Love's Labour's Lost
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Cititour.com Review
About three-fourths of the way into Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman’s go-for-broke musical adaptation of William Shakespeare’s bittersweet romance Love’s Labour’s Lost, now being presented as the Public Theater’s second Shakespeare in the Park offering, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see aliens descend onto John Lee Beatty’s set.
After all, these always inventive if not always successful theatrical innovators — best known for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson — had already delivered a decidedly offbeat ditty called “I Love Cats,” numerous, out-of-nowhere homages to previous hit Broadway musicals, a brief appearance by former Saturday Night Live stalwart Rachel Dratch as a pompous male professor, and an often bare-chested, surfer-like version of the dimwitted servant Costard (perfectly played by Charlie Pollock).
And that’s not even mentioning a swoon-inducing, boy-band-like version of the 1991 Mr. Big hit “To Be With You,” smoothly performed by the King of Navarre (the ever-wonderful Daniel Breaker) and his lovestruck compatriots Berowne (the hunky, gorgeous-voiced Colin Donnell), Longville (the remarkably game Bryce Pinkham) and Dumaine (the adorable Lucas Near-Verbrugghe) to win over the ladies of their affection. So while no UFO ever appeared in the final 20 minutes, I was hardly shocked that Timbers still had more than a few surprises, big and small, up his proverbial sleeve.
What there isn’t on stage is a whole lot of the Bard’s original play, which Timbers and Friedman use mostly for its boys-versus-girls conflict and occasional commentary on class differences (particularly in the clever, tuneful “Rich People”). Snatches of Shakespeare’s poetry do sometimes come through intact — including the lovely “fortune and men’s eyes” speech recited with delicacy by the often-foolish Armando (an occasionally over-the-top Caesar Samayoa) — but I think the show’s creators could probably have used Grease 2 as their inspiration with little difference in the outcome.
More problematically, there’s not quite enough for the ladies of the cast to do, despite the considerable talents of the lovely Patti Murin as the haughty Princess, the wonderful, Emma Stone-like Maria Thayer as the sharp-tongued Rosaline, and especially the extraordinary Rebecca Naomi Jones as the saucy barmaid Jacquenetta. (She does get to belt out one of Friedman’s best songs, “Love’s a Gun,” even if it does seem like the actress has been transported almost intact from her recent Off-Broadway role in Murder Ballad.)
Ah well. Although I doubt this Love’s Labour’s Lost would work even half as well in a traditional theater, it’s perfectly suited to the Delacorte: a crowd-pleasing, midsummer night’s tonic that leaves a smile on your face, a time-step in your feet, and even a tiny tingle in your heart.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://www.shakespeareinthepark.org
Cast
Daniel Breaker, Kevin Del Aguila, Colin Donnell, Rachel Dratch, Andrew Durand, Kimiko Glenn, Jeff Hiller, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Justin Levine, Patti Murin, Lucas Near-Verbrugghe, Bryce Pinkham, Charlie Pollock, Caesar Samayoa, Maria Thayer, Audrey Lynn Weston, Michael R. Douglass, Bradley Gibson
Open/Close Dates
Opening 7/23/2013
Closing 8/18/2013
Box Office
212-539-8750
Theatre Info
Delacorte Theater
Central Park (81st St & CPW or 79th St & Fifth Av)
New York, NY
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