A View From The Bridge, a play by Arthur Miller at the Cort Theater. Directed by Gregory Mosher; starring Liev Schreiber, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Hecht. Every season we go to the theater in New York hoping that the performance will be really great, really special, a winner in every way, but it rarely happens. But when it does, like it did tonight in this magnificent, note perfect revival of "A View from the Bridge" it makes it all worth it. We saw the perfectly decent revival of nearly ten years ago with Anthony LaPaglia, but it wasn't even close to what we saw tonight from the towering Liev Schreiber, the most gifted American actor of his generation, Jessica Hecht, the superb veteran, and the beautiful Scarlett Johansson who, in a breakout-heartbreaking performance has answered all doubts about whether she belonged in such an acting company. As the attorney and chorus, Michael Cristofer was splendid. Sets and costumes were realistic and made for an ideal staging. This is as good as it gets. Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test Grade A+

Present Laughter, a play by Noel Coward at the American Airlines Theatre, starring Victor Garber. It's only in previews but based on what we saw last night,Roundabout's revival of "Present Laughter" is a dreadful disaster. No one in the cast seemed to have a clue about the elegant Coward style so desperately called for, and their British accents were pathetic, everyone is guilty of eccentric over-acting. The usually reliable Victor Garber, who plays the role like a classic British "silly ass" misses the measure of the role completely. While Essendine is indeed an ass, he is not the Eric Blore kind of "silly ass" but is instead a flamboyant larger-than-life buffon who looms over the action dominating it with every outrageous line. Think of John Barrymore in "Twentieth Century" or the wonderfully hammy Frank Langella who was an excellent Gary Essendine in the last revival of "Present Laughter". If, according to the pre-opening buzz, Victor Garber actually wins a Tony for this performance, then it will set an ironic seal on what so far has been the weakest Broadway season in our memory. Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test Grade F.