Review: Broadway's strange season gets a boost from 7 acting powerhouses

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Broadway, top-heavy with musical parodies and attention-grabbing revivals, is having a strange season by all accounts.But actors from all quarters of the profession are still flocking to New York for the kind of substantive material that is becoming harder to come by on screen.It’s thrilling to see first-rate talents, such as Adrien Brody in “The Fear of 13” and Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in a stage version of the film “Dog Day Afternoon,” test their mettle in different mediums.

But it’s just as satisfying to watch Olympian stage athletes such as John Lithgow (“Giant”) and Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf (in “Death of a Salesman”) set even more formidable challenges for themselves.The play is still the thing for these powerhouse performers, even if drama as good as Arthur Miller’s masterpiece is a rare occurrence in any age.But these actors are after more than a prestige showcase.

They’re looking for an artistic lifeline, a way of connecting themselves and their audience with a tradition that extends our collective horizon and encourages us to take a longer view.The daredevil intensity that won Adrien Brody two Oscars translates forcefully to the stage in his Broadway debut in “The Fear of 13.” Reprising his Olivier-nominated London performance, Brody plays Nick Yarris, the convicted murderer who spent more than 21 years on death row before being exonerated for a crime he didn’t commit.In David Sington’s 2015 documentary of the same title, Yarris himself relates his tale, keeping those of us unfamiliar with the outcome of his epic struggle to clear his name in taut suspense until the very end.

The play by Lindsey Ferrentino (who wrote the book for the musical “The Queen of Versailles”) takes a different tack, populating the stage with the characters we come to know in the film only through Yarris’ vivid descriptions.The effect is s...