History begins in tragedy and ends in satire, goes the saying. In playwright Peter Morgan's hands, though, history turns into sentimental mush. His much-praised Frost/Nixon-- it has had long runs in London and New York, and was turned into a prize-winning motion picture -- is now touring the USA in a slick but essentially hollow and dishonest production, one which tries to portray Richard Nixon, a second-rate, racist and villainous politician, as some kind of well-meaning, tragic hero, one who disgraced himself and the office of the presidency because he listened, "to his heart, not his head."
This is what Morgan would have us believe about Nixon, a man who schemed and redbaited his way up the political ladder, smearing and ruining the careers of anyone who got in his way (e.g., Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas). The higher Nixon climbed, the more he abused his powers, beginning with the wars in Viet Nam and Cambodia and culminating in the Watergate scandal. All along the way, as the White House tapes have revealed, he and his cohorts privately spewed out their hatred of Jews, blacks, anti-war protestors and homosexuals.
Very little of the real Nixon turns up in Morgan's play, only a fuzzy portrait of a retired, avuncular old warrior (the admirable Stacy Keach) trying to improve his image (and make a bundle of cash) by agreeing to be interviewed by TV hotshot David Frost (Alan Cox).
The various off- and on-air confrontations between Nixon and Frost comprise the gist of the story (which culminates in Nixon's confession of complicity in the Watergate break-in). These two-person scenes come off crisply and effectively, making for good (if shallow) drama.
A dozen other characters flit in and off stage, ranging from journalists Jim Reston and Bob Zelnick (part of Frost's support team), a retired general (Nixon's bodyguard chief and mouthpiece), the agent Swifty Lazar, Frost's girlfriend, Mike Wallace, and others. All these subsidiary players are portrayed throughout in one-dimensional fashion.
The shallowness of much of Morgan's writing could be overlooked, however, if he hadn't tried to whitewash Nixon's evil nature and actions. Frost/Nixon has been given a glossy, swift-moving and well-acted production, but these qualities fail to mask the play's essential meretriciousness.
