I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: April 17, 2026] John Malkovich in The Music Critic Created and Conceived by Aleksey Igudesman

Are you kidding me?  John Malkovich in Princeton?  Of course I’m going.

I had no idea what this show was about, but John Malkovich was going to be starring in it, 30 minutes from my house!  SO I grabbed us tickets.

So what is this exactly?  Well, it’s kind of a comic musical piece.  But it’s not exactly funny and it’s more musical.  Basically, a string quartet (and piano) plays some beautiful music and then John Malkovich tears it apart using actual quotes from critics at the time.  The criticism back then are brutal and, consequentially quite funny, especially when said to the performers directly.

Igudesman wrote this piece which includes some famous musical pieces (by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Schumann, Debussy, Prokofiev, Ysaye, Kancheli, and Piazzolla) as well as one of his own.

Aleksey Igudesman has created a sardonic mix of the most evil music critiques of the last centuries written about some of the greatest works of music.

I didn’t know Aleksey Igudesman, but he performed with the show and his violin playing was terrific.  I have no idea if this show was written with Malkovich in mind (I assume so, see the end).   But Malkovich luxuriates in the role of the evil critic who believes the music of Beethoven, Chopin, Prokofiev and the likes to be weary and dreary: “Schumann fancies himself a “composer”, while Brahms is a “giftless bastard” and Claude Debussy is simply ugly.”

Malkovich sat for much of the performance, listening to the music.  And then he would recite the scathing reviews.  By the middle of the show, the musicians started to argue back.  Especially pianist Hyung-ki Joo who directly addresses the critic and at one point even storms off.

As the show moves along, Malkovich even reads criticisms of the musicians as well.   I don’t remember them all, but I do remember Aaron Wolff being mocked because he was a child actor and should have stuck to acting rather than picking up the cello.  Obviously Wolff, violist Mario Gotoh and second violinist Eric Silberge were terrific.  It’s almost a little uncomfortable when Malkovich attacks the musicians, but the tables will soon be turned.

The grand finale is “The Malkovich Torment” a horrific review about Malkovich himself, which Igudesman has set to music in a uniquely sardonically humorous way.

The piece includes a criticism of Malkovich which Malkovich himself is “forced” to read aloud.  It opens with

“After seeing the John Malkovich torment at the theater in Istanbul it is unfortunately too late to have him deported… hiding behind being Malkovich, I deplore not to give a visa to this actor anymore. Do not let Malkovich pass the borders of  Türkiye ever again,”

And it gets even nastier from there.

Having Malkovich read (and react) to the words was wonderful.   Malkovich is a weird dude, and it was awesome seeing him in person show off his weirdness.

See a bit of it here.