Based on talk show host David Frost's television interviews with Richard Nixon, the play pits an ambitious celebrity against a disgraced former president out to restore his reputation. Nixon is intelligent and shrewd, but has profound emotional needs. Because Frost's career is shaky and he is short of money, the confrontation promises to be sizzling, but the play spends the first act sputtering and slouching to get to the big moment. Those of us who remember the Nixon years also remember that millions of people watched these interviews. Would Nixon acknowledge wrongdoing and apologize? Frost sets out to get that apology. Nixon, a lot smarter than Frost, toys with him in the first two taping sessions.
In the best-written and best-played scene in the play, a drunken Nixon calls Frost the night before the third and final taping. The astute ex-president sees that both men come from similar backgrounds: their families provided little money and less affection, and the sons were social misfits. Both men now need the limelight desperately; only one can win and the alternative is what Nixon calls "the wilderness." The final battle is joined. Frost / Nixon tickets are a must purchase, from the silver screen to the stage, Frost / Nixon delivers!
