This season, Broadway offers a treat for Gyllenhaal fans. The much-admired acting siblings, Maggie and younger brother Jake, both Oscar nominees, are making their Broadway debuts in quick succession, having both appeared off Broadway but never on the Great White Way itself. Maggie, 36, is in previews at the American Airlines theatre in a new production of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, opening on 30 October, as a playwright’s wife possessed of a wandering eye. Jake, 33, will appear at the Samuel J Friedman theatre on 16 December in Nick Payne’s Constellations, the two-hander that stormed London a season or two ago. The hour-long play casts him as a beekeeper confronted by the realities of love and loss. Who is likely to outperform whom? There’s no reason that both shouldn’t acquit themselves very well. But that’s not to say that there isn’t some value (not to mention fun) in playing compare-and-contrast. So here’s our guide to how the two Gs stack up.
Chemistry
Both are in plays where a rapport with their co-stars is crucial. Maggie finds herself opposite fellow Broadway newbie Ewan McGregor in a Stoppard play that simply has to generate heat if it is to make an impact. Jake, meanwhile, is 50% of a two-person cast that will welcome yet another Broadway first-timer in double Olivier award-winner Ruth Wilson.
Matching their onstage colleagues moment by moment should in both cases come pretty easily – at least if Maggie’s responsiveness to Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart and Jake’s rapport with Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain are any gauge.
Accents
Have the two Gyllenhaals been sharing a dialect coach? Who’s to say, though they’ve been around the block playing Brits before. Maggie got to practise her best plummy English sounds in the BBC spy drama The Honourable Woman,while Jake has previously starred in an earlier Nick Payne play, If There is I Haven’t Found it Yet, two years ago off Broadway. And if their current accents end up not quite cutting it, most New Yorkers won’t know the difference.
Awards
Maggie has the tougher task of the two, given that the two actressses to have previously played the adulterous wife Annie in Stoppard’s play on Broadway both won Tonys: Glenn Close in 1984 and Jennifer Ehle in 2000. No pressure there then. Jake is on less demanding ground – the only New York playgoers who will be able to make comparisons in his case will be those few who managed to see Rafe Spall in the role in London.
Commercial appeal
Jake is a Hollywood A-lister, though Maggie has a strong fan base as well. Luckily, in box-office terms the issue is academic: both The Real Thing and Constellations are limited runs in not-for-profit playhouses, so they are free from the commercial pressures that can make or break many a rival Broadway show. So if you want to see either, or both, in action, get a move on.
