|
Thursday, 14 August 2008 |
|
New Haven Register - By E. Kyle Minor 08/14/2008 NEW HAVEN -
With all due respect to Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart, "Hello Dolly!" isn't a great musical. If one uses the stringent criterion that musicals derived from established properties should improve on their source material to rank among the great, then so long "Dolly!"
Just take a gander at The Elm Shakespeare Company's current production of Thornton Wilder's 1955 romantic farce "The Matchmaker," which Herman and Stewart converted into "Hello, Dolly!"
The energetic production, directed by Elm Shakespeare Artistic Director James Andreassi, proves that Wilder's under-served work is a beautifully crafted comedy that builds in laughter while scattering genuine pearls of wisdom along the way.
"The Matchmaker," running in repertory with "Hamlet" through Aug. 31 at Edgerton Park ("Hamlet" starts tonight), stands a distant third behind Wilder's "Our Town" (1938) and "The Skin of Our Teeth" (1942), both Pulitzer Prize winners and regarded as profound beyond Broadway's standards.
"The Matchmaker," which initially appeared on Broadway in 1938 as a one-act called "The Merchant of Yonkers," has been overshadowed and under-represented by "Hello, Dolly!" since Carol Channing first donned her red dress and fluttering boas. What Andreassi's production proves is that "The Matchmaker" is arguably as profound as "The Skin of Our Teeth" and funnier than its musical adaptation, which seems to unintentionally trivialize Wilder's wisdom and sentimentalize the Master's light touch.
Andreassi deals himself an ace in the title role, with Elm Shakespeare veteran Lisa Bostnar a beguiling Dolly Levi. Looking radiant in Elizabeth Bolster's exquisite costumes, Bostnar's Dolly manipulates Wilder's delightfully foolish characters without any of them remotely aware that she controls their destiny. Bostnar completes the characterization with ample comic timing and earnest humanity.
Michael Peter Smith is an aptly impatient and tightfisted Horace Vandergelder, Dolly's unwitting but ultimately willing prey. Raphael Massie's amiable Cornelius Hack and Ian McQuillan-Grace's impeccably clownish Barnaby Tucker serve as perfect foils for their employer Vandergelder and suitable beaux for Tamara Hickey's impish Irene Malloy and Samantha Mashaw's innocent Minnie Fay.
Andreassi pulls another ace from his sleeve when Elm Shakespeare regular Allyn Burrows shows up in Act III as Miss Flora Van Huysen. Though a female traditionally performs the role, Burrows gets deeper laughs as his presence adds resonance to the character's lines.
"The Matchmaker" is a delightful night out for all.
E. Kyle Minor of Danbury is a freelance writer.
|
|
|
Thursday, 14 August 2008 |
By E. Kyle Minor
08/17/2008
NEW HAVEN — Tackling Shakespeare's "Hamlet," often regarded as the greatest play ever, is a daunting endeavor for any theater company — especially an American one. Whether the group in question is the Public Theater in New York, or a small, professional summer theater group, audiences bring tall expectations.
The Elm Shakespeare Company, which just added "Hamlet" to its season of rotating repertory (with Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker"), offers its engaging and accessible rendition, starring the versatile Elm Shakespeare regular Allyn Burrows as the Melancholy Dane. Coming in at a brisk two-and-a-half-hours (no intermission), the production is by no means Spinach Theater ("eat it — it's good for you!"), but rather a good, old melodrama where the audience champs at the bit to see its hero avenge his pater's murder while overcoming iconic inner conflict and a formidable adversary, the nefarious Claudius.
"Hamlet," which barrels along through Aug. 31 at Edgerton Park, has the added attraction of Alvin Epstein, making his Elm Shakespeare Company debut as Polonius. It is indeed a pleasure to hear this most accomplished performer of the classics speak his character's fatherly advice to his son, Laertes, and daughter, Ophelia.
Epstein is well met by the rest of the cast, too, especially the principal actors whose classical training serves them aptly. In addition to Burrows' swift-thinking Hamlet, Mark Zeisler is a cool, considerate Claudius who, with the obvious exception of when he watches his horrific murder acted out in the play-within-a-play, hides his dastardly deeds behind a trustworthy facade of compassion. Similarly, Lisa Bostnar underplays Gertrude so that subtext is paramount.
Ted Hewlett's quick-tempered Laertes counterpoints Burrows' Hamlet nicely. Tamara Hickey's Ophelia credibly spirals from lovely innocent to off the wall without going over the top. Raphael Massie's Horatio is so genuinely devoted to Hamlet that he reveals no sign of acting.
This is true of all the principals, whose style is more heightened reality than affectation. It's worth seeing them all in both "Hamlet" and "The Matchmaker," as director James Andreassi smartly cast them in completely opposite roles between the two shows (check out Michael Peter Smith, a delightfully Player King and common Grave Digger in "Hamlet," as well as a testy Horace Vandergelder in "The Matchmaker" — indeed, a Horace of a different color).
The production design complements the performers modestly but effectively, especially Elizabeth Bolster's mostly modern-day costumes, where Claudius' contemporary suit fits right in with Hamlet's classic black and Laertes' old-style martial garb.
E. Kyle Minor of Danbury is a freelance writer.
|
|
|
Friday, 10 August 2007 |
This Three Musketeers is rousing, raucous, and rather ribald. Charles Morey's clever adaptation takes a format that's a little like Man of La Mancha, with the author of an advernture story creating it under duress, and inserting himself (and some of his enemies) into the action to show how readily even the most fantastical art imitates life.
|
|
|
Sunday, 05 August 2007 |
|
Forty years ago, young Americans flooded the
Haight-Asbury section of San Francisco for peace, love and a spleef or
two during the height of hippie cohabitation in the Summer of Love.
Elm Shakespeare will try to conjure the same spirit -- though not the
same illegal smiles and trash -- when it turns Edgerton Park into the
Forest of Arden, the main setting of Shakespeare's "As You Like It."
|
|
|
Saturday, 08 October 2005 |
|
 One of the most admirable traits of the
title monarch in Shakespeare's "Richard III" is
that, unlike our contemporary heads of state, he reveals his
dishonorable intentions in poetic yet bald-faced language that
never equivocates. What's more, James Andreassi, who
plays the hunchbacked despot in Elm Shakespeare Company's
current production, doesn't mangle his lines, but utters
them trippingly.
It's a quality so refreshingly rare in today's
politics that one considers overlooking Richard's various
murders in the interest of good faith and high eloquence.
|
|
|
Thursday, 27 September 2001 |
|
In an entertainment
world increasingly dominated by "superstars," whose talents
are mainly in the clever phrases of their publicists or the depth
of their cleavage, it's nice to see some local people making it on
the strength of their artistic talents.
|
|
|
