Archives for August 2011

In today’s Wall Street Journal I file the first of two reports from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. This week I review three shows, Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure, and The Pirates of Penzance. Here’s an excerpt.
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The modern-dress “Julius Caesar” that Orson Welles brought to Broadway in 1937 continues to cast a long shadow. By turning the play into a contemporary parable of fascism on the march, Welles raised the curtain on the high-concept production style that now dominates Shakespeare staging throughout the world. I don’t know whether Amanda Dehnert had Welles in mind when she created her own modern-dress version of “Julius Caesar” for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, but it’s very much in the tradition of that legendary production, albeit with a few postmodern frills, foremost among them the casting of a woman actor, Vilma Silva, in the title role. It is also the best “Julius Caesar” I’ve ever seen, a stark parable of good intentions run amok that has the attention-grabbing power of a hand grenade lobbed into a crowded room.
Performed in the round on a bare stage decorated with crudely lettered agitprop pennants and a few battered kitchen chairs, Ms. Dehnert’s “Julius Caesar” has a deceptively improvisational air. All of the roles are played by a compact ensemble of 11 actors who switch casually from part to part. It’s as if you’re watching a performance that’s been thrown together on the spot—but Robert Peterson’s ultra-meticulous lighting design leaves no doubt of the forethought that has gone into this production. Every detail registers with ideal clarity, yet it never feels as though the play is being bent out of shape to make anachronistic political points….
Bill Rauch, Oregon Shakespeare’s artistic director, is equally enamored of high-concept productions, and no less adept than Ms. Dehnert at charging his concepts with theatrical life—though on paper they sometimes seems obvious to the point of triteness. I mean, who wants to sit through a “Measure for Measure” that’s set in a sterile-looking corporate meeting room at the dawn of the leisure-suit era? Capitalism, boo! Humanism, yay! But Mr. Rauch knows his business, and this smart, swift, refreshingly unpredictable “Measure” is one of his finest efforts yet. Not only is every detail of the transposition from Vienna circa 1600 to corporate America circa 1970 worked out with rigorous comic logic, but the cast is fabulously good, especially Stephanie Beatriz, who plays Isabella with spitfire energy. Mr. Rauch’s Vienna, by the way, is a bilingual border town, and the incidental music is supplied by Las Colibrí, a terrific all-female mariachi trio from Los Angeles whose pungently melancholy songs are a major contribution to the total effect of the production.
Mr. Rauch’s version of “The Pirates of Penzance” is another superior staging, a farcical romp that benefits from the lively choreography of Randy Duncan and the riotously colorful costumes of Deborah M. Dryden. Even the 14-piece orchestra, led by Daniel Gary Busby, plays exceptionally well, a rarity for a regional-theater musical, and the singing, if far from operatic, is more than serviceable….
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Read the whole thing here.
The members of Las Colibrí talk about their contribution to Measure for Measure:

“Never mind your happiness; do your duty.”
Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

My mother had two major operations in the past few days to relieve and repair an intestinal blockage. Amazingly–though I guess we shouldn’t be surprised at such things anymore–she appears yet again to be recovering with unexpected speed. Indeed, her doctors have assured me that it’s now safe for Mrs. T and I to resume our travels, so we’ll be heading up to Wisconsin tomorrow to see three performances by American Players Theatre, though you can bet that we’ll be keeping our cellphones on.
I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, heartfelt thanks to all those who wrote or posted with good wishes.

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.

BROADWAY:

• Anything Goes (musical, G/PG-13, mildly adult subject matter that will be unintelligible to children, closes Jan. 8, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (musical, G/PG-13, perfectly fine for children whose parents aren’t actively prudish, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• Avenue Q (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

• Million Dollar Quartet (jukebox musical, G, off-Broadway remounting of Broadway production, original run reviewed here)

IN WASHINGTON, D.C.:

• Oklahoma! (musical, G, remounting of 2010 production, suitable for children, closes Oct. 2, original run reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON IN EAST HADDAM, CONN.:

• Show Boat (musical, G, suitable for bright children, closes Sept. 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN GARRISON, N.Y.:

• The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare, PG-13, suitable for bright children, closes Sept. 4, reviewed here)

• Hamlet (Shakespeare, PG-13, closes Sept. 3, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN LENOX, MASS:

• As You Like It (Shakespeare, G/PG-13, closes Sept. 4, reviewed here)

• The Memory of Water (serious comedy, PG-13, some adult subject matter, closes Sept. 4, reviewed here)

• Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare, G/PG-13, violence and some adult subject matter, closes Sept. 3, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK ON BROADWAY:

• Master Class (drama, G/PG-13, not suitable for children, closes Sept. 4, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

“Large organizations cannot be versatile. A large organization is effective through its mass rather than through its agility. Fleas can jump many times their own height, but not an elephant.”
Peter F. Drucker, The Age of Discontinuity

A 1937 March of Time feature about the Original Dixieland Jazz Band:

(This is the latest in a weekly series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Wednesday.)

“It’s not the tragedies that kill us, it’s the messes.”
Dorothy Parker, interview, The Paris Review (Summer 1956)

“A really good picture looks as if it’s happened at once.”
Helen Frankenthaler (quoted in Barbara Rose, Frankenthaler)