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Review: Cyrano's blends old Hollywood glamour, madcap antics and Shakespeare comedy

Posted by arts_reviews

Posted: April 18, 2007 - 10:46 am

By Maia Nolan
Daily News correspondent

"Shakespeare in Hollywood" at Cyrano's.

Now that the days are longer and the weather is warmer, theatergoers in the mood for lighter fare need look no further than "Shakespeare in Hollywood," which opened Friday at Cyrano's with all the glamour and glitz befitting a Tinseltown premiere.

Teresa K. Pond directs a "cast of thousands" (by Cyrano's standards) in Ken Ludwig's madcap comedy inspired by Warner Bros.' 1934 film version of William Shakespeare's classic "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which starred James Cagney, Mickey Rooney and Olivia de Havilland. In Ludwig's version, the real-life Oberon and Puck materialize on-set and, as you can probably imagine, hilarity ensues.

"Shakespeare" shamelessly immerses itself in the opulence that characterized the golden age of the silver screen. Margret Hugi-Lewis' Technicolor set (which manages to incorporate both Shakespeare's Athenian forest and Grauman's Chinese Theatre) radiates Old Hollywood style, and Pond's cast has mastered the rapid-fire delivery you'd expect from, say, the Marx Brothers or Bugs Bunny. The whole production, in fact, feels a little bit like an old Warner Bros. cartoon, complete with 1930s pop-culture references and jazzy soundtrack.

Rod Mehrtens sets the tone as a gruff, blustery Jack Warner, backed up by a Greek chorus of Warner brothers and a sycophantic assistant played with nerdy aplomb by Kevin Goff.

Any good screwball comedy needs its own vapid bombshell, and "Shakespeare's" is Angela Vice, a relative newcomer to the Anchorage stage whose over-the-top starlet act is spot-on. Vice throws herself into the role -- sometimes literally -- and couldn't be more fun to watch.

Alexandra Korshin is radiant as the de Havilland-type ingenue, and when the action lets up, it's usually to give her a chance to breathe a little emotion into the scene. At the same time, though, she's spunky and funny and holds her own amid the mayhem.

D.W. Haynes is a scream as gossip maven Louella Parsons. To say too much more would ruin the effect for those theatergoers not familiar with Haynes' work, so it's best just to say that you've never seen Haynes quite like this.

As character actor Joe E. Brown, Jimmy Navarro gets some of the play's best comedic moments and makes the most of them, particularly an enchanted love scene with Korshin that escalates into a passionate tango. (She leads.)

Andrew Sweeney and Todd Glidewell bring the fantastic to life as Oberon and Puck. While they occasionally go a little overboard, they never lose momentum, and they kept the opening-night crowd in stitches. Sweeney also deserves recognition for managing to wear more body glitter than a Vegas showgirl without ceding his masculinity an inch.

The show isn't perfect. A few of the lighting effects are clunky, and Ludwig's script occasionally gets heavy-handed with its references to the impending turmoil in Europe, but there's little else that detracts from the reckless comedy.

Spring is in the air, and it's time to lighten up. Do yourself a favor and start with "Shakespeare in Hollywood."

Maia Nolan lives and writes in Anchorage.

IF YOU GO
"Shakespeare in Hollywood" will be presented by Cyrano's Theatre Company at 7 p.m. Thursday to Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday through May 6 in Cyrano's Off Center Playhouse, 413 D St. Tickets cost $17.50. (263-2787, www.centertix.net)