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    ‘Cymbeline’ and F. Murray Abraham in ‘Beckett Briefs’ Delight Off Broadway

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    Shakespeare’s overstuffed late play gets an entertaining refresh Off Broadway, where Irish Rep is also offering a program of Samuel Beckett shorts.“Cymbeline,” really? But why?That tends to be my reaction whenever I hear that the overstuffed late Shakespeare play is getting a revival. Surely there must be something to stage that’s less of a slog?Now along comes a “Cymbeline” to prove me wrong. The National Asian American Theater Company’s production, using a lucid modern verse translation by Andrea Thome, is frankly a delight: funny, absorbing, even affecting. And with not a single man among its wonderfully strong cast, it has both a sense of frolic in satirizing macho pride and an in-the-bones understanding of male menace.Directed by Stephen Brown-Fried at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater in Greenwich Village, with dramaturgy by John Dias, this “Cymbeline” is presented with Play on Shakespeare, a project dedicated to creating versions of Shakespeare’s plays in modern English. The freedom of that approach makes it a striking contrast to “Beckett Briefs,” slightly uptown at Irish Repertory Theater, where another dead canonical playwright, Samuel Beckett, retains his customary tight control to fine effect. More on that below.Thome imbues her translation with a light, graceful touch; her “Cymbeline” feels like Shakespeare, but our 21st-century ears acclimate to it faster. The plot is still, of course, ridiculous, and less about the title character, a British king (Amy Hill), than about his daughter, Imogen (Jennifer Lim), who has secretly wed her beloved Posthumus (KK Moggie). Cymbeline wanted Imogen to marry the son of his dreadful new queen (Maria-Christina Oliveras), the doltish Cloten (Jeena Yi), whose one selling point is the amusingly puckish lord (Purva Bedi) who makes up his retinue.The exiled Posthumus, tricked into believing Imogen has been unfaithful, commands his servant, Pisanio (Julyana Soelistyo), to murder her. The honorable Pisanio secretly defies him. Adventure ensues, involving Imogen’s brothers, Arviragus (Annie Fang) and the heroic Guiderius (Sarah Suzuki), who were kidnapped as tiny children 20 years earlier and raised as rustics by Belarius (again the excellent Oliveras).There is also a war with the Romans. I defy you to care about that, even here.The rest of the performance is awfully entertaining, though, despite the fact that Imogen doesn’t deem Posthumus’s attempt to have her killed a marital deal breaker. She still considers him a prize.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Theater

      Two New Musicals Poke at the Seamy Underbelly of the American Dream

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      Kristin Chenoweth stars in “The Queen of Versailles” in Boston, while a new “Gatsby” musical in Cambridge takes Myrtle seriously.“It may surprise you,” Jackie Siegel says, “but we are not old money.”Surprise us? Probably not, but there were some context clues. Such as that she utters these words while dressed to the pink and sparkly nines, holding a tiny, fluffy dog and perched in the lap of her decades-older husband, David, whose capacious, ornately gilded chair suggests delusions of royalty.So does their home construction project: a 90,000-square-foot house modeled on the Palace of Versailles (because, you know how it is, their current 26,000 square feet are feeling cramped) and built, Jackie tells us, “in the most beautiful place in the entire world — Orlando, Florida.”The audience at the Emerson Colonial Theater in Boston got a good guffaw out of that on Thursday’s opening night of “The Queen of Versailles,” the surprising and frequently excellent new musical starring an utterly disarming Kristin Chenoweth and co-written by her “Wicked” composer-lyricist, Stephen Schwartz.Then again, it may be a sort of genius to stage the world premiere of this show, which has already announced a Broadway run next season, in a city that is fundamentally identified with the origins of this nation and constitutionally disposed to adore old money but turn its nose up at vulgar flash.Because “The Queen of Versailles,” based largely on Lauren Greenfield’s 2012 documentary of the same name, is as much an exploration of the seamy underbelly of the American Dream as is the very different new musical “Gatsby,” wrapping up its own world premiere across the river in Cambridge. (More on that momentarily.) Like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby, Jackie Siegel came from not much at all, left her humble roots behind and — with a husband (F. Murray Abraham, in terrific form) whose beginnings were similar — reinvented herself on a scale so over the top that strangers can’t help gawking.Chenoweth’s playfulness and charm endears her character to the audience, and F. Murray Abraham is in terrific form, our critic writes.Matthew MurphyWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      ‘The Magic Flute’ Review: Mozart Meets C.G.I., With Help From a Tween

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      A young tenor enters a world enlivened by computer graphics at a school devoted to the composer’s works in this Roland Emmerich-inspired film.The key to what this film has in store for you lies not with the name of the director (first timer Florian Sigl) nor the screenwriters (Andrew Lowery and Jason Young, whose respective filmographies elicit a reaction between “meh” and “yikes”). Rather, consider one of its producers, Roland Emmerich. The mastermind behind a variety of elaborate blockbusters with topics running the gamut from alien invasions (you may remember 1996’s “Independence Day”) to who the hell really wrote Shakespeare’s plays (you probably don’t remember 2011’s “Anonymous”), Germany’s insufficient answer to Baz Luhrmann here applies his imprimatur to a Mozart-for-tweens exercise.A young English fellow, Tim Walker (Jack Wolfe), gets shipped off to the fictional Mozart International School in Germany, the overall vibe of which is very Hogwarts for musos. Undercut by an imperious professor (F. Murray Abraham, hoping you remember “Amadeus,” or maybe not), distracted by a female schoolmate and ducking resident bullies, Tim nonetheless determines to earn the role of Prince Tamino in the school’s upcoming production of a Mozart opera. One evening that very opera’s three child spirits, doing something of a Tinkerbell bit, lead Tim to a passageway that drops him in the world of “The Magic Flute” itself. Over rugged terrain, he’s chased by a giant serpent, just like in the opera, only here it’s a CGI beast, just like in a Roland Emmerich movie. In a way it’s kind of neat. In another way it’s kind of dopey.The movie toggles between those two states throughout. But the tunes are nice, and it is novel, one could say, to hear them sung in non-operatic modes. Except in the case of the opera’s Queen of the Night, played by the acclaimed coloratura Sabine Devieilhe, who comes through with that famous high note.The Magic FluteNot rated. Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes. In theaters. More

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      in Movies

      ‘The Magic Flute’ Review: Mozart Meets CGI, With Help From a Tween

      by

      A young tenor enters a CGI-enlivened world at a school devoted to the composer’s works in this Roland Emmerich- inspired film.The key to what this film has in store for you lies not with the name of the director (first timer Florian Sigl) nor the screenwriters (Andrew Lowery and Jason Young, whose respective filmographies elicit a reaction between “meh” and “yikes”). Rather, consider one of its producers, Roland Emmerich. The mastermind behind a variety of elaborate blockbusters with topics running the gamut from alien invasions (you may remember 1996’s “Independence Day”) to who the hell really wrote Shakespeare’s plays (you probably don’t remember 2011’s “Anonymous”), Germany’s insufficient answer to Baz Luhrmann here applies his imprimatur to a Mozart-for-Tweens exercise.A young English fellow, Tim Walker (Jack Wolfe), gets shipped off to the fictional Mozart International School in Germany, the overall vibe of which is very Hogwarts for musos. Undercut by an imperious professor (F. Murray Abraham, hoping you remember “Amadeus,” or maybe not), distracted by a female schoolmate and ducking resident bullies, Tim nonetheless determines to earn the role of Prince Tamino in the school’s upcoming production of a Mozart opera. One evening that very opera’s three child spirits, doing something of a Tinkerbell bit, lead Tim to a passageway that drops him in the world of “The Magic Flute” itself. Over rugged terrain, he’s chased by a giant serpent, just like in the opera, only here it’s a CGI beast, just like in a Roland Emmerich movie. In a way it’s kind of neat. In another way it’s kind of dopey.The movie toggles between those two states throughout. But the tunes are nice, and it is novel, one could say, to hear them sung in non-operatic modes. Except in the case of the opera’s Queen of the Night, played by the acclaimed coloratura Sabine Devieilhe, who comes through with that famous high note.The Magic FluteNot rated. Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes. In theaters. More