Quentin Tarantino’s Rare Misfire: His Panned Broadway Acting Debut

Whenever Quentin Tarantino pops up in the news, I perk up if it has anything to do with his 10th and supposedly final film. His acting? That gets a raised eyebrow. Love the guy, but come on — the track record is spotty. Honestly, his bit on The Golden Girls might still be his high-water mark, and yes, I would take that over his Django Unchained accent any day. And since he was just announced for the drama Only What We Carry, it feels like the right time to revisit the last time he took a big swing at performing: his Broadway run in 1998. Spoiler: the reviews were brutal.

The setup

Back in early 1998, Tarantino stepped onto Broadway in Wait Until Dark, taking on the villain part that Alan Arkin made famous in the 1967 film and that Robert Duvall had tackled on stage before him. Across from him was Marisa Tomei, taking over the role most associated with Audrey Hepburn. This came after Tarantino had already done the cameo circuit as Mr. Brown, Jimmy, and that guy who delivers the long Top Gun subtext rant.

How it landed

Critics were not kind. A few snapshots:

• The New York Times tore into the performance, basically saying he was all bark, no bite.

  "Mr. Tarantino seems menacing to nothing except possibly Mr. Knott's script. Whether raising his voice in deranged fury or softly promising to commit unspeakable tortures, he registers at best as merely petulant, like a suburban teen-ager who has been denied the use of his father's Lexus for the night."

• Variety was cooler-headed but hardly glowing, framing it as more subdued than expected.

  "Unexpectedly straightforward; entering with sunglasses, hair slicked-back, he's no more or less cheesy than Alan Arkin in the 1967 film."

• CurtainUp did not mince words.

  "Quentin Tarantino can't scare a deer out of a pair of oncoming headlights."

QT on the backlash

Tarantino later admitted the pile-on got to him. As he told Biography:

"the one whose acting sucks. I tried not to take it personally, but it was personal. It was not about the play - it was about me, and at a certain point I started getting too thin a skin about the constant criticism."

So about this new acting gig

Now he is back in the mix, recently joining the cast of the drama Only What We Carry. Am I counting down the days? Not exactly. But if it keeps him active while we all wait on that final-film plan, I am on board. And hey, if the performance clears the bar set by that Django accent, we are already ahead.