Henry V: an awful rewrite
Director Lois Anderson hasn't just adapted Shakespeare’s Henry V for Bard on the Beach, she has attempted to rewrite it — and the results are a mess. In Henry V, the reckless young Prince Hal of Henry IV, turns into a warrior whose troops slaughter the French at the...
Million Dollar Quartet: artistry and marketing
Director Bobby Garcia’s production of Million Dollar Quartet is so slick. His direction is tight, the design is fantastic, and the cast has talent pouring out of them. But I also felt like I was being marketed to and that significantly cut into my enjoyment. It might...
Julius Caesar: splendid
Director Cherissa Richards’s production of Julius Caesar for Bard on the Beach is riveting from start to finish. I have never experienced such a successful interpretation of this play. Part of the credit has to go to Stephen Drover’s driving adaptation, which cuts...
Rotterdam: I liked its inhabitants
This production of Rotterdam from the new queer company Under His Lyre features good work by emerging actors in a script that's pretty bad. In Rotterdam, playwright John Brittain tells the story of Fiona and Alice. They’re a couple, and Alice is just about to send a...
As You Like It (most of the time)
It’s wonderful. There are holes in it. But it’s still wonderful. When I first saw director Daryl Cloran’s Beatles-inspired adaptation of As You Like It in its premiere at Bard on the Beach five years ago, I was smitten. Cloran has cut half of Shakespeare’s text and...
Beautiful (in some ways): The Carole King Musical
There are so many great songs in this show. And there’s so much talent on the Arts Club stage. But there’s so little story in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical that it often feels more like a concert than theatre. Douglas McGrath’s slim book follows the legendary...
A Flea in Her Ear: There are powders for that
All sorts of people call A Flea in Her Ear one of the great farces. I’m not sure if the script is salvageable. Written by Georges Feydeau in 1907 and seen here in the 2006 adaptation by David Ives, Flea concerns a woman named Raymonde Chandebise who suspects her...
God Said This: bluntly
Leah Nanako Winkler’s God Said This explores important experiences, but does so in annoyingly sentimental and on-the-nose ways. Fortunately, in this Pacific Theatre production, there are significant rewards in both the performances and physical production. In the...
Happy Valley: Great destination, but getting there involves a major detour
I won’t give away the confession in Derek Chan’s Happy Valley, but it’s the best part of the script. In this interdisciplinary solo, Chan sings and recites poetry — often in Cantonese with English surtitles. We also get Cantonese surtitles. Chan grew up in Hong Kong...
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