The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
In 1998, Jerry Lewis, in what was apparently an attempt at controversy to draw attention to himself, stated that women aren't funny. And he recently doubled down on the opinion. He needs to drag his 90 year old ass out to Steel Beam and see The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield. This rapid-fire pastiche of All Things Bardish was originally performed by three men. Director Jesse Hicks has cast three of the funniest women in the area to take their places. (It's actually four, but you only see three at each performance. Two of the performers trade off.) The director does an expert job at keeping things moving and funny. But I can't say enough about the cast. As a director, I sometimes find it difficult getting actors to perform at stage-size instead of TV size. Enormous is the amount of energy necessary to propel an audience through an evening of fast paced comedy. The energy level here goes through the roof. The goal is never to make the audience feel as they got their money's worth; it's to make them feel as if they owe you more. That is accomplished here in spades. Julie Bayer, Jennifer Reeves-Wilson and Heidi Swarthout are not Good Actresses. Julie Bayer, Jennifer Reeves-Wilson and Heidi Swarthoutare absolutely top-notch professional-level CLOWNS. There is no higher praise that I can give. They are not "funny - for women." They are funny. Period. Actually, I don't know if their periods are funny, but I'm willing to bet that they are.
If you are interested in spending your entertainment money wisely, this is a great bet for you.
If you are an actor interested in studying comedic performance in order to better your own - this is MUST see.
You may eventually see performers equal to Julie, Heidi and Jennifer (and probably Lori Holm, whom I didn't see). You won't see better.
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"The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)" When: Sept. 16-Oct. 9 Where: Steel Beam Theatre, 111 W. Main St., St. Charles Tickets: $28 adult; $25 seniors (62 and over); $23 students Information: 630-587-8521 or steelbeamtheatre.com
Should you go seeHow to Succeed in Business
Without Really Tryingat
the Marriott Theatre? My
answer is a qualified “yes.”
How to Succeedis very close to my heart for reasons I won’t bother
with here. They’ll be in the next post, or as a comment on this
one. So, unfortunately, I’m a picky know-it-all about the show.
Let’s go through the good stuff first, then deal with the four gremlins.
This Pulitzer Prize winning musical deals with
corporate America in the early 1960s. J. Pierrepont Finch, an ambitious
window washer, uses a How To book to angle his way to the top. For fans
of classic musicals, the score includes such Frank Loesser hits asI Believe in YouandBrotherhood
of Man. If played correctly, it is one of the four or five
funniest musicals ever written. If played correctly. Meaning, give
up any ideas of political correctness. It takes place in the
sixties. Men were executives, women were secretaries or wives.
Sexual behavior was not so much regulated as it was glorified. A) That’s
the way it was; accept it and realize it’s a period piece. B) The authors
aremaking funof greed and sex. That’s a farce’s JOB.
So if you dampen the venality, there’s no point in doing the show.
Even with the best of Finches, the show is usually
stolen by Hedy LaRue and Bud Frump. Angela Ingersoll is the best Hedy
LaRue I’ve ever seen. Playing a cartoon sex bomb, Ingersoll nails the three
most important aspects of the character. One of these is comic timing.
Instead of going for the usual high pitched Marilyn-Monroe-from-Brooklyn imitation (or Carol Channing, as Maureen Arthur played it in the movie
version), Ingersoll goes for a low, occasionally raspy cigarette voice that is
perfect for the character. Polite society decrees that I must not mention
the actress’s breasts in a review. But Angela Ingersoll isbrilliantat making her tits funny; which is
what the part calls for. I was not fond of Terry Hamilton’s J.B.
Biggley. He kept throwing in a lot of childish shtick into a part that
epitomizes Dignity. His dignity can’t be overthrown if Biggley isn’t
dignified. Hamilton was solely a cartoon… whereas, when Hedy says, “Don't start gettingsincere. That's not fair,” Ingersoll looked truly
wounded and seemed about to cry. That’s how you give humanity to a
cartoon character. I can’t say enough about Ingersoll’s performance, so
I’ll move on.
As Bud Frump, Alex Goodrich had an
interesting approach, which I’m still not sure if I liked or not. Frump, the villain, is usually the
audience favorite because he’s so damned ineffective at villainy. He’s the Wile E. Coyote of musical
comedy. But Goodrich, who
is amazingly talented and nails all the jokes he is permitted to nail (more on
that in the Gremlin section), gives Bud a snarling, roaring, venomous rage that
is a bit off-key with the breeziness of the script. I didn’t hate it; but still… Anyway,
Goodrich is mostly hilarious.
Choreographer Melissa Zaremba did
some brilliant things. Cinderella, Darlingworked for the first time since 1961
because A) nobody was going through the motions on a song they regarded as
dated; they bought into it and B) the choreographer made it work by turning it
into a pseudo-tap number instead of a static stand-there-and-sing comedy
number. And I won’t spoil the moment inBrotherhood of Manwhen the executives realize they have
to join in. Very funny (and subtle) stuff.
Jessica Naimy was a wonderful
Rosemary, with the perfect angle on the character. Instead of a sweet (if
pushy) doormat, Naimy’s Rosemary looked unflinchingly at her options –
secretary or wife – and was just as hungry and conniving about her goal as
Finch was about his.
Derek Hasenstab was great in the dual
roles of Twimble and Womper, as were Jason Grimm as Bratt and Marya Grandy as
Smitty. The ensemble was expert at their jobs. Felicia P. Fields as Miss Jones seemed to be very ill the night I saw it, so I’m going to cut her some slack.
The Gremlins:
1. Mentioned a bit earlier. How to Succeedis a period piece. If
you can go along with the idea that sex and greed are funny, you’ll have a good
time.
2. Pacing. Sigh. Just sigh.
The first half of Act One is unbearable. There is a rehearsal technique
called “speed through.” You just spit out the lines as fast as you can,
no emotion, no communicating, no periods, no spaces between words. Don
Stephenson directed the majority of Act One as a speed through. When
Rosemary meets Finch, you can’t understand a word she says because she’s been
directed to spitoutallthewordsasfastaspossible. And it’s not just
her. Everybodydoes it. The message, I guess,
is that we’re on a rocket ride! What it actually says is that the
director has no confidence in the material and wants to get it over with.
If he doesn’t care, why should we? Punchlines? What punchlines?
3. The Matthew Broderick revival has
a lot to answer for. First – Miss Jones, who is now nearly always cast as
a large black lady. Sigh.
A black Finch… great. Or Rosemary. Or Hedy. Or Bud. Or
Womper. But Miss Jones is theonecharacter inHow to Succeedwho needs to be played by a
middle-aged, starchy, repressed white woman, because anything else kills the
joke inBrotherhood of Man– that the most unexpected person in
the room suddenly decides that she is Mahalia Jackson. It’s not
prejudice; it’s getting the joke right. It's like casting Sean Connery as
Maxwell Smart. He's great at what he does, but he's wrong for the part.
Then, in this production, not only is
the wrong person singing the song, but it is turned from gospel into
scat. Badscat, at that. It kills the
double meaning of “Oh, brother!” if you don’t actually sing those words. Brotherhoodis not just an eleven o’clock number –
it’s a stinging satire of redemption, being sung by irredeemable people.
4. The second Matthew Broderick
effect: miscasting Finch. Ari Martin is awonderfulleading man. But you don’t need
a handsome, romantic leading man for Finch. He isn’t a cuddly puppy dog;
he’s a slinky, sneaky catpretendingto be a cuddly puppy dog. This
is one of those parts, like Harold Hill inThe
Music Man, where Comedy Comes First. If Finch can dance and carry
a tune, great. But the primary factor of the triple threat is
comedy. Not Matthew Broderick. Not Daniel Radcliffe. Ideally,
you need a young Nathan Lane, who can take over the stage and defend it against
all comers. It’s whyYoung
Frankensteinis never
going to work onstage – Frederick requires an equally triple-threat man when
the comedy should lead. Ari Martin is a tremendous singer and dancer, and
can play comedy. But he’s not an aggressive clown; and that’s a
minus.
Bottom line: if you aren’t as picky
as I am aboutHow to
Succeed, you’ll have a great time. When the amphetamines wear off
enough to let the jokes land, there are a lot of laughs. The singing and
dancing are expert. It’s a decent evening in the theatre.
