Brad Heberlee and Keith Langsdale star in The Rep’s production of ‘Frost / Nixon.’
It’s difficult to consider Richard Nixon beyond caricature. Or rather, aside from that goofy double peace-sign wave, it’s difficult to remember him as anything but a head, a great bulbous mass of broad Irish nose, laser eyes and jowls, flapping to the rhythm of all the terrible things he said.
For its new production of Peter Morgan’s “Frost / Nixon,” the Rep found a strikingly similar head on actor Keith Langsdale — estimable, round through the chin, jowl-y. But Langsdale doesn’t follow his face down the path of mimicry. Rather, he comports himself and his voice in broadly presidential fashion. He moves decisively, gestures expressively and talks in a careful, stentorian tone. And once he gets past a campy opening bit, where Nixon jokes, awkwardly, with camera men and aides just before he goes on television to tell the American people he’ll resign, he’s utterly believable as the fallen president. In the end, he delivers a Nixon who is, if not sympathetic, leagues more complex than an evil head.