I saw La Bete (Broadway) on 10/14/10. Overall, I'd say it was a 4-star rating. I'd summarize it by saying “Mark Rylance gives a tour-de-force performance unrivaled on Broadway at present. Don't miss him!”

I had a good time and left the show feeling sated and tickled. I'd describe the show as very funny, smart, and unique. Valere's opening monolgue was a highlight of the show because there is nothing like it in theater when performed well. If this were a movie, I'd rate it PG-13. I would recommend this show to teens to adults but not to childrne.

I saw this show because I have been curious about the play for some time. I would see it again. I sat in the right mezzanine area of the theater. The view was perfect and the seats were fine.

La Bete is a very smart, interesting piece of theater. It's main conceit is the use of rhyming verse to explore and comment on the decay of the 20th century theater. Valere, a one man recking crew of a playwright/performer, is thrust upon Elomire by a French Princess. Elomire must accept Valere into his troupe or move on out of the Court's employ. Through the intermission-less 1:45, the play explores the vagaries of self-promotion, the lack of inventiveness in the theater and the powerlessness of the arts wen it comes to the whims of its patrons.

David Hyde Pierce is a terrific straight man as Elomire and Johanna Lumley as the Princess (formerly the role was the Prince in the original production) and Stephen Ouimette as Elomire's right-hand man Bejart are each excellent. The supporting cast, unfortunately is not as strong and dissapoints in the pantomime of a performance of one of Valere's plays during the later part of the production.

It is mark Rylance's performance that is the glue and strength of this play. I sat thinking (for only a brief moment) that this play could be terrible with a poor performance in the role of Valere. Rylance makes each moment full and extraordinary. His 30+ minute monologue is never faltering and kept my attention without falter. He also made me laugh throughout the entire play. He is equally hilarious when speaking ro reacting to others speeches. He looked as if he was at play and free. His performance, while completely different from his Tony Award winning performance in Boeing-Boeing, should garner him at the very least another Tony nomination and secures his position as one of our greatest stage actors.

The design and direction of the play were equally strong and allowed for the performances to be the focus and joy of this production.

Edit: 10/18/2010

On further retrospection of the play, I had the following thoughts to add. While the play has been referred to as a commentary on the artistic/theater community at the end of the 20th Century, it has a broader resonance in today's political climate. Through the media today, the loudest voices are often the ones being heard and broadcast. Today the loudest voice is the RIght as they have a large number of big mouths forwarding their agenda and dominating the conversation. In fact they even control the conversation on certain subjects by promoting their point of view as the truth, without regard to reality and facts.

As the political right is able to do so, Valere is able to prevent any response to his 35 minute monologue that opens the play by continuously speaking and bombarding Elomire and Bejart with nonsense and verbobos, cloaked in false emotion. What is astounding is his boorish behavior and use of language. Much like one of our past Presidents, he creates new words and mispronounces others. Where his behavior is very akin to our current political climate lies in its acceptance. His 'talent' and behavior are accepted and encouraged by the court and singled out to join the courts current theater troupe. His behavior's acceptance allows him to do whatever he feels without check. Today, too many of our politicians are able to espouse viewpoints based on fiction while claiming them as truthful. THey are able, like Valere, to lie to the public and in doing so, erode the fabric of the foundation of our great nation, freedom of speech.