Based on the book Dial M for Murdoch: News Corporation and The Corruption of Britain by Tom Watson and Martin Hickman, CORRUPTION tells the story behind the story of the phone hacking scandal that engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in 2011, stunning the world and upending British politics. When Parliament member Tom Watson is maliciously smeared by the newspapers of Murdoch’s News International, he decides to fight back - taking on its larger-than-life leader Rebekah Brooks. But what he uncovers is far more insidious than he ever imagined. As Watson and a small band of journalists, lawyers, and politicians struggle to expose the endemic criminality at the heart of this media monolith, they risk their careers and, at times, their very lives. Epic in scope and often startlingly funny, CORRUPTION tells a true-life David and Goliath story of ordinary men and women trying to find a way to save their democracy before it’s too late.
As a news story evolving in real time, the scandal made for jaw-dropping reading. As a play, though, “Corruption” is uncompelling — counterintuitively so, given the inherent drama: the crimes, the coverup, the comeuppance (or not), the clashes of personality. Also the stakes, which include the well-being of a democracy in which one culture-shaping media magnate holds too much sway.
Corruption's most compelling threads are ones it doesn't seem to know it's exploring, chief among them being Watson's and Brooks's parallel character arcs. Both are flawed people who go to great lengths to keep their power and their pride in a ruthless media landscape. How far is too far? And how much does it matter if the post-Murdoch world of news, in which political, financial, and journalistic interests are tied up such that anyone's story is exploitable, keeps on turning regardless?
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2024 | Off-Broadway |
Lincoln Center Theater Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Projection Design | 59 Productions |
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