Romeo and Juliet - 7/28/08

For box office information, click on the title of this review.

Normally, I won’t review a show in its final weekend, but I was invited by the theatre to do so, so there you are. With the Albright production of Romeo and Juliet, I fully expect cries of “What do you want from us?!” to reverberate, because director Jeni Dees took care of a major problem with doing Shakespeare, but in doing so a whole other problem cropped up.

If they do this again next year, Albright needs to consider body mikes. While driving up the energy, relying solely on lungpower hurt a couple of the performances beyond repair. I know, I know… damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Overall, it was an extremely impressive production. Scene changes flowed, the Director’s Concept of setting the show in New Orleans worked pretty well and, as stated, the actors had energy in spades. And thank you, Albright, for not making a sex and violence show into family friendly mush just because it was outside. Romeo and Juliet had sex! Huzzah!

Scott Miller as Romeo was quite good. He understood the language (well, they all did), communicated it well and had all the requisite passion and humanity that the role demands.

Holly Robison as Juliet was the main victim of the lung-power issue. I could see that she was an extremely good actress – she was into it physically, she nailed it emotionally… and most of her lines sounded like she was reading them, not living them. Why? Because most of her energy was being channeled into simply being heard in an outdoor setting. She didn’t have enough left over to bring any nuance to the lines. And that’s not her fault. She was confronted with a situation beyond her control as an actress. So while I understand that the body mike decision was deliberate because it was considered a distraction, that distraction is preferable to losing the nuances of the play. Friar Laurence (Ish Rios) was another victim of this issue; he sounded belligerent most of the time. If you can find a way to use the body mikes while retaining the energy level you achieved here, you’re home free.

Enan Heneghan was dynamic as Mercutio. And casting Benvolio as a woman (Benvolia) changed the Mercutio/Benvolio relationship in a way that was interesting. Veronica Krystal made a terrific Benvolia; she and Heneghan made a great team. Krystal also handled the excellent fight choreography. Marea Berkley Clement shined as the Nurse. Loving, compassionate and bigger than life – exactly what the Nurse needs to be.

Jim Oberg & Sarah Odenback were very good as Lord & Lady Capulet. My only problem was that Odenback and Dees had Lady Capulet making dismayed faces when Lord C. arranges Juliet’s marriage to Paris and sympathetic faces when breaking the news to Juliet, just before saying lines that are harder than any father’s could be. That doesn’t work. “Humanizing” villains does not mean making them sympathetic – I’ve met very unsympathetic people who are arguably human. Lady Capulet backs up her husband unquestioningly – it’s the rigid, imperious parental facism that sets up the tragedy – the disinclination to show any sympathy until it’s way too late. Humanize them in their scene with Paris: the Capulets are known throughout Verona (all right, New Orleans) as irascible bastards that start gang-fights with their neighbors in the street. If you cross them, you die. Who the hell would willingly marry into a pack of rabid weasels like that? There’s no chance that anyone sane would take their daughter, no matter how beautiful. But they actually manage to land a sucker (with a title and money) – and the daughter says “no”. That fuels their hard-heartedness in a human way. Analogy: they saved up their money and underwent hardship to give their daughter a pony for her birthday. She glances at it and says, “Wrong color.”

While I’m on things I didn’t like – “zounds” rhymes with “mooned”, not “hound”; it’s a contraction of the oath “God’s wounds” – Romeo and Juliet are getting dressed, post-sex. The Nurse comes in. Says, “Hey, your Mom’s coming up the stairs – shake a leg.” And the pace doesn’t change. At all. Romeo should be throwing on his clothes saying, “Shit, I gotta get out of here” while Juliet is clinging onto him, simultaneously pushing him out the door. The only reason the Nurse comes in is to kick up the energy and get Romeo the hell out of there.

But overall, it was an extremely good show. You bought that Romeo and Juliet were in love, the New Orleans setting worked well, the fight choreography crackled, as did the balcony scene. Albright did a very nice job with the show. If they’re out there next summer and give in on the body mike issue, go see them. Or see some of their indoor stuff this year.

Twelfth Night - 7/18/08

For box office information, click on the title of this review.

To those of you who think that all Shakespeare’s comedies are masterpieces just because he wrote them, I wish you a happy life seeing nothing but All’s Well That Ends Well, Love’s Labours Lost and Troilus and Cressida.

Twelfth Night, however, is one of Shakespeare’s comic masterpieces. The girl-disguised-as-a-boy routine comes into full flowering (or deflowering, as the case may be) here. Viola is shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria. Her twin brother Sebastian has supposedly drowned and Viola, living by her wits, disguises herself as a boy and goes to work for Orsino, a nobleman in love with the Countess Olivia, who disdains him. Viola falls in love with Orsino, who is in love with Olivia, who is in love with Cesario, who is Viola in disguise. Hilarity ensues. The subplot involves the gulling of pompous ass Malvolio by Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Maria and Feste the Fool.

Let me state at the outset that as far as the audience reaction at the end was concerned, Midsummer Theatre Troupe’s Twelfth Night (directed by Toni Hix) was the cat’s pajamas. And the audience was huge. Apparently, there is an audience out there so starved for Shakespeare that they go nuts over imperfect productions. Play reading committees take note.

Probably the best thing I can say about this production is that I liked it better than Arsenic and Old Lace. There were a lot of good people in this. A lot. And 90% of the time: they knew what they were saying. They communicated the meaning to the audience. But they weren’t funny. The audience, while applauding heartily at the finish, did not laugh very much. The problem is one of direction. There wasn't any. It appeared to be a traffic cop situation. People were told how to get on and off stage. Once up there, whatever they did was up to them. I’ve rarely seen as much meandering back and forth in a comedy.

I’m not going to comment on the acting, except to say that I’ve seen most of these people before in better performances; and the people who were new to me seemed to have great potential. Standouts were Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Maria, Viola and the Fool. Malvolio was a good actor, but miscast. He was too young and (at least from the back of the crowd) better looking than Orsino or Viola – there was no reason for Olivia NOT to fall for him.

It is not what the actors are providing, but what the director does with it that creates the three major problems.

Anachronism: Orsino sings a couple of songs: All By Myself and I’m a Believer. But the show is done in period costume and there are no other updates of any kind. It’s just jarring and unfunny.

Consistency: There is pronunciation issue. “Maria” in the show is pronounced MaRIa. The other possible interpretation is MaREEa. Everyone in the show calls her MaREEa except Malvolio, who calls her MaRIa. When this same company did “Taming of the Shrew”, half the company said PetROOCHeeo and the other half said PetROOKeeo. Is the director just plain not listening? Either one is fine, just make a goddamn decision.

Similarly, Feste (a man) in this production becomes Festa (a woman). Fine. Great. That absolutely works. Now make sure that ALL the cast changes lines with “he” and “him” to “she” and “her”. Some people did, some people didn’t. It’s not that hard to do. Directing, like the devil, is in the details.

Humor: There isn’t much. Focus was on clearly spitting out the lines, which is very important, but getting laughs would help. There was no physical comedy at all. One of the funniest moments I’ve seen was when the luminous Kyra Sedgwick (Olivia) seized Helen Hunt (Viola) and gave her a kiss hot enough to melt steel. “But that’s professional theatre!” I hear you cry.

All right – one of the other funniest things I’ve ever seen was in the first community production of Twelfth Night I attended. On Malvolio’s line, “I will smile!” there was a full thirty second break while the actor playing Malvolio gradually broke down his facial muscles into a smile, since it was something he had never done before. It was like watching Hercules trying to lift a boulder, which he finally thrusts triumphantly above his head.

The comedic possibilities are a deep forest which went unexplored by a company sticking cautiously to the main road.

However, there are some really good actors in here and most of the venues are free. Go take a look and let me know how strongly you disagree with me.