Denzel and the Bard

From Terry Teachout's review of a new production of Julius Caesar starring Denzel Washington:

According to the posters, Denzel Washington is the star of “Julius Caesar,” which opened Sunday at the Belasco Theatre. The fine young ladies in the balcony signified agreement by squealing when he made his entrance in a sharp-looking business suit, this being a modern-dress version of Shakespeare’s classic tale of dirty work in ancient Rome. Don’t let appearances fool you, though: The real star of this mostly horrible show is Colm Feore, who is high-strung and lustrously precise as Cassius. Next to him, Mr. Washington comes off like a well-meaning amateur, standing stiff as a weathervane and gabbling his way through Brutus’ lines. Sometimes he snaps into focus, but for the most part he stalks haplessly through Daniel Sullivan’s hopelessly confused updating, which is set in some unknown country—perhaps the one where modern-dress Shakespeare productions go to die….

Heh. This doesn't surprise me at all - I thought the same thing of Washington's performance as Don Pedro in Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. (Indeed, I thought all of the Americans in the cast, up to and including Michael Keaton, were completely outclassed by their Brit counterparts.)

I'm not suggesting for an instant that Denzel Washington isn't a good actor. He is. But it would appear he's no Shakesperian.