WIJD

What Is Jesus Doing...

"As an exceptionally beautiful young man, Victor Garber played Jesus in the film “Godspell” in 1973, where he wore a Superman T-shirt and had a heart painted on his forehead. In the film, Garber’s disciples didn’t seem crazy, just in thrall to their leader’s charisma. He was a new kind of musical star, not macho and aggressive, but soft to the eye and maybe to the touch. Thirty-seven years later, the esteemed stage and television performer (he was a regular on “Alias”) has matured into a distinguished older man who could play F.D.R. in a revival of “Sunrise at Campobello.” But until some clever producer sets that up, Garber’s on view in the current revival of Noël Coward’s 1939 comedy, “Present Laughter.” Garber plays Garry Essendine, a self-obsessed actor on the verge of a midlife crisis who is trying to shed a number of emotional entanglements even as he takes more on. The part is as far away from what Garber generally projects in his work—decency, compassion, strong support for his female co-stars—as his lovely Jesus, portrayed so long ago."

Hinton Als, The New Yorker, January 18, 2010