Sienna Miller and Jonny Lee Miller make their broadway debut in After Miss Julie, Patrick Marber’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie (1888).  The play is set in the english countryside during 1945.  It is the night of the Labour party’s election victory and there is a celebration at the homestead.  It is here that the parallel lives of the rich and beautiful Miss Julie meet with the chauffeur, John.  They have grown up alongside each other but in truly different ways.  The tale of sex and class has been a common story line throughout history but the passionate twists and turns in Marber’s exquisite work is a masterpiece.  Driven by dialogue, the success of the play comes from the actor’s performance and delivery.  Sienna Miller was satisfying in a predictable way, gorgeous blonde locks and her tiny frame.  As Miss Julie, she had numerous intense moments that were just hairs away from being believable.  The real earthy, raw emotion came from Jonny Lee Miller’s delivery of John, a man of pride who “knows his place” but is riveted by this night, this one night where his fantasy (he calls it “love”) is standing in his face, taunting him, enticing him to strip all boundaries between them bare.  How can this “love” last?

Roundabout Theater company’s After Miss Julie is playing a limited engagement at the American Airlines Theater on 42nd street, with it’s closing night on December 6th 2009.  See it before it is gone.

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