Yuletide Cheers: ‘The Santaland Diaries’ in Lenox

 

David Begelman, Theater Critic

 

David Sedaris is no stranger to a wide readership, not to mention radio and theater audiences hankering for his version of belly laughs galore. A popular voice on the NPR radio series, “This American Life,” Sedaris has authored written works like “Holidays on Ice,” “Naked,” “Barrel Fever,” and more.

He has also co-authored a number of plays with his sister, Amy. Brother and sister Sedaris, by their own admission, come from a family that takes disfunctionality to new levels of grandeur. Never you mind. He is a shoe-in for a revered place in the pantheon of outstanding American humorists. His hilarious monologue about his own escapade as an “elf” hired by Macy’s Department Store is by now a staple in yuletide productions across the land.

Shakespeare & Company’s new production of the humorist’s “Santaland Diaries” is hardly in a minimalist mode. In his days as a struggling young actor, Sedaris recalls his stint as an elf with the disarming moniker of “Crumpet.”. Except in this production he is a fortyish man, relating his past elfin gig in a plush apartment with upscale accommodations including a baby grand piano, and a view of the Manhattan skyline that any hedge fund manager would envy.

“Crumpet” in the current show has evidently come into his own later on in life. But is this what Sedaris intended? After all, the monologue as written is brimming with the kind of sardonic humor that only a put-upon might level at his corporate bosses at Macy’s who have the gall to make him play the fool.

When “Crumpet” (the ebullient Peter Davenport) sheds his staid apparel to reveal his “green velvet knickers, forest-green velvet smock, and a perky little hat decorated with spangles,” the description was intended to be more like a complaint than a cute aside.  “It doesn’t get any worse than this,” says Crumpet, whose satirical remarks about everything are in the Swiftian mode; not simply a tongue-in-cheek badinage about the past.

Davenport, despite his unquestionable ability for portraying many facets of Crumpet’s experiences as a put-upon hireling, loses out on the darker, and more ironic, aspect of the character. Director Tony Simotes, the newly appointed artistic director of Shakespeare & Company, has opted for a different take on “Crumpet.” It is not one this reviewer senses is true to the Sedaris intent.

Crumpet’s observations sometimes cut to a wrenching emotional core, and the counterpart between them and his humorous dialogue is why the monologue is so arresting.

During yuletide, “Parents have an idea of a world that they cannot make work for them;” a lad who visits Santa Claus at Macy’s voices the poignant wish his dead father were alive and for a set of teenage mutant ninja turtles, or “It doesn’t get any worse than this.” Hardly the sentiments of an elf who feels all’s right with the world, or that humor has no darker underbelly.

Shakespeare & Company’s wish to cut to the comic chase in this production perhaps overlooked the downside aspect of “Santaland Diaries” that makes it such compelling fare.

“Santaland Diaries” runs until Dec. 30 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, 70 Kemble St., Lenox, Mass. Performances are Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Saturday matinees on Dec. 11 and 18 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $16-$48, and can be purchased by calling the box office at 413-637-3353, or contacting www.shakespeare.org, 

 

  

 

 

            

 

‘War of the Worlds’ is a comedy split down the middle

By David Begelman

 

Theater Critic

In playwright Howard Koch’s imaginative—if not occasionally runaway—adaptation of H. G. Well’s “War of the Worlds,” a team of eager radio broadcasters enacts a simulated invasion on the world by Martians.

A similar scenario was dramatized in the now famous 1938 version of a Mercury Theater broadcast by a 22 year-old Orson Welles. Across the years, its aftermath took on a legendary, albeit overinflated aspect. The broadcast did not ignite a national panic, as was subsequently advertised. Only a lesser number of radio listeners who failed to hear the announcement at its end were ready to take to the hills.

In Shakespeare & Company’s current production, the setting is the “Jack Holloway Show,” a listener-friendly evening of “Song and Dance” preceding its “Mystery Theatre” presentation. This turns out to be a simulacrum of the hour-long 1938 treatment of the theme: extraterrestrials launching an attack on New Jersey.

In director Tony Simotes’s treatment of the Koch script, the First Act briskly sets the stage for news of the invasion. Before minor performers in walk-on roles can hurriedly deliver ominous bulletins to announcers during the Second Act, the show has a charm that all but dissolves in later flurries of tumult.

“War of the Worlds” opens with a lively introduction to life among backstage studio collaborators. With a garnish of audience participation, a number of very funny personages step forward to do their thing. These include radio announcers with bouncy vocal deliveries (Scott Renzoni), hilarious mimics (Josh Aaron McCabe), female vocalists who prettify the goings-on (Elizabeth Aspenlieder, Dana Harrison), flamboyant thespians doing their part-time radio gig (Jonathan Croy), the show’s host, Jack Holloway, who does a fetching rendition of the ballad, “Smile” (David Joseph), and the indispensable “Foley Artist,” a fellow in charge of sound effects (Michael Pfeiffer).

The company of players, the very best around when it comes to artfully executed farce, is a gifted group of performers with an aptitude for skillfully calibrated ensemble work. Were only the scripted Second Act up to the standards of the First!

The comedy’s ongoing conceit is that the cast is performing for an assembled radio audience. So it is not clear why they start to behave in the studio as they imagine the listening audience might, hearing their broadcast. Either one is a performer or a panicked citizen—but not both at the same time.

The Second Act is also encumbered by an overdone, kitschy enactment of the Pyramus and Thisbe interlude from “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” a tedious final speech by McCabe as Professor Pierson, and a pious insertion of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” doubtlessly added to assure everyone of being on the right side of the Lord in the face of alien attack.

The company ends with the ditty, “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” the last line of which is “If You Believe in Me.”  Only, it may be conjectured, when you are in the First Act.

“War of the Worlds” runs through November 6 at the at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre of Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA 01240. Show times are 11:00 AM, 2:00 PM, and 7:30 PM. Tickets are $48 and may be purchased online at www.shakespeare.org or by calling the Box Office at (413)-637-3353.

 

 

 

 

‘As You Like It’ is a big, beautiful blast at Lenox

                David Begelman

 

Theater Critic

If you’ve ever harbored any reservations about the capability of Shakespeare & Company, your doubts should be dispelled on the spot while savoring its current production of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” This is as stellar a staging of a Shakespeare play you’re likely to see in many a moon.

It’s not the only comedy of the bard in which a female character hides her true identity in male garb (“Merchant of Venice” and “Twelfth Night” contain such conceits), nor the only one in which a woman seeks refuge in a forest (“Midsummer Night’s Dream” includes this scenario.) But for a heroine bestowed with a mother load of ingenuity and personal resources, Rosalind is up there with the best of them. Exile in the Forest of Arden is pretty much a cakewalk for her.

The actress who portrays her in this production, Merritt Janson, is such a bundle of talent, her every word, gesture—and even her gymnastic sallies—are delightful, springing as they do from an obvious wellspring of ability topped with a fetching smile.

Janson is surrounded by a team of performers whose portrayals only enhance the attractiveness of this production. Although many different styles of performance grace the latter, Director Tony Simotes has calibrated them so deftly, there’s not a downbeat or discordant note anywhere in the effort.

The comic relief in this staging simply has to be seen in order to be appreciated. Humorous touches, delivered with on-cue precision by several cast members entrusted with the lion’s share of creating jollity, need to be mentioned. They are: Jonathan Epstein in a wily and hilarious rendition of Touchstone, Malcolm Ingram as the faithful, but doddering retainer Adam, who always manages to convey the impression he is on the brink of death, Kevin O’Donnell as the puffed-up Charles the Wrestler, Dana Harrison as the flighty Phebe, and Jennie M. Jadow as the lusty Audrey.

In less comedic characterizations, Tony Roach was full of youthful vigor and romantic longing as Orlando; Johnny Lee Davenport turned in sturdy portrayals as the competing potentates, Duke Frederick and Duke Senior, while Wolfe Coleman crafted a commendable performance as Orlando’s nasty brother, Oliver.

Kelly Curran was especially riveting as Rosalind’s close friend, Celia, and the scenes between her and Janson were in the opinion of this reviewer among the highlights of the show.

Director Simotes chose to adapt a Parisian 1920 ambience for the setting of the play, and if you failed to consult the playbill, you’d be a bit perplexed why the sound of the “La Marseillaise” was being piped in, or military types on stage were prancing around in French legionnaire uniforms. Maybe Simotes attached more importance to this than necessary; the setting and costumes could have been Elizabethan, Jacobean or Edwardian without any appreciable sacrifice to the overall quality of this production.

Serious theatergoers shouldn’t forfeit the opportunity to catch this impressive show. Bravo!

“As You Like It” runs through September 4 at the Founders’ Theatre, Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, Mass. Performances are Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 7:30 p.m., Sunday matinees 2 p.m. Tickets are $10-$85 and may be purchased by calling the box office at 413-637-3353 or online at www.shakespeare.org.   

 

 

 

 

 

Faces of Infidelity: Othello and The Ladies Man at Shakespeare & Company

David Begelman

With a sidelong glance at the current political scene, 2008 must be the year of the farce. Is that the reason so many of them are being staged around the tri-state area? Westport Country Playhouse has mounted Scramble!, A Flea in Her Ear is being staged in Williamstown, and The Ladies Man has opened at the Founders Theatre in Lenox, Massachusetts. One way or another, the influence of Georges Feydeau is discernable in all three productions.

Many among us love farce. You were more than likely as not to see this reviewer hitting the floor in paroxysms of laughter when watching Shakespeare & Company’s rendition of The Ladies Man, freely adapted from Feydeau’s Tailleur pour Dames. The fit drew little more than sneers from sourpusses on either side of him in the audience as though, like Pooh-Bah—the Lord High Everything Else in the Mikado— they were born that way.

As part of what Shakespeare & Company calls its first brunch matinee event of the 2008 season, the theater has dished up a hilarious version of the Feydeau farce. All of the eight performers in its cast have the timing and precision of just what it takes to roll with the necessary ingredients: in and out of slamming doors, ill-timed assignations, faux German or French accents (sounding in the case of Dave Demke as Etienne, house valet, like John Cleese’s fawning French waiter in The Meaning of Life), accomplished gyrations in compromised physical positions, and the complexities and confusions of sexual scenarios gone haywire. It is a madcap romp in La Belle Epoch France.

There is little in Feydeau’s confection that compares to Othello, Shakespeare’s majestic treatment of a military commander who becomes a tortured soul. Yet the French farce is, in a curious way, the flip side of the towering tragedy. Both plays deal with  themes of imagined infidelity, albeit in ways that are worlds apart. The two are also double-billed on the same day at the Founders’ Theater in Lenox Massachusetts, as if one of them was intended to be relief from the other.

The two plays at Lenox also share several of the same performers, Shakespeare & Company’s ingenious way of underscoring the range of abilities in its seasoned actors. Jonathan Croy doubles as the beleaguered Dr. Hercule Molineaux in the Feydeau farce, and Lodovico in Othello; Walton Wilson enacts a stuffy, Bismarckean officer and husband in the farce, and an outraged Brabantio, father of Desdemona, in the tragedy; Michael F. Toomey plays the lisping and hounded Bassinet in the farce, and Montano in Shakespeare’s play, while the multi-tasker Elizabeth Aspenlieder (she’s the publicity director for the company), plays a wife who is determined to cuckhold her Prussian husband in an acrobatic play for Dr. Molineaux that is, choreographically speaking, a tour de force. She’s also Bianca, mistress of the traduced Michael Cassio in Othello.     

The Shakespearean tragedy, one of the playwright’s finest, is a tightly constructed drama about a military commander in the Venetian army whose aide contrives to destroy him through innuendo about the infidelity of his adoring wife, Desdemona. The worm in the equation is Iago, arguably the most perfidious villain in all of dramatic literature. “Honest Iago” is the general’s spin on his treacherous aide, played by Michael Hammond as a silver-haired patrician type. The interpretation is an unusual, albeit plausible one, and a cut apart from the gruff, bawdy, NCO-type of villain portrayed by, for example, Frank Finlay or Bob Hoskins.

Mr. Hammond’s interpretation of the role leans heavily on the humorous side of the villain, less on the terrifyingly dark side of his “malignity without motive” lurking under all other aspects of his persona. Although Mr. Hammond’s performance was distinctive, it never quite raised the hair on the back of one’s neck, as this villain was meant to do.

The character of Othello may be the most daunting challenge for an actor in all of dramatic literature. It certainly was for the likes of actors from Salvini to Olivier. Not all characterizations were successful because of the demanding nature of the role, and performers went down like bowling pins in the face of the challenge. David Garrick, the outstanding naturalistic actor of the eighteenth century, bombed in the role. Othello invariably exacts a price from any lead not up to the subtle and not so subtle transitions of emotional intensity, rage, and contrition.

John Douglas Thompson has a head start on the portrayal of Shakespeare’s tragic hero. He is equipped physically for the role, and his presence on stage is always commanding. Director Tony Simotes’ approach to Act III, Scene III, in which Iago’s venomous insinuations start to unravel his general, was wisely moderated, and Othello’s fury was unleashed with intensity only subsequently in scenes with Desdemona. Mr. Thompson’s choice of an African dialect, while emphasizing a perception of Othello as “the other” in a Venetian state that must have represented its share of culture shock for a black foreigner, nonetheless became a clipped, somewhat awkward overlay atop the beauty of the verse. Nonetheless, Mr. Thompson had moments on stage that compared favorably to the best performances of the past. This is no mean accomplishment in a role the gods have deemed impossibly difficult.

Other performers acquitted their roles well, if not memorably. Yoshi Tanokura’s four-pillar set design was impressive, while Les Dickert’s amber lighting bathed performers in a perfect ambience for ongoing action.

Overall, a most enjoyable day in the theater—if you aim to laugh and cry within a short span of hours.

The Ladies Man opened at Shakespeare & Company at 70 Kemble Street in Lenox, MA on May 23, 2008. Othello opened on July 18. Both shows continue to August 31, 2008. Evening performances are at 8:00 PM, matinees at 3:00 PM. Tickets range from $15 to $60, and may be purchased by calling (413)-637-3353 or online at www.shakespeare.org

      

 

        

     

“The Tempest” a mixed blessing at Shakespeare & Company

 David Begelman

Theater Critic

The ending lines of Shakespeare’s last play form the couplet “If you from crimes would pardon’d be, Let your indulgence set me free.” Well, forgiveness may extend to many things, but not to deleting those words (or the epilogue preceding them). They celebrate the bard’s poignant farewell to the theater.

But that’s just what director Tony Simotes does in the current production of “The Tempest” in Lenox. There are several other questionable directorial choices in the show, along with positive and innovative touches. All things considered, the beauty of the play and its poetic imagery shine through an occasional misdirected attempt to do justice to one of the glories of dramatic literature.

Simotes has by now has established himself as a master of the comic conceit. His technique is more at home in plays like “As You Like It” or farces than it might be in dark comedies like “Twelfth Night” or in Shakespeare’s later romantic comedies like “The Tempest.” In these plays, an ethereal or magical atmosphere should pervade a vehicle. This can be jarred by the antics of performers who exaggerate how funny they can be or who play tastelessly to the audience.

In the current updated production, the role of Prospero, renamed Prospera, is taken by an actress (Olympia Dukakis). This is hardly news. In the 2010 film adaptation of the same play, the British actress Helen Mirren was cast in the role. Female actors in leading male roles was innovated as early as Sarah Bernhardt’s “Hamlet.” In Shakespeare’s time all female roles were undertaken by males. No point in declaring it’s time to level the playing field. This has been happening all along. The character of Ariel, the sprite who does Prospero’s bidding, is a male role. But it is played as often by women (Kristin Wold in this production).

Dukakis’s interpretation of Prospera seemed to lack gravitas. At times she appeared to be less in command of her “bare island” despite her magical powers. The actress sometimes radiated more agitation than imperial control of events swirling around her. And she tended to become snippy, rather than calm things down in a more serene way. What’s the point of being a powerful magician holding sway over an island if every little setback has you riled up?

Merritt Janson as Miranda, Prospera’s daughter, supplies a richer interpretation of her role. The part is usually taken by an actress who projects simplicity, obedience, and innocence. Janson has Miranda much more gutsy about the “brave new world that hath such people in‘t.” When it comes to Ferdinand (Ryan Winkles), a newcomer to her island, her appetite for him includes some secret hand-holding and schmoozing behind the back of her ever vigilant mother. It’s a rebellion waiting to happen.

Other commendable interpretations were of Gonzalo (Apollo Dukakis), Stephano (Jonathan Epstein) and Caliban (Rocco Sisto). The spirits of Juno (Stephanie Hedges), Iris (Casey McShain), Ceres (Jennifer Young) and Spirit (Monica Giordano) who “Are melted into air” could do without the garish costumes designed by Deborah Brothers. These are imaginary goddesses, not paraders at Mardi Gras in Rio.

“The Tempest” runs through August 19 at the Tina Packer Playhouse, Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA 01240. Performances are  Tuesdays through Sundays at varying 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. schedules. Tickets are $15 to $95 and may be purchased online at www.shakespeare.org or by calling the Box Office at (413)-637-3353.

 

 

‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ is a bellyful of laughs

By David Begelman

Theater Critic

Those master performers of farce at Shakespeare & Company are at it again. I can only assume they know a good genre when they see it. Need we mention the company’s stellar productions of Tom Stoppard’s “Rough Crossing” and “The Real Inspector Hound,” George Feydeau’s “The Ladies Man,” and the Charles Ludlam spoof “The Mystery of Irma Vepp”? They were all staged with an exuberance that has more than tickled audience funny bones.

This time, it’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” a zany take-off on Arthur Conan Doyle’s tale spun around an adventure of the sleuth extraordinaire, Sherlock Holmes. The play was authored by Steve Canny and John Nicholson, and had its premiere at Shakespeare & Company in 2009.

It hardly matters that the script and the current production bear little resemblance to the original short story. Fidelity to literary sources is the last thing audiences will have on their mind in treating themselves to this spoof. The adaptation—outrageously derivative is its proper designation—is simply too funny to make you care one way or another.

The credit for the riotous confection goes directly to Director Tony Simotes. He displays a deft hand at creating delightful bits of situational humor and physical artifice that distinguished his work in this season’s marvelous “As You Like It.”

This time, the same three performers who starred in the 2009 production have joined hands to give audiences what the company excels at delivering. They are Jonathan Croy, Ryan Winkles, and Josh Aaron McCabe. The latter two actors tore up the scenery in episodic grandeur in “Irma Vepp,” just as they do in “Hound of the Baskervilles.” The two team up with Croy as the venerable (but usually addled) Dr. Watson.

Winkles and McCabe have the lion’s share of costume changes and switching characters—often hilariously. McCabe is wildly funny, whether as a sedate Holmes, a suspicious character bulleting across the stage on a crutch, a diminutive and bearded troll-like creature who seems barely three feet high, or a seductive Spanish temptress who wields two noisy fans to emphasize her dramatic, but scarcely consequential remarks.

Winkles likewise draws a hugely appreciative audience response as a cowering coachman whose frayed nerves are evident in the vibrating horsewhip he holds while being intimidated, as Sir Henry Baskerville being taken aback by the sudden disappearance of his trousers, or being framed in a devilish portrait of himself beaming with self-satisfaction.     

The humor in this show is pretty much divided between the dialogue and the situations characters find themselves embroiled in—or ditzy combinations of both.

In the character of Holmes, McCabe radiates the smugness of the famous sleuth. When queried by his sidekick what school it was in which all the students were found poisoned, you can see the answer coming from a mile away: “elementary, my dear Watson!”

“The Hound of the Baskervilles” runs through September 4 at Founders’ Theatre, Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, Mass. Performances are Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 7:30 p.m., Sunday matinees 2 p.m. Tickets are $21.60-$48 and may be purchased by calling the box office at 413-637-3353 or online at www.shakespeare.org.