The Elephant Man In The West End

Review of The Elephant Man says that Bradley Cooper was terrific as John Merrick.

18:06 19 June 2015

The reviews for The Elephant Man, which opened on Broadway last December, reveal that Bradley Cooper did spectacular as John Merrick. Scott Ellis’s production saw Cooper, once dubbed the “Sexiest Man Alive” by People Magazine, played a role of a beautiful man trapped inside a gross disfigurement. 

 

A succession of attractive performers including David Schofield, David Bowie, and Billy Crudup, Cooper successfully and convincingly showed Merrick’s journey from abused freak show attraction to medical curiosity and favourite of Victorian high-society. The story focused on the cruelty and injustice of objectifying people because of their looks. 

 

One of the highlights was when Cooper stands wearing only a pair of under-shorts. As the doctor points to the various malformations on a blown-up photograph of Merrick, Cooper transformed himself from a Hollywood hunk to disfigured man. The lips twist grotesquely; a hip collapses; the right hand is bunched into a knobbly stump. Coopes has done this with terrific tact. For a moment, the audience have forgotten about Cooper, the Hollywood actor, as he painstakingly showed Merrick’s unembittered openness to life, his gentleness, questioning humour, and romantic spirit.