High-schooler Richard Samuels lucks into a role in a daring Broadway production of Julius Caesar. Cues, staging, rehearsals, romance, rivalries: he has a lot to learn. And the first thing to learn is never upstage Mercury Theatre's genius director, 22-year-old Orson Welles. Zac Efron wins hearts and applause as Richard, the Me of this celebratory curtain call for when dreams - and the theater - were big. Christian McKay offers an uncanny Welles, the imposing, impetuous center of Richard's exciting new universe. Claire Danes is the enterprising stage assistant drawn into both men's lives. And Richard Linklater (Before Sunset, The School of Rock) directs with the vibrant spirit of those for whom all the world is a stage. Bravo!
