Back from a lovely weekend in Ashland with my descendants Miles and Ben. Per request of several fans, some short reviews. Friday night: Comedy of Errors. Ive more or less given up on ever seeing a wonderful Comedy of Errors, cause the material just isnt there, but this one was very good. The conceit was to set it during the Harlem Renaissance, with one set of Antipholus/Dromios being from Louisiana and the other Harlem-raised - which made space for a lot of wonderful costumes and music (including a Duke with a striking resemblance to the young Cab Calloway). Like most productions of that show Ive seen, it tended to throw in a lot of dumb sight and repetition gags to compensate for the slightness of the core material; I suspect some of them wont stay in there throughout the run (all the shows opened just a week or two ago). The guy playing both Dromios was amazing, with a lot of dance moves and a rather swell harmonica solo, but production-wise there really there wasnt much there there. Saturday afternoon: The Cocoanuts. The idea of reproducing a Marx Brothers show, complete with Marx Brothers impressions, seemed risky to me when they did Animal Crackers two seasons ago. That was the year I missed because Kay was dying, but I heard great things about the show, and now I see why. All three actors in the Marx roles were brilliant, with John Tufts (who weve watched skyrocketing through the company during the last six or seven years, from spear-carriers to leading men) particularly wonderful in the Chico role. And the company as a whole was working with the brilliant, split-second timing I last saw them doing during Noises Off some years ago. Every year, OSF mounts one big, crowd-pleasing ensemble comedy, and theyre always wonderful, but this was one of the best. Saturday night: The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window, a rarely performed play by Lorraine Hansberry. Its one Id like to read, to try to tease out more of the themes and ideas - it was deep and complex enough that just seeing it on stage didnt quite give me enough time with it. But I liked it a lot, and the performances were across-the-board wonderful. Sunday afternoon: The Tempest. A stunningly gorgeous production featuring four Butoh dancers and remarkable, creative stage effects, including a jawdropping shipwreck scene. In a generally strong cast, both Ariel and Caliban were standouts. It seemed especially nice to have the weekend bracketed by Shakespeares first and last plays - I didnt plan it that way but Im glad it worked out that way. Other notes on this visit: lots of change to the town, parking way worse than Ive seen it before in the midseason, many new restaurants (we had lunch today at Sesame, a new pan-Asian noodle place owned by the same people as Prima Piatti, one of our favorites, and it was very very good.) A terrific visit, all-in-all. Im feeling a little frustrated by several shows Im not going to get to see - Im thinking of planning a short visit down there in midsummer to pick up the spare, if I can figure out how to swing the dough).
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 05:06:05 +0000
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