeffrey Wright he might easily have KO'd George W. in the battle of the big speeches. Delivering one of Shakespeare's most celebrated monologues, Mark Antony's eulogy for his murdered leader (“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears …”), Wright instantly ignites the Public theater's otherwise tepid new production of Julius Caesar, the Bard's hot-blooded examination of political skullduggery in ancient Rome.

Endowed with a rich, resonant baritone and the intelligence and...