At the time, Kline had recently bowled over Broadway as the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance–a role, which however swashbuckling, was basically a one-note tour-de-force. In the throes of battle fatigue, Kline as Bluntschli would fall asleep standing up at one moment and then, like a college professor, rattle off grim facts of war the next. My only reservation really has nothing to do with this enchanting production, but stems from my keen memory of Kevin Kline’s amazing performance as Bluntschli (a character seen by some as Western drama’s first antihero) in Circle in the Square’s 1985 revival of Arms and the Man. The gorgeous Finneran, one of Broadway’s hottest actors, is charming as an aristocratic young woman uncertain about whom she loves best: the dashing but self-important Sergius, or the equally robust but maddeningly matter-of-fact Bluntschli. The Roundabout’s wonderful cast–led by Henry Czerny as Bluntschli, Katie Finneran as the ever-so-spoiled Raina, and Paul Michael Valley as Sergius, the man Raina has loved more in word than in deed–is elegantly directed by Roger Rees. And so Shaw’s romantic satire on love, war, and honor is off and gushing in the Roundabout Theater Company’s stellar revival of the classic play, which officially opened at the Gramercy Theatre on February 10.įirst performed in London in 1894, Arms and the Man is a frothy but nevertheless thought-provoking precursor to Shaw’s more serious plays: e.g., Major Barbara, Pygmalion, and Saint Joan. To make matters worse, Bluntschli is a Swiss mercenary fighting for the Serbian side against Sergius and the Bulgarians.

“Oh, oh, if you have a drop of Bulgarian blood in you, you will worship him when he comes home!”īut as war rages in the streets outside the roomy Petkoff villa, Captain Bluntschli practically tumbles into Raina’s bedroom, alternately snaring and repelling the affections of the radiantly willful young woman. “You kept Sergius waiting a year before you would be betrothed to him,” says Catherine Petkoff to her fickle daughter, Raina, early in George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man.

Bernard shaw arms and the man