As the New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood puts it, in a review of Broadway play “Thurgood” a one-man play staring celebrated actor Laurence Fishburne as the legendary Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, “It’s a safe bet that “Thurgood” is the only play on Broadway at which the announcement of a famous legal verdict is greeted by a burst of heartfelt applause.”

It’s exciting to see an excellent one-person show with an actor who is ideally suited for the role. One-person plays are sadly much too rare. Finding an outstanding drama and exactly the right actor is even more rare. Hal Holbrook’s “Mark Twain Tonight” and Sam Waterston’s “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” and Lonette McKee as Billie Holiday in “‘Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill’‘ come to mind. Now we can add Laurence Fishburne to that roster. The New York Times reviewer continues:

Does that make it sound less than thrilling? Well, yes, this solo show starring Laurence Fishburne as the venerated Thurgood Marshall is a no-frills documentary in the first person, essentially an opportunity to watch a movie star deliver a history lecture. But since Mr. Fishburne is an effortlessly compelling actor, and the history in question is charged with a moral urgency that still resonates today, “Thurgood,” which opened Wednesday night at the Booth Theater, is surprisingly absorbing, at times even stirring.

For audiences nostalgic for the progressive era in American history in which Marshall played a crucial role, the show may actually feel like a sweet escape to happier times, every bit as cheering (and a whole lot more edifying) than the giddiest of Broadway musicals. At the end of the play Marshall recites from a Langston Hughes poem opening with the following line: “Oh, let America be America again.” If those words elicit either a sorrowful sigh or a stirring of fierce hope in your heart, you may find this superficially dry evening of theater as restorative as a long soak in a bubble bath.

Source: Thurgood Review - New York Times

Photo credit: New York Times, New York Newsday

In a recent interview, Laurence Fishburne discussed “Thurgood”

See also:

• Laurence Fishburne is ‘Thurgood’ on Broadway Spring 2008
• Next on His Docket: A Supreme Challenge
• Fishburne Does Thurgood Justice
• Variety: Thurgood
• Laurence Fishburne Celebrates Thurgood Marshall on Stage
• Portraying Thurgood Marshall: Tonys bait for Fishburne?

Tricia Walsh-Smith, actress and playwright, gave us a new phrase and a new phenomena; the “YouTube divorce.”

Well, somehow we did not think she would be a one-hit wonder.

As she divorces her multimillionaire husband, Philip Smith, president of the Shubert Organization which owns seventeen Broadway theaters, she continues to turn a legal proceeding into a viral video phenomena with her second video, “YouTube Superstar Tricia Walsh-Smith”… “a response to the responses.”

“How dare you! I am speaking my truth!” she says, and quite a bit more….

Tricia Walsh-Smith and her YouTube divorce saga were recently featured on ABC’s Good Morning America.

While some believe Walsh-Smith’s video was a stunt designed to put pressure on her husband during their divorce proceedings, the actress said that sentiment is untrue.

“I don’t think lawyers and eviction papers — being thrown out with debt is a stunt,” said Walsh-Smith, who began to cry as she described the situation with her husband. “That’s kind of a really stupid thing for anybody to think I’d do this as a stunt. It was either me or him.”

Walsh-Smith said she needed to make sure people knew she needed help.

“What was I going to do? Go live in the park?”

She did admit the video and its public showing was theatrical.

“I knew that I had to get attention,” she said. “This was my survival. And I know that to get attention you are sensational and funny. I wasn’t mean and I edited it. I got the woman with the camera; I edited and I was careful.”

Source: Mr. & Mrs. Smith’s Divorce Goes to ‘YouTube’

Will playwright and actress Tricia Walsh-Smith’s tirade against her multi-millionaire husband, Philip Smith, president of the Schubert Organization which owns most of Broadway’s theaters, spawn a new category of YouTube Awards?

Some prominent New York divorce lawyers couldn’t think of another case where a spouse _ in this instance, the wife of a major Broadway theater operator _ had taken to YouTube to spill the secrets of a marriage in an apparent effort to gain leverage and humiliate the other side.

“This is absolutely a new step, and I think it’s scary,” said Bonnie Rabin, a divorce lawyer who has handled high-profile cases. “People used to worry about getting on Page Six (the gossip page of the New York Post). But this? It brings the concept of humiliation to a whole new level.”

In a tearful and furious YouTube video with close to 150,000 hits to date, former actress and playwright (”Bonkers”) Tricia Walsh-Smith lashes out against her husband, Philip Smith, president of the Shubert Organization, the largest theater owner on Broadway.

She goes through their wedding album on camera, describing family members as “bad” or “evil” or “nasty,” and talks about how her husband is allegedly trying to evict her from their luxury apartment. She also makes embarrassing claims regarding their intimate life, and then calls his office on camera to repeat those claims to a stunned assistant.

Famed divorce attorney Raoul Felder, called for comment on the video, termed the whole thing “funny, but there’s also sadness. This is a victim who is holding her head up. I think she comes off well.”

Then again, Felder allowed that he is now representing Walsh-Smith _ though he wasn’t when she made the YouTube video.

As for Smith, his office said he had no comment and his lawyers said they didn’t, either _ “other than that we’re kind of appalled.” (More.)

Trica Walsh-Smith performing in her play, “Addictions” (2006)

Read more.

Here is Tricia Walsh Smith’s YouTube video which, to date, has received more than 200,000 views and garnered more than 20 video responses.

UPDATE: Tricia Walsh Smith removed the original YouTube divorce video and replaced it with this updated one: “Tricia Walsh-Smith, the ORIGINAL Video plus NEW footage!”