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4May

Shakespeare’s underdogs

Posted by: CanvasCLE Categories: Previews & Reviews
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Photo / Jeremy Daniel

Touring ‘Something Rotten’ is an absolute treat

By Bob Abelman

“Something Rotten!” – which takes place in South London in 1595, opened on Broadway in 2015 and is currently on tour and on stage at Playhouse Square – puts to rest the long-standing debate about who actually wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare.

Rumors have long suggested that the author is either or a combination of playwright Christopher Marlowe, essayist Francis Bacon, dramatist George Peele, adventurer Walter Raleigh, William Stanley, the 6th Earl of Derby, or the cultured aristocrat Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.

We now know that the plagiarizing Shakespeare got all of his best ideas from the Bottom Brothers, the two down-on-their-luck playwrights featured in the deceptively smart and absolutely shameless spoof written by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell.

Astoundingly hummable music and hilarious lyrics – starting with the opening number “Welcome to the Renaissance” – are written by Kirkpatrick and his brother Wayne.

“Something Rotten!” revolves around the earnest Nick Bottom (brilliantly handled by Rob McClure), who hates Shakespeare as much for his thievery as his rock star reputation among adoring theatergoers, and the pathologically naïve Nigel Bottom (a thoroughly endearing Josh Grisetti).

The two underdog playwrights hire a bargain-basement soothsayer named Thomas Nostradamus (an absolutely hysterical Blake Hammond) to look into the future so they can claim Shakespeare’s most popular play as their own. Nostradamus picks up pieces and parts of “Hamlet” but also discovers an art form that will take the world by storm – the musical – where singing and dancing replaces dialogue and overpriced drinks can be purchased in a lobby. His vision provides random insights into showgirls, chorus lines and pieces and parts of various hit musicals, all of which become part of their finished production, called “Omelette.”

The first act of “Something Rotten!” supplies the huge set up for the hilarious musical theater mash-up number from “Omelette,” performed in the second act.

As Will Shakespeare, Adam Pascal (of “Rent” fame) serves up his still-standing rock ‘n roll vocals with a Keith Richard’s ultra-cool demeanor and swollen sense of self. The contrived origins of Shakespeare’s most famous lines are ingenious.

The touring production also possesses the exceptional talents of Maggie Lakis as Bea, Nick’s headstrong wife; the adorable Autumn Hurlbert as Portia, Nigel’s puritan love interest; and Scott Cote as Portia’s father, who is also a closeted leader of a puritan sect. Some very funny one-liners are also provided by Jeff Brooks as Shylock.

An extraordinarily talented ensemble fills the stage and does so with the kind of unbridled enthusiasm and Monty Pythonian/Mel Brooksian flair necessary to support such enchanting inanity.

All this is directed/choreographed with witty and reckless abandon by Casey Nicholaw, who won a 2011 Tony Award for his work on the perfectly irreverent and hugely successful “The Book of Mormon.”

Broadway production designers Scott Pask (scenic), Gregg Barnes (costume), Jeff Croiter (lighting) and Peter Hylenski (sound) create a Stratford-on-Avon that looks like a colorful, overstuffed pop-up book, built for sight gags and jaw-dropping production numbers.

“Something Rotten!” is the kind of big, boisterous and brassy musical theatergoers think about when the word “Broadway” is mentioned. This tour meets all expectations and is an absolute treat to watch. CV

On Stage

WHAT:  “Something Rotten!”

WHERE:  Connor Palace Theatre, 1511 Euclid Ave., Cleveland

WHEN:  Through May 14

TICKETS & INFO:   $10 – $95, call 216-241-6000or visit playhousesquare.com

Bob Abelman covers theater and cultural arts for the Cleveland Jewish News. Follow Bob at Facebook.com/BobAbelman.3.

Originally published in the Cleveland Jewish News on April 28, 2017.

Lead image: From left front, Josh Grisetti as Nigel, Rob McClure as Nick, and the ensemble of “Something Rotten!” Photo / Jeremy Daniel

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5Apr

Unique perspective

Posted by: CanvasCLE Categories: Previews & Reviews
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Adam Langdon as Christopher. Photo / Joan Marcus

Touring ‘The Curious Incident’ astounds more than it engages

By Bob Abelman

“On the spectrum.”

This is the term used to describe Christopher Boone, the teenage hero in Simon Stephens’ stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s 2003 best-selling novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.”

The spectrum represents the range of symptoms and skills Christopher possesses that are associated with autism and Asperger’s syndrome. He has difficulty interacting with others. He is over-sensitive to stimuli, particularly touch. He finds comfort in repetitive behaviors, sees everything but has interest in very little, and possesses a remarkable affinity for mathematics.

And “The Curious Incident” affords us the opportunity to see the world through his unique perspective.

Just as the film “A Beautiful Mind” captured, through clever cinematography, the paranoid delusions associated with John Nash’s genius, “The Curious Incident” relies on high-quality high-tech stagecraft – and 234 sound and 373 light cues – to depict the barrage of stimuli that keeps Christopher in a heightened state of anxiety.

The performance space is surrounded by Bunny Christie’s Tony Award-winning scenic design that entails a huge black mathematical grid that explodes with the animated images that exist in Christopher’s mind – mathematical formulas, city maps, train stations and constellations – as designed by Finn Ross.

An exhilarating electric underscore by Adrian Sutton, intense pulsating lighting design by Paule Costable, amplified ambient sound design by Ian Dickinson, and modern ballet mob-scene movement by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett work in perfect balance to create an intriguing sense of Christopher’s consciousness.

Playing Christopher in Britain’s National Theatre touring production, which is currently on stage at Playhouse Square, is the magnificent Adam Langdon (who alternates with Benjamin Wheelwright for some performances). Langdon’s portrayal is authentically autistic, artistically risk taking, and always interesting.

And yet, this impressive, immersive theater experience is not particularly engaging. The reason is that this drama is also on the spectrum, exhibiting an excess of storytelling but not much story.

The play revolves around Christopher’s parents, who are estranged due to the pressures associated with looking after their high-maintenance son. In the first act, we and Christopher learn the details of their separation and in the second act we travel with Christopher on his Asperger’s odyssey to London to see his Mom.

Once the sheer novelty and unconventionality of the production values wears off, the thin story beneath it becomes exposed and the show grows tedious.

To cover, the playwright uses the same narrative devices as Haddon’s bestseller but they never quite click on stage.

Christopher’s special-education teacher, Siobhan – a delightful Maria Elena Ramirez – provides Christopher’s inner voice by reading aloud his journal about his family. Because this turns the play and the people in it into an extension of Christopher’s autism, it limits the range and depth with which the parents can be depicted.

The wonderful Gene Gillette and Felicity Jones Latta do what they can to add flesh to their characters, but there’s not much to work with. The talented ensemble, who are afforded moments as assorted neighbors and passersby, are similarly handcuffed.

Later in the play, Siobhan convinces Christopher to turn his journal into a play, which then gets enacted in this production and gives way to some meta-theatrical references that come across as cloying.

Director Marianne Elliott finds the humor and tenderness in this work, as she did when creating the first production of “War Horse” for the National Theatre.

But the heightened engagement she was able to generate from that production and from the London and Broadway productions of “The Curious Incident” get a bit lost amidst the bells and whistles of this touring production. cv

On stage

WHERE:  Connor Palace Theatre, 1511 Euclid Ave., Cleveland

WHEN:  Through April 9

TICKETS & INFO:   $10 – $90, call 216-241-6000 or visit playhousesquare.com

Bob Abelman covers professional theater and cultural arts for the Cleveland Jewish News. Follow Bob at Facebook.com/BobAbelman3.

Originally published in the Cleveland Jewish News on March 23, 2017.

Lead image: Adam Langdon as Christopher. Photo / Joan Marcus

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