Come Back, Little Sheba is a disjointed play. During the first act, it feels like a trivial tragedy not tragic enough to earn that description. The characters are fretting losers with problems so superficial that it’s remarkable how easy they would be to fix. Marie: date nicer boys (and try just one at a time); […]
“I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is not that strange?” -Benedick to Beatrice (IV.i) The 2012 Stratford season isn’t very good. 80% of the reason I say that is Much Ado About Nothing. There are places to improve Henry V, Charlie Brown, The Matchmaker and so much else, but they […]
Oliver Stone’s Savages is his best work in years. Or so the poster says. Given the slump Stone has been in since 2004’s epic failure Alexander, that’s not saying much. The film has been adapted from a book with the same name. I have not read the book and seeing the film did not encourage me […]
Present Laughter isn’t particularly remarkable. It’s a pretty standard Shaw production despite being written by Noel Coward and not George Bernard Shaw (who only wrote two plays slated for the 2012 season, actually). The costumes are pretty, the set is impressive if not interesting and everybody has British accents. Shaw’s Festival Theatre is a typical proscenium arch- […]
In a season where Stratford is struggling a bit, I haven’t seen a bad Shaw production yet. Ragtime is Fantastic (more on that later) and His Girl Friday is pretty good (again, more to come) but it’s French Without Tears that surprised me the most. I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into at […]
If you’re a theatre person, Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell’s self-inspired meta-musical [title of show] is something you will undoubtedly love. If you’re not a theatre person, you will likely enjoy it slightly less, but it’s still a funny and affecting story of creation, even if you don’t get every Sondheim reference. With very few […]
I have seen a lot of Shakespeare in parks, but I am fairly new to other theater presented outdoors. The last show I saw from Apollinaire was Cyrano de Bergerac, also in Mary O’Malley Park. Even though it was not Shakespeare, that text has a certain poetic bombast that doesn’t feel out of place when […]
“Even if I have to dig ditches for the rest of my life, I’ll be a ditch digger who once had a wonderful day” – Cornelius Hackl, the brightly optimistic heart of Stratford’s uneven but partly adorable oldschool comedy. I was highly skeptical of The Matchmaker, knowing that it would be even more dated […]