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A CurtainUp Review
The Merchant of Venice
The Shakespeare In the Park's Merchant on Broadway By Elyse Sommer
Original Review of the Central Park Production
Mark Wendland's set, which looked somewhat small to Les with Central Park looming in the background, fits just so within the confines of the Broadhurst stage. Kenneth Posner's lighting and Jess Goldstein's costumes, as well as Dan Moses Schreir's captivating music, make the location establishing movements of those black fences and stairways also evoke the shift in mood between the Venetian ghetto and court scenes and the more playful happenings in Belmont. Taken as a whole, this is a production with a consistently stimulating images and performances that make three hours pass faster than many a 90-minute show.
I found the almost Pinteresque pause when Byron Jenning's Antonio is proffered Shylock's hand potent evidence of his deep-seated anti-Semitism. Perhaps the most powerful wordless scene is when Shylock' is forcibly baptized puts on his skullcap again only to be deserted by his fellow Jews, is all the more gut wrenching for the more restrained emotions preceding it. The most significant cast change is in the role of Portia's lover, Bassanio. David Harbour brings warmth, humor and a romantic presence to the role. His relationship with Antonio suggests just a whiff of homoeroticsm but not enough to make his passion for Portia less convincing. To the part of Launcelot Gobbo, Christopher Fitzgerald who was doing a star turn in Williamstown Theatre's all-male A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way to the Forum during Merchant's summer run, brings the needed pizazz to this small but pivotal role. On the other hand, Seth Numrich 's Lorenzo hardly seems worth the guilt about deserting her father and her religion that is already beginning to haunt Jessica at the end of the play — another of those potent wordless images that make this production so satisfying. (For a review which includes some intriguing commentary on Shylock's as well as his daughter's last scene which is most often used to take a new look at the aftermath of the unmerciful outcome of Sherlock's pound of flesh lawsuit. you may want to check out the production notes of a particularly interesting version put on by Shakespeare & Co. ). After my last encounter with The Merchant. . . in the British Propeller Company's all-male production in which Shakespeare's Venice was turned into a vast jailhouse, Daniel Sullivan's more straightfoward vision is almost restful and yet memorably moving. The fact that this play lends itself to so many interpretations and has attracted so many great Shylocks and Portias explains why it keeps being done and why it will continue to exhilarate and infuriate. New York Production Notes The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare Directed by Daniel Sullivan Cast members reprising their roles: Al Pacino (Shylock), Lily Rabe (Portia), Byron Jennings (Antonio), Jesse L. Martin (Gratiano), Gerry Bamman (Duke of Venice), Heather Lind (Jessica), Matthew Rauch (Solanio), and Richard Topol (Tubal) New cast members: Marsha Stephanie Blake (Nerissa), Christopher Fitzgerald (Launcelot Gobbo), David Harbour (Bassanio), Peter Francis James (Salerio), Isaiah Johnson (Prince of Morocco), Charles Kimbrough (Prince of Arragon), and Seth Numrich (Lorenzo). Other Cast members: Glenn Fleshler (Antonio's man/Ensemble), Herb Foster (Balthasar), Baylen Thomas (Antonio's Man/Ensemble).Curt Hostetter (Stephano/Ensemble) Other Ensemble Players: Happy Anderson, Liza J. Bennett, Glenn Fleshler, Luke Forbes, Herb Foster, Jade Hawk, Bethany Heinrich, Tia James, Kelsey Kurz, Brian Keith Macdonald, Dorien Makhloghi Set Design: Mark Wendland Costume Design: Jess Goldstein Lighting Design: Kenneth Posner Sound Design: Acme Sound Partners Composer: Dan Moses Schreier Fight Director: Thomas Schall Choreographer: Mimi Lieber Stage Manager: Stephen M. Kaus Running Time: 3 hours, with 1 intermission Broadhurst Theatre 235 W. 44th Street from 10/19/10; opening 11/09/10; closing 1/09/11-- the closing will be temporary-- with another brief run from 2/01/11 to 2/20/11. Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at November 11tg Press Performance REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
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Original Review
By Les Gutman
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The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest... —Portia, Act IV, scene 1 |
There are, thus, any number of ways a director justifiably might choose to present this story, all supported by the complexities of Shakespeare's insight into human nature: as a window into the anti-Semitism of Shylock's Venice, or of Shakespeare's England; as a romantic comedy with dark undertones, or a tragedy leavened with humor; as a tale of Shylock as a villain, a devil, oppressed or victimized. Daniel Sullivan has chosen to give us a bit of each. We can applaud the production for its balance, perhaps, though audiences always seem to appreciate a strong point of view.
There is little likelihood that it will come as news to most readers that this summer's star vehicle in the park features the great Al Pacino, alongside a constellation of smaller stars. All of this power, however, has not tempted Mr. Sullivan to craft a production that detonates the potential fireworks at hand. Instead, he pulls back, while methodically negotiating and shaping the text. Again, admirable perhaps, but not a crowd pleaser.
Mark Wendland's set immediately takes us out of any idea that we are in the Venice of the Renaisaance, or any other period for that matter. Its most notable feature is a stockpile of black metal fences that are moved about to shape the playing areas. Yet while all of this iron work may cause us to recall that the word "ghetto" refers to the foundry that was the most prominent feature of the Venetian island where Jews were forced to live beginning in the early Sixteenth Century, the overall impression is of late Nineteenth Century London or New York. This mise-en-scène is corroborated (down to the Eastern European Jewish garb) by Jess Goldstein's costumes -- at least until the final acts when we are introduced to a quite diffferent sense of how one dresses in a courtroom.
Pacino provides an emotionally honest portrayal of Shylock, much in keeping with Sullivan's prevailing moderation; he is not the monster he might be, nor is he over-sympathetically drawn. Where one might expect large moments of scenery-chewing from Pacino, we get contemplative ones. The entire production, in fact, feels quite small in the broad open space of the Delacorte, and one would be hard-pressed to find anything particularly offensive beyond the broad outlines of its characterization of the Jews or anyone else. It also avoids tugging too forcefully on our emotions, at least until its final scene of the defeated Shylock, one of a number of well-considered touches.
Byron Jennings's Antonio, who seems quite anxious for reasons that are not well-explored, is far too much of a gentleman to reveal fully the notion he's a rabid anti-Semite that might explain Shylock's actions. Similarly, Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Gobbo, a role that can be utilized to fuel hatred, never reaches much more than a simmer. Lily Rabe impresses with a strong portrayal of a very patrician Portia; the remainder of the cast is uniformly strong, though many of the play's usually significant moments unexpectedly pass without much of a dent.
One thing to be grateful for in this production is Daniel Sullivan's unwillingness to take The Public Theater's Artistic Director Oskar Eustis too literally in his stated desire to present Merchant because he wanted to do a play about financial markets. While we could have ended up with a play drawing a direct connection to Goldman Sachs, et al., what we got is a play that not only does not accentuate some of its more inflammatory aspects, but that also resists the urge to draw contemporary parallels too sharply. While one might be disappointed by the absence of heat in this staging, we are left with a play that asks us calmly to examine "the quality of mercy." And that seems right on target.
Les Gutman reviewed the production on June 25th at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park where it played from June 30, 2010 to August 1st with the following cast: Gerry Bamman (Duke of Venice), Francois Battiste (Salerio), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Launcelot Gobbo), Bill Heck (Lorenzo), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Nerissa), Byron Jennings (Antonio), Heather Lind (Jessica), Hamish Linklater (Bassanio), Jesse L. Martin (Gratiano), Nyambi Nyambi (Prince of Morocco), Al Pacino (Shylock), Lily Rabe (Portia), Matthew Rauch (Solanio), Richard Topol (Tubal) and Max Wright (Prince of Arragon), and Happy Anderson, Liza J. Bennett, Tyler Caffall, Cary Donaldson, Luke Forbes, Bryce Gill, Shalita Grant, Jade Hawk, Tia James, Kelsey Kurz, Brian MacDonald, Doren Makhloghi and Joe Short (Ensemble).
Slings & Arrows-the complete set
You don't have to be a Shakespeare aficionado to love all 21 episodes of this hilarious and moving Canadian TV series about a fictional Shakespeare Company
