The first act was pretty terrible, I was lost and wanted to get out of there because there was too much projection (like, video on a screen) used, no character development. The only thing that was keeping me there was Spring Awakening alumnus Gideon Glick who was fantastic and well cast. It was clear that it was playwright Nicholas Gray's first play (now my friend insisted that he was a famous critic and I told my friend that I own Frank Rich's book of criticism yet I had never heard of him).
However, the second act was great. The writing found its groove, the characters were real, and the storyline was attention grabbing. It was like a Jekyll/Hyde storyline- it was hard to believe the acts were written by the same person! I would recommend it to Gideon Glick fans, it's only $15, I would recommend it more if you're an Equity member and it's free.
I also happened to win the virtual line for the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of Euripides's The Bacchae starring one of my favoriteeee actors (no, seriously) Jonathan Groff. The production was, overall, okay. Jonathan Groff was excellent. Maybe I'm biased, but I thoroughly enjoyed his Dionysus. I thought it was fresh, funny, and surprising. Anthony Mackie was also good as Pentheus but the rest of the production was a complete bore. The direction was a mess, the costumes were terrible, and actors who weren't in scenes at hand were wandering around the stage. It's free, so if you're a Groff fan it's worth it, if you can sit through classical theater. It's only 90 minutes so you won't die of boredom. ;)
Edit- This article/blog from Newsweek perfectly describes how I felt about Groff's Dionysus. Give it a read:
No comments:
Post a Comment