Grounded

Grounded is playing at the Public Theater located at 525 Lafayette Street. The play runs one hour twenty minutes with no intermission. The show closes on May 24, 2015.

Julie Taymor is the director. She won two Tony Awards and was nominated for two Tony Awards in 1998 for The Lion King. Julie won for best director and costume design. She is the first women to win a Tony for Best Musical Director. In 2002 she was nominated for an Academy Award for best original score for “Frida”.

Anne Hathaway was nominated for an Academy Award in 2008 for Rachael Getting Married. For her role in Les Miserables she was nominated and won over thirty different awards, including an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA for best supporting actress.

Ricardo Hernandez is the scenic designer. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Parade in 1999.

The stage is bare except for sand that is in waves, there is a full mirror in the back of the stage. When the lights go out and then come on again, The Pilot (Anne Hathaway) in in the middle of the stage with a helmet on, sand pouring on her head. The sand around her has not been touched. She is an Air Force pilot that loves her job. Pilot finds the job accelerating.

On leave she gets pregnant. She won’t have an abortion so she leaves the air force and get married. Being in retirement is too much for her. She misses the thrill. When she goes back to the air force she wants her old plane back to fly. She is informed those planes are retired, we use drones. It’s not as exciting as flying a plane, you sit in front of a computer screen watching the enemy over an area being observed. So she moved to Los Vegas near where the base is. Twelve hour shifts take its toll on her.

What happens along the way you will have to see the show.

The stage is in a u shape, she pauses in all three directions. Visual effects are used mostly to convey where you. A chair is also used. Things come from the ceiling; visions are projected off the mirror.

Anne Hathaway amazed me with her range of emotion. She was amazing.

There was a soldier in the audience. She gave him a hug and the pulled him on stage. He is in the Army. When I spoke to him he said he was from Texas. He said New York is something else.

This is a captivating show to see.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich