Dr. Barnabas T. Bynum's New School Musical Revue and Travelling Minstrel Show

Recently I had the opportunity to watch the ESPN series, The Bronx Is Burning, which details the chaotic year of 1977 as it pertained to New York City. Blackouts, strikes, fires, looting, and the Son of Sam murders are chronicled in this fine drama. But the main focus of this production is the tumultuous but ultimately triumphant year that was for the New York Yankees. The friction between the three lead characters : manager Billy Martin (John Turturro), owner George Steinbrenner (Oliver Platt), and team superstar Reggie Jackson (Daniel Sunjata) provides enough sparks to keep the drama interesting and riveting. What can you say about Turturro? This guy appears in numerous productions and films every year but the quality of his performances never falls flat. Here he captures the mercurial Martin perfectly, creating a multi-dimensional character you can sympathize with. Sunjata provides a stellar performance as the brash, cocky, conflicted Reggie Jackson. The only weak link is the performance of an otherwise fine actor Oliver Platt. As Steinbrenner, he often comes across as a character portrayed on Seinfeld. What might be disconcerting to some viewers is the quick cutting between actual archival baseball footage and the drama at hand. For example Oliver Platt as Steinbrenner is interviewed by the real Howard Cosell. But all in all, another fine production from the Mike Tollin/Brian Robbins production team.