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Hiring a New York publicist has really paid off for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival...
After years of being largely ignored by the New York Times, the festival's 2008 season got a big review in the influential Sunday edition this weekend. The piece is mostly focused on the stars - Christopher Plummer in Caesar and Cleopatra and Brian Dennehy in his double-bill of one-acts by O'Neill and Beckett - but critic Charles Isherwood also found space to write about Fuente Ovejuna, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Morris Panych's Moby Dick and Joanna McClelland Glass's Palmer Park. (Sounds as if Nikki M James' Juliet has improved over the season; she gets her best notice so far here: "fresh and bewitching".)
Meanwhile, Caesar and Cleopatra got an insane rave from John Simon (former New York magazine critic, now with Bloomberg). His conclusion? "I can only hope that the whole thing transfers to Broadway or - if dreams came true - to every other stage; it belongs to the entire world."
In Variety last month, double-dipping critic Richard Ouzounian also argued for a Broadway transfer... And in the New York Post, Michael Riedel reported on talk of the Dennehy double-bill of Hughie and Krapp's Last Tape heading to Broadway in the winter.
Broadway transfers of straight plays may not make financial sense in the current economic climate, but all this buzz is surely welcome up in Stratford, Ontario.
- A farewell to Ken Campbell, the British alternative comedian and oddball who died over the weekend. I only saw Campbell and his Eugene Levy-rivaling eyebrows live once, performing with his School of Night improv team, but that evening ranks as one of the most original and memorable comedy shows I have ever seen. It was a sort of genius edition of Whose Line is it Anyway? (Not that Campbell liked the word genius; said he, "I think people apply the word 'genius' to me so they don't have to give me a job. 'Oh God, we can't have him involved - he's a genius.'")
What I recall most was the bit where Campbell solicited a topic and four words from the audience. He then had his four "pupils" compose a proper sonnet on the suggested subject incorporating the suggested words as the rhymes. Tough enough, right? Well, to top it off, the pupils had to count down from 100 - out loud - while penning their sonnets. It was the improv equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time while crossing a tightrope. Campbell really raised the bar in a field of performance that gets little respect.
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* Lozange from Canada writes:
The only remote Stratford transfer to Broadway is rumoured to be a Hamlet musical the festival took too long to consider last fall from the only ever Canadian Broadway composer.- Posted 02/09/08 at 6:00 PM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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Kelly Nestruck from Toronto, Canada writes: Erm, aside from Galt McDermot and Lisa Lambert?
Didn't Rockabye Hamlet already get its Broadway chance in 1976? Though I guess if Sondheim gets to try and try again, why not Cliff Jones. Is The Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Boogie still in the score?- Posted 05/09/08 at 12:58 PM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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Kelly Nestruck from Toronto, Canada writes: (Oh and John Gray - who else did I miss?)
- Posted 05/09/08 at 12:59 PM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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