Jeremy Pope and Paul Bettany reimagine Basquiat and Warhol in ‘The Collaboration’

The Rundown:

Between 1984 and 1985, renowned artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol collaborated on a series of canvasses that converged their unique styles and perspectives. Their vastly different backgrounds and artistic approaches yielded a series of unique works that have since been celebrated in exhibitions around the world.

Playwright Anthony McCarten brings the relationship to life in The Collaboration, a new play starring Jeremy Pope (The Inspection) as Basquiat and Paul Bettany (WandaVision) as Warhol. The two actors reprise their roles from the London production at the Young Vic for a limited Broadway engagement. A film version is also in the works, helmed by the play’s director Kwame Kwei-Armah.

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No Tea, No Shade:

Swiss art dealer Bruno Bischofberger (Erik Jensen) introduced Basquiat and Warhol, but it would be several years before the pair finally committed to working together. Warhol — known for his mechanical methods, typography, and recognizable subjects — was already established as one of the world’s most successful contemporary artists. But he hadn’t picked up a paintbrush in decades.

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Basquiat’s style was the polar opposite. Born in Brooklyn of Haitian and Puerto Rican heritage, he was exposed to the arts as a young child, taking an even greater interest after being hit by a car at eight years old. His mother brought him a copy of Gray’s Anatomy while hospitalized, which is thought to have profoundly impacted his future work. Basquiat became known as a graffiti artist under the name SAMO, and by the early 80s, had been featured in a solo show at Annina Nosei gallery, explored a brief foray into music, and even dated Madonna before she had achieved worldwide popularity. (Onstage DJ theoretic spins tunes of the era during the pre-show and intermission, though Basquiat listens to Miles Davis while painting throughout the play.)

The artist’s process has long been fodder for the stage, from Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George (a fictionalized account of Georges Seurat) to Red, which documents Mark Rothko’s process in real-time. (The original production starred Alfred Molina as Rothko and a young Eddie Redmayne as his assistant).

The Collaboration, as currently presented with two phenomenal performers, offers nuanced character studies, rich with detail but lacking momentum. At one point, Warhol asks Bruno as he struggles to complete the series, “Where does Time go to? And why does it keep going there?”

Audience members may ask themselves the same thing after the character captivation begins to wear off.

Let’s Have a Moment:

Both Bettany and Pope adeptly embody their artist personas. Bettany’s Warhol is wiry and calculated, obsessed with his physical appearance and the inevitably of age. Pope — who earned a Tony nomination for his suave performance of Ephraim Sykes in Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations and was equally as magnetic in Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood — imbues Basquiat as a tightly wound ball of frenetic energy fueled by an addiction to cocaine and heroin.

After the death of a fellow graffiti artist due to police brutality, Basquiat lashes out at Warhol for documenting his grieving process on film. “And it’s your fault, man. You messed it up. By filming! Filming, you stole the spirit from the painting by doing that. You killed it. Took all its power away.”

The exchange of power and how that transforms into friendship and deeper levels of intimacy is one that Basquiat demands without compromising. As they continue to argue over the destroyed footage, Warhol exclaims, “You’re a total gangster. A Puerto Rican hood, like a scorpion, trying to scare someone into giving you everything they have in their pockets. Jean, you have to be more civilized.”

“Don’t say that to me Andy,” Basquiat responds. “Don’t look down on me or we can’t see each other. Ever again. We’re equal. Or we’re nothing. Never look down on me.”

The Last Word:

In the original New York Times review of the artists’ exhibition, critic Vivien Raynor wrote, “Here and now, the collaboration looks like one of Warhol’s manipulations, which increasingly seem based on the Mencken theory about nobody going broke underestimating the public’s intelligence. Basquiat, meanwhile, comes across as the all too willing accessory.”

More than 37 years later, time has been financially generous to both Basquiat and Warhol’s estates. Yet they’re still in a sort of post-mortem competition, at least through the eyes of the art world. Earlier this year, Warhol’s “Marilyn” sold at auction for $195 million, surpassing am Basquiat skull painting, which sold for more than $110 million in 2017.

But as Broadway proves time and again, commercial and artistic success are not mutually exclusive. As Warhol says to Bruno, “Hot isn’t always best, you know.”

The Collaboration plays on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre through January 29, 2023.