Two Gentlemen

The BBC Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona was, sadly, a dismal and boring affair. I believe I enjoyed it even less than All's Well That Ends Well, which was my least favorite production up to this point. The young cast seemed to have been directed with the approach that dead earnestness was the only way to handle the material, but this proved an unsatisfactory choice, especially at the perplexing end.

None of the actors were able to distinguish themselves, with Joanne Pearce coming closest to giving a pleasing performance. I found it impossible to care about anyone or anything in the entire production. And what an ugly set! The forest looked like something knocked together by a community theatre with a $50 budget.

It did make me more curious to know the 1971 musical version, with book and lyrics by John Guare. What made them choose this play for adaptation is puzzling.

Ringo at the Ryman DVD!

I saw the concert and have written about the forthcoming DVD here a couple of times, but Amazon now says that the Ringo at the Ryman DVD will be released on March 19th!

Which Twin Wins the Tony?

"The Comedy of Errors" marks the 30th film I've seen in the BBC Shakespeare series. I enjoyed it a lot, thanks primarily to the excellent comic performances of Michael Kitchen and Suzanne Bertish. Roger Daltrey was also enjoyable, although I felt he was at times a bit less assured than his fellow actors.

Kitchen and Daltrey both did well in differentiating their two roles, as the two Antipholi and Dromios respectively. Of course when casting these parts, you try to find actors who look as much alike as possible. But for a film or video version, casting the same actor as both of twins creates rather the opposite challenge: How can the audience know which twin they're looking at at any given time? Kitchen alternated between easygoing and stern, while Daltrey worked the silly/serious angle, making sure the audience stayed clearheaded while the play's characters were in a perpetual state of confusion.

I was in "The Boys From Syracuse" many years ago, playing Antipholus of Syracuse, and our production of the musical adaptation was certainly more "slapstick-y" than this BBC offering. I did think director James Cellan Jones could have picked up the pace a bit. Things really bogged down when Wendy Hiller's Aemilia came on the scene at the end; a bit of comic eccentricity would have livened up her role.

Still, one of the more enjoyable offerings of late!

Macbeth

Just finished the BBC Shakespeare's "Macbeth". It's a very clear, lucid reading of the play, and commendably so. But director Jack Gold's decision to forego any sense of "magic" in the various hallucinations the characters experience was unfortunate. The budgets on this series are clearly pretty low, but it wouldn't cost much at all to have an apparition of Banquo sitting at the table, would it? The sense of the supernatural needed to be a lot stronger; it kept the central issues of prophesy and destiny a bit off balance.

Jane Lapotaire was an excellent, sexy Lady Macbeth. Nicol Williamson started off well as Macbeth, although as the play went on he succumbed to melodrama and outright overacting. His wheezy intake of breath became quite distracting too. And his "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" was disappointing. The rest of the cast was solid, if unremarkable.

No doubt Macbeth must be a very difficult role for an actor to pull off, especially on camera. But in "Shakespeare Uncovered" I recently saw clips of the Patrick Stewart and Antony Sher versions, both of which looked intriguing. I've heard Ian McKellen's is excellent too. I'd like to check them all out.

Cymbeline

I watched "Cymbeline", the next in the BBC Shakespeare series. Sorry to report it was a pretty dull affair. Director Elijah Moshinsky once again seemed more interested in staging pretty pictures than in revealing character and driving the drama forward. They're actors, not objects!

It must be said too that this is one of the more unpleasantly implausible of Shakespeare's plays. All a woman need do is throw on a pair of knickers and her feminine identity is completely inscrutable even to those who know her most intimately.

A few notable performances: Robert Lindsay made a fascinating Iachimo, notably creepy in the "bedroom scene". Paul Jesson was insufferably snotty and petulant (but in a good way) as Cloten. (Jesson is, incidentally, the "King of the BBC Shakespeare", appearing in eight of the series' productions.) Geoffrey Burridge and David Creedon as Guiderius and Arviragus sang "Fear No More" nicely; Stephen Oliver's setting wasn't quite as touching as Stephen Sondheim's, but still very effective.

Two more Moshinskys to go in the series. Sigh.

A Palindrome

Wonks know.

24 Days More

Like many people, I'm very excited about the upcoming movie of Les Misérables. Much has been made of the actors singing live on set, rather than to their own prerecorded voices.

I've seen several clips, and so far I like what I see. But I have a question: Was there a conductor on set? The actors seem perfectly free to pause, stretch, whisper, do whatever "feels right" to them, followed closely by the on set keyboardist (who would be replaced by a full orchestra in post). But was there a musical director/conductor present during filming too? You know, someone to keep in mind how the music and tempi relate to the overall piece? Someone to say "No, this bit really needs to be strictly in tempo, and please sing more"? Or were the actors the "conductors", shaping each moment as they personally felt it, without keeping the big picture in mind? That seems to me too large a job for just the keyboardist, who had to concentrate on following the actors.

I sure hope it all comes off well.