Tyson vs. Ali Review: Too Many Rounds Without a KO

Reid Farrington’s “Tyson vs. Ali,” is supposed to be a play about two of the most iconic boxers in the history of the sport and while it’s drenched in some of their greatest moments and sports plenty of technological pizzazz, it ultimately comes off more as an inside look at the psychology of men that step inside the ring.

With a lack of general context to put these two men’s stories in a place where it can comfortably digest and a plethora of of things for your eyes and ears it absorb, it’s essentially too ambitious for its own good.

This all starts with the impersonations of Mike Tyson and Mohammad Ali. While the in-ring performances are solid, the actors, Dennis A. Allen II, Roger Casey, Femi Olagoke and Jonathan Swain, do only a decent job in portraying Tyson and Ali at different points in their respective careers. Over time, the act does gets repetitive and tough to follow- several different video screens, featuring highlights of both fighters are moved throughout different parts of the ring. The stage is incredibly complex: One actor spoke at one side of the ring, while two would fight in the center and another character spoke at the other side of the ring. There just too much going on visually. Instead of being in a relaxed environment and try and focus on one specific spot, your head is left spinning like the Tazmanian Devil. Between the elongated fight scenes and overburdened stimuli, it’s a task to take in.

The dialogue doesn’t help at times, either. Although it tries for laughs, it drew very few of them. Again the actors did not do a horrible job, but the flow was dreadfully slow and extremely boring. Again, the set up of the ring was not a comfort to the eyes and with the lack of compelling dialogue, the one-two punch of lackluster delivery, not effort, dragged the performance down for a ten-count.

Overall, the display of matches were sloppy and did not even try to be realistic. Mostly it was a resemblance of grown men play fighting purposely. Although just an hour, the pacing was almost-prod-like, turning the energetic and wild world that Ali and Tyson thrived in, into a much more tame and psychological plane of existence.