A Time to Kill

“Best of all, the wonderfully slick, unabashedly opportunistic district attorney played with evil brilliance by Patrick Page.”

“Strapped in a pinstriped suit, the terrific Patrick Page — the former Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark — gives a highly satisfying performance, Southern accent oozing out of his mouth like Delta molasses.”

“Mr. Page doesn’t shy away from grandstanding, thank goodness. He has a gloriously resonant voice, and oozes unction as the ambitious prosecutor.”

“Poring on the oleaginous charm, Patrick Page’s droll, lip-smakcking performance is the production’s juiciest pleasure.”

“With performers on the level of John Douglas Thompson and Patrick Page, you can be guaranteed a certain complement of gripping exchanges and stirring orations.”

“The veteran stage actor Patrick Page had a splashy star turn a few years ago as the Green Goblin in Spider Man; Turn Off the Dark. In Broadway’s new spin on the John Grisham novel A Time to Kill, Page is cast as another slimy cartoon character.

He plays Rufus R. Buckley, district attorney for a small Mississippi county, whose present task is prosecuting a black man charged with murdering the thugs who raped and nearly killed his 10-year-old daughter. Since those thugs happened to be caucasian, Rufus, who has political ambitions beyond his station, appeals to any prejudices lurking in the all-white jury, instructing them to ‘reject the law of the jungle.’

Page doesn’t wear a mask for the part, but rather wraps himself in Southern smarm, wielding an oily smile and lowering his voice to a fiendish basso croak. At a recent preview, he had the audience eating out of his hand — that is, rooting solidly against him.”

“Patrick Page as the smarmy prosecutor is able to tweak his character dross into a star turn.”

“Among all the fine performers, there is one particular standout: Patrick Page. As good a comic actor as Broadway currently has (he was a sparkling jolt in 2012’s Cyrano de Bergerac, and of course as the Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark), he jumps feet first into playing Rufus, capturing every facet of his rock-ribbed professionalism and his sleazy tendency toward self-promotion. Page forces you to remember that Rufus lives his life exclusively in the public eye and keeps his emotions easily at hand, so there’s no shortage of dazzling colors from which he can draw.

He really comes into his own in the tense final scenes, displaying just how far an actor can honestly go without chewing the scenery and leaving you hungering for more.”