Review: Cicely Tyson's acting in 'Trip to Bountiful' is plentiful

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“Birdman” actress Emma Stone (center), took on Roundabout Theatre Company’s “Cabaret.” Pictured with Gayle Rankin, left, Andrea Goss, Kristin Olness, Stacey Sipowicz, Kaleigh Cronin and Jessica Pariseau. (Joan Marcus / Roundabout Theatre)

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Oscar winner Helen Mirren once again portrays Queen Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan’s play “The Audience,” directed by two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Daldry. (Johan Persson / Associated Press)

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Actress Carly Hughes and Sugarland singer Jennifer Nettles perform during a rehearsal for Broadway’s “Chicago.” (Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images)

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Sienna Miller, center, and Alan Cumming, right, appear at the curtain call following her debut performance in Broadway’s “Cabaret.” (Greg Allen / Invision / Associated Press)

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“Nightcrawler” actor Jake Gyllenhaal, left, and Ruth Wilson stand onstage at the opening night curtain call of “Constellations” at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. (Greg Allen / Invision / Associated Press)

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Bradley Cooper, left, Alessandro Nivola and Patricia Clarkson perform in “The Elephant Man” at the Booth Theatre in New York. (Joan Marcus / Associated Press)

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“Wolverine” actor Hugh Jackman played The Man in “The River,” a play by Jez Butterworth, directed by Ian Rickson, at Circle in the Square Theatre in New York. (Richard Termine / Associated Press)

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Film actors Ewan McGregor and Maggie Gyllenhaal made their Broadway debuts Oct. 30 in Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing” in New York. ( Joan Marcus / Associated Press)

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James Franco, left, with Jim Norton, made his Broadway debut in “Of Mice and Men” in March.

REVIEW: ‘Of Mice and Men’ finds James Franco in CliffsNotes mode (Richard Phibbs / Associated Press)

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Four-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening is no stranger to the stage having started her acting career in theater. Above, Bening performs a compilation of four Ruth Draper vignettes in “Ruth Draper’s Monologues,” scheduled to run through May 18 at the Geffen Playhouse.

REVIEW: Annette Bening pays fine tribute in ‘Ruth Draper’s Monologues’ (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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“CSI” alum William Petersen made his Los Angeles stage debut in this year’s “Slowgirl” at the Geffen Playhouse. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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Tom Hiddleston returned to the stage as the title character in Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” after playing Loki in “Thor,” “The Avengers” and “Thor: The Dark World.” The production opened at the Donmar Warehouse in London on Dec. 17 to glowing reviews and continues through Feb. 13. (Johan Persson / Associated Press)

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Ethan Hawke took on the title role in the Lincoln Center Theater’s production of “Macbeth” that opened on Nov. 21, 2013, and closed Jan. 12. (T Charles Erickson / Associated Press)

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Daniel Radcliffe went from boy wizard in “Harry Potter” to baring all in a Broadway revival of Peter Shaffer’s 1973 Tony-winning play “Equus.”

The casting of the “Harry Potter” frontman as the psychologically disturbed stable boy caused a stir as the then 17-year-old would appear nude in one scene.

Radcliffe wowed critics and earned a Drama Desk nomination for his role. (Uli Weber / Associated Press)

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Jude Law, who played the title role in 2009, and most of the British cast transported the Donmar Warehouse production from the Wyndham’s Theatre in London to Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre after a successful run. (Johan Persson / Associated Press)

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Julia Roberts made her Broadway debut in the revival of Richard Greenberg’s “Three Days of Rain,” which opened April 12, 2006. Paul Rudd, above, and Bradley Cooper also starred in the play that called for actors to play roles from two generations of family members. (Joan Marcus / Associated Press)

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Oscar winner Denzel Washington and Oscar-nominated actress Viola Davis portrayed Troy Maxson and Troy’s wife, Rose in the 2010 version of “Fences.” Their portrayals in the August Wilson play netted the pair lead actor Tony Awards. (Joan Marcus / Associated Press)

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Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, both with impressive stage and screen credits, starred in Keith Huff’s “A Steady Rain.”

The two-person play, which cast the duo as a pair of cops, opened Sept. 29, 2009. (Joan Marcus / AP)

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Oscar-winner Al Pacino got to recite the famous “Hath not a Jew eyes” speech multiple times as Shylock in both the 2004 film and the 2010 Broadway production of “The Merchant of Venice.” (Joan Marcus / Associated Press)

By Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times Theater Critic

April 23, 2013 5:34 PM PT

NEW YORK — Broadway for Cicely Tyson is clearly like riding a bike.

Her last rendezvous in the rialto was in “The Corn Is Green” in 1983, but you’d never know that 30 years had passed by her exquisitely understated performance in the revival of Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful,” which opened Tuesday at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.

There’s not the slightest hesitancy or straining for effect in her portrayal of Carrie Watts, the elderly mother cooped up in a two-room Houston apartment with her son and daughter-in-law (played less assuredly by Cuba Gooding Jr. and Vanessa Williams) and desperate to return one last time to her backwater hometown, where even the sad memories bring her happiness.

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This is a role that can tempt a performer to act with a capital A. But Tyson, whose age is subject to debate (some sources have it as 79, others 88 — she wisely is keeping mum), is too busy inhabiting her character’s experience to compete with Geraldine Page’s vibrantly colorful Oscar-winning performance or Lois Smith’s heralded 2005 off-Broadway portrayal.

This is Tyson’s Carrie Watts, and not a false note is struck as she makes her escape with her pension check to her family’s long-abandoned home in Bountiful. It’s a wonderful addition to a long and varied stage and screen career that will always be remembered for her double-Emmy-winning performance in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.”

It’s a shame that the rest of the production, directed by Michael Wilson, one of Foote’s most reliable interpreters, isn’t up to Tyson’s level. Gooding, an Oscar winner for his performance in “Jerry Maguire,” is the weak link in the cast. What he brings in name recognition he takes away in inexperience.

Playing Carrie’s son, Ludie, an indecisive man caught between two very strong women, Gooding makes tentativeness seem like utter bewilderment. There are times when he’s onstage that he looks as though he’d like to call a timeout and get a pep talk from an acting coach.

Compounding matters is the lack of chemistry between Gooding’s Ludie and Williams’ Jessie Mae. Williams is too glamorously put together for her character. Jessie Mae might be a superficial woman who cares only about Hollywood movie magazines and her appearance, but she hardly has the means to look as shellacked as Williams.

The opening scene, set in the Watts’ cramped apartment one night when neither Carrie nor her son can sleep, is bearable only for the quiet grace of Tyson’s acting. Whatever she does — singing hymns in her rocking chair, rushing to make warm milk for Ludie, hunting for Jessie Mae’s misplaced recipe — she does so with unassuming conviction.

This canny veteran even manages to make it seem as if Gooding’s Ludie and Williams’ Jessie Mae really are husband and wife and not just passing acquaintances cast in the same play as supplemental box-office draws.

FULL COVERAGE: 2013 Spring arts preview

In more ways than one it’s a relief when Carrie flees to the bus station and makes friends with another traveler, Thelma (the very fine Condola Rashad). Their exchanges of simple courtesies and fellow feeling are completely in tune with Foote’s vision, which is larger and more profound than its tame outward appearance might suggest.

Carrie wants to die better than she has been living. This pilgrimage isn’t motivated by nostalgia so much as the desire to connect with her better self. The bus trip takes place against the scenic backdrop of a night sky, far away from the petty bickering back in Houston.

Because this is ultimately an existential journey, whatever historical incongruities there may be in having white characters from the Jim Crow South played by African American performers fade into the background. (The bus station is divided along color lines in Wilson’s production, but race doesn’t become an explicit issue in the play.)

There’s one moment that will stay with me forever. It occurs just after Carrie has arrived at the Harrison station and finds out that not only has her friend in Bountiful just died but that she has left her purse on the bus and hasn’t a penny to continue her journey. When the ticket agent (the invaluable Arthur French) and Thelma assure her that she’ll get her purse back, Carrie takes comfort from them and remarks, “Why is it some days everything works out, and some days nothing works out. I guess the good Lord is just with me today.”

Tyson rose from the bench and started singing a hymn to the Lord with such radiant joy that segments of the audience at the Stephen Sondheim started singing along with her. At that moment she was neither 88 nor 79 but an eternally young spirit reveling in the compassionate wisdom of a small yet timeless play.

Ms. Tyson, it’s time to make room for your Tony.

charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

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