And here we have a 2012 National Theatre production of Antigone, with the major role of Creon being played by Christopher Eccleston — the Ninth Doctor in Doctor Who, and the title role being played by … Jodie Whittaker, now cast as the Thirteenth Doctor.
Small world, ennit.
(Lovely accents, by the by.)
We went today to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts production of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and had a great time. It's one of my favorite shows, and it did not disappoint.
Production: The stage was pushed well out into the audience, and well arranged, with sliding and rotating stage pieces (particularly for Mrs Lovett's shop, and its interior, with Sweeney's shop above). Much of it also worked against scaffolding on the back wall to allow the actors to cross the back or enter the higher pieces from the rear.
The lighting was appropriately spotted and gloomy, with good places for people to slip in and out, and it all fit the proper feel of a dark, sooty, factory-whistle-laden London of the period.
Actors: A nicely diverse cast, with strong talent in the leads. Robert Petkoff as Sweeney had a strong voice (and a nicely authentic-accented accent). Linda Mugleston provides a robust and enjoyable Mrs Lovett. The rest were also quite good, both in acting and as singers.
Music: Part of what made this production unique was the musical arrangement (okayed by Sondheim) by (and performed by) Denver-based Grammy Award-winning gypsy punk band DeVotchKa. Honestly, I didn't feel they added that much (or, on the other hand, took much away), making the music a bit less orchestral, a bit more folk-ish (with a drum beat). I don't regret having seen it, but anyone looking for something really different isn't going to find it here.
Beyond that, the music was well done, good sound work, strong voices. Three Broadway songs I know of were left out or truncated: the tooth-pulling part of the Pirelli contest; Turpin's self-flagellation song, and when Toby is singing from the basement along with Lovett and the Beadle. None were badly missed (except maybe for the Turpin tune).
Overall: This was the first time +Kay Hill had seen the show, and she seemed to have a good time. I expect much breaking into song in the weeks to come. And jokes about meat pies.
No, not any particular actor, but the character himself. There are hints at it, but they are just as hotly disputed by some Shakespearean scholars as they are hotly supported by yet others (this about a character by an author that people still hotly dispute whether he was, in fact, the author).
Regardless, 99.99% of all Hamlets are thin, as if consumed from within by doubts and tapeworms alike. The Byronesque nature of the protagonist has become a tradition over the centuries.
Fun article, and a glimpse at the protean nature of staging and casting Shakespeare.
Is Hamlet Fat? A Slate Investigation.
Picture for a moment Hamlet, the melancholy prince of Denmark. Chances are, you’re imagining a dashing gentleman who looks like one of the many famous actors who’ve played him. Kenneth Branagh, say, or Laurence Olivier, or Jude Law or David Tennant. You might even picture Benedict Cumberbatch, who is drawing…
RT @Shakespeare If the play is named after thee, thou art probably a goner.
If ’tis named after someone else, be not so cocky: he won’t die alone.
We went to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival's 2015 production of Othello last night. If you like your tragedies and your classic villains, then this one, directed by Lisa Wolpe, was hard to beat.
http://www.coloradoshakes.org/plays/2015/othello
Peter Macon is a fantastic Othello, strong, full of life and love, until driven to madness and murder by Iago. That role is played by Geoffrey Kent, who gives us a Iago that anyone would love and truest — charming, witty, always ready with a good joke or a reluctant piece of advice.
The rest of the cast is solid, including a not-unassuming Emilia (Vanessa Morosco) and a strong Desdemona (Laura Baranik).
Went all three of us, along with +Stan Pedzick and +Mary Oswell, and a fine, if tragic, time was had by all.
Some other good articles on the show:
https://www.cpr.org/news/story/emmy-winner-peter-macon-shakespearean-themes-still-hold-true
http://www.westword.com/arts/geoffrey-kent-on-swordfights-playing-iago-and-the-colorado-shakespeare-season-6834626
http://www.westword.com/arts/review-geoffrey-kent-steals-the-show-as-iago-in-the-csfs-othello-6856257
http://coloradodrama.com/othello4.html
Getting ready to see “Othello” at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival Woot! #csf
We're hitting a bunch of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (http://www.coloradoshakes.org/) shows this year, and their production of Much Ado, which we saw last Saturday, is a good example why. A fine combo of drama, wit, and slapstick, the play was executed with some fine acting by the principals and secondary players alike. Of particular note, the married-in-real-life Benedick (Peter Simon Hilton) and Beatrice (Vanessa Morosco) are both a particular delight, and Don John's villainous lieutenant Borachio (Sam Hardy) was neatly played.
That's the one Shakespearean comedy on for this season, alas, with Othello, Henry V, and Henry VI, Part 1. Should be an entertaining (and henceforth dramatic/tragic) summer.
Shakespeare Festival’s ‘Much Ado’ ably portrays triumph of love
When the smoke clears and the dust settles, the triumph of love should inspire and invigorate. It’s a thread that runs through all the Bard’s romances, but the formula can be particularly effective, direct and endearing in “Much Ado About Northing,” as long as the execution is on target. And the execution is definitely on target in the CSF’s current production of the piece.
Benedick called out +Kay Hill as an example of "fair" during Much Ado About Nothing at the +Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Keep away from my daughter, you scoundrel!
Time for “Much Ado about Nothing” at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival! #csf
Delightful poetry by Robin Johnson (@rdouglasjohnson) at https://twitter.com/rdouglasjohnson/status/591194630126960640 (h/t +George Wiman), with apologies to Edward Gorey (and Shakespeare).
We went to the Arvada Center last night to see this show, written by Arthur Miller in the 1970s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archbishop's_Ceiling has good summary of the setup, with its questions of security state paranoia, creative responsibility, trust, and madness.
The production itself was very well done, the actors — esp. Michael Morgan as Sigmund and William Hahn as Marcus — were all good to great, and the semi-circular theater set-up (and lovely set) allowed for some great close-up and work from different angles.
The show itself is a mixed bag, full of intense moments, wandering themes, and an ending one can call ambiguous if feeling generous. Miller — who came under suspicion from both HUAC and the Soviets at different times — has a good feel for the chilling, corrosive air of the ever-watchful security state, which is certainly a theme that resonates today, and there's a bit of autobiography both in the visiting American author Adrian and in his own experiences of writing in the face of opposition. But the show veers all over the map from a story perspective, and never quite gels.
I'll still give it three stars for a solid production, and a nice night out.
Denver Post review: http://www.denverpost.com/theater/ci_27846026/theatre-review-archbishops-ceiling-at-arvada-center
RT @Shakespeare Roses are red
Except when they’re white;
Lancaster and York
May be bound for a fight.
Finally got to see this in downtown Denver on Saturday afternoon. It's an entertaining Chekhovian (and consciously so) tale of age and sibling rivalry and ego and regret, but leavened with plenty of humor. The language gets a bit awkward at times, and the ending feels a bit too neatly wrapped, but it was an enjoyable way to pass the afternoon.
The play was penned by Christopher Durang, and the Broadway version won the 2013 Tony.
(Picture: Eddie Lopez [Spike], Kathleen McCall [Masha], (Director Jenn Thompson), Amelia White [Sasha], Lesley Shires, Sam Gregory [Vanya], and Socorro Santiago [Cassandra]. Photo by John Moore.)
Another installment in our effort to See More Theater, and a pretty successful one.
Went this afternoon to a matinee of Lord of the Flies at the Denver Performing Arts Center. +Kay Hill read the book as a summer assignment, so I thought this would be a good follow-up to that, esp. since I hadn't touched the story itself in (mumblety) decades.
The production of William Golding's novel, in the round at the Space Theater, was very good (adaption by Nigel Williams, directed by Anthony Powell). There were a few liberties taken, based on the setting on stage, working within the time limit involved, and having a cast that's more arguably high school (and beyond) than little kids, but the tale as presented was solid — and, per Golding's work, more than a bit depressing, arguing a state of nature much closer to Hobbes than Rousseau. It's fascinating watching the veneers of civilization peel away, one by one, from the shipwrecked public school students on an island, as some cling desperately to order and others dive headlong into savagery, the question of which are most delusional staying constantly up in the air.
The ensemble of actors are all good, though the variety of English accents were sometimes hard to follow from where we sat. The space was effectively used as well, with one block of seating turned into the hilltop, and the main space the beach below.
Good stuff.
Afterwards, of course, we went to this great new restaurant downtown, specializing in pork, cooked with skewers. Oh, and there's a dance floor …
This was actually the national premiere of "Animaniacs LIVE," right here tonight in Colorado, and I can heartily recommend it as a musical show to attend.
So you might think, "Hey, it's a concert about a cartoon, so it's for little kids, ho-hum." _Au contraire._ For starters, "Animanics" was a Steven Spielberg-produced zany Warner Bros. cartoon that ran from '93 – '98, endeavoring to be both subversively adult and delightfully childlike, in the model of the old Chuck Avery cartoons. While a lot of the humor was topical (lots and lots of mention of the Hollywood celebs of the era), there was also a lot that was timeless, and the music was a rich mix of jokes, satire, patter song, and generally clever lyrics.
(The "I'm Mad" song is one of the more conventional ad hoc segments, but one of my favorite tunes — one that will certainly appeal to anyone who's herded kids in a car.)
This concert show is an homage to the show, essentially a series of musical numbers interspersed with chat about the show and how it was mad. The key here, though, is the folk who are in the show. The main stars, on-stage the full time and doing most of the heavy lifting, are Rob Paulson (the voice of Yakko, Pinky, and Dr Scratchansniff) and Randy Rogel (one of the writers and songwriters for the show). Also appearing for some of the musical numbers were Tress MacNeille (Dot) and Jess Harnell (Wakko). Rounding out the cast were Julie and Steve Bernstein who provided both some singing backup and conducting.
Having the full Colorado Symphony Orchestra for the show was amazing — though the music was written for such an orchestra (something Spielberg insisted on). At times, given we were just a few rows back from the stage edge, the native sound of the CSO overwhelmed the micced singing of the players, but overall it was nicely done.
Some of the segments included the original animation projected on the screen behind the orchestra. This was particularly used for the list songs: "Yakko's Universe," "Yakko's World," "Wakko's America."
Given that the show was 15-20 years ago, the talent is still pretty strong. Rogel (who does much of the singing) is solid, as is Paulson (suffering from just a bit of raggedness at his upper range). MacNeille and Harnell were weaker in the pipes, but they made up for it in enthusiasm (echoed from the audience).
Indeed, enthusiasm was the order of the evening here, with Paulson and Rogel taking the lead. Paulson, in fact, seemed like the happiest guy on the planet to have this show going and the large and receptive audience in attendance. The whole cast was having fun, which, especially given the subject matter, made the audience have fun, too. That audience was made up of all ages, from a few kids up through older orchestra-goers, and a lot of people who grew up with (or whose kids grew up with) "Animaniacs."
The first act of the show was the strongest, hitting on a variety of key songs from the animated series. The second half fills in with a lot of other music that Rogel has composed for animated shows, including a number from the WB cartoon series "Histeria!". These are all good and very much in line with the "Animaniacs" material, but somehow didn't feel quite as engaging as the first act material, even though the show concluded with a rousing full-cast and -audience sing-along to the "Animaniacs" theme song, as well as a specially composed extension to "Yakko's World" for the encore that included all the nations that have been created since the original song was written.
Overall, though, it was a fine, entertaining evening, with much laughter and applause to be had. I hope they have a long and successful run, and if they hit Denver again, I'll definitely look to pick up another set of tickets.
Getting ready to be Animaniacal! #betterboettcher http://t.co/b8DI30LmHQ
No, really, it's time. To go to the show. Yay!
The Colorado Symphony | Animaniacs LIVE presented by Arrow Electronics
Scott O’Neil, resident conductor. Randy Rogel, writer. Rob Paulsen, Yakko and Dr. Scratch ‘n’ Sniff Jess Harnell, Wakko Tress MacNeille, Dot Julie and Steve Bernstein, composers. Animaniacs, a mix of old-fashioned wit, slapstick, pop culture and music, fueled the animation renaissance of the …
More info at http://www.marveluniverselive.com/
The versions of the characters are sort of a MCU/TV conglomeration — no current comic story lines need apply.
Comes to Denver in late January 2016, so I'm not buying tickets yet.
During the intermission, they asked for some folks to go up stage and take mambo lessons from the "hotel staff". I ended up as one of the volunteers, and Stan snapped this pic of me. Frankly, I think I have a bit of a Falstaff vibe going on there …
Had fun, though.
(Original https://twitter.com/pedzz_bd/status/493238658023952385)
