Review of Reviews: Stage

Cymbeline

Lincoln Center Theater, New York

(212) 239-6200

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★★★★

Even Shakespeare occasionally had a bad day, said John Simon in Bloomberg.com. When, late in his career, he turned from tragedy to romance, the results were not always up to his usual standard. Cymbeline, for instance, is a difficult play to stage. “This late play moves from Rome-conquered England to Italy, Wales, and back to England.” Imogen, a princess, is pursued by two unwanted suitors, as she attempts to remain faithful to Posthumus, the husband her father, Cymbeline, has exiled. “It is a play of fantastic coincidences, enduring love, and reconciliation that echoes The Winter’s Tale but is twice as convoluted (if sometimes twice as charming).” Most contemporary performances of it disappoint. But a new production at Lincoln Center Theater gives “Cymbeline, an imperfect play, a production as perfect as humanly possible.”

This Cymbeline is most “remarkable for its lucidity,” said Charles Isherwood in The New York Times. Despite multiple disguises, gender switches, unexpected deaths, and seeming resurrections, the audience never loses track of the score. “In imposing a formal elegance on one of Shakespeare’s most wayward plays, the director, Mark Lamos, keeps confusion firmly at bay.” Lushly outfitting the production and presenting it with classical grace, he provides what can often seem a free-for-all with an air of classical grace. Michael Cerveris, as Posthumus, provides the play with “a wrenching emotional center, as a husband who believes himself to be grossly betrayed.” Unfortunately, too many of the other performances miss the mark.

I wonder which you mean, said Michael Sommers in the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger. Martha Plimpton’s performance in the lead role of Imogen is excellent. “All hawk-like profile and pretty ways,” she wins our sympathy early and gradually earns our admiration. Phylicia Rashad appropriately chews scenery as “the conniving queen,” while Adam Dannheisser steals scenes as a dimwit suitor. A huge cast tackles almost 30 roles as plot complications accrue, which in the final scenes are “rapidly resolved by Shakespeare in ways ranging from ingenious to outrageous.” With Broadway’s stagehand strike now settled, many new plays and musicals are vying for ticket sales. But Cymbeline may be the best show in town.

The Crowd You’re in With

Magic Theatre, San Francisco

(415) 441-8822

★★★

Suburbanites talking about children at a barbecue doesn’t sound like compelling theater, said Robert Hurwitt in the San Francisco Chronicle. But Rebecca Gilman has crafted a “delightfully funny and thought-provoking play” by meticulously teasing out three couples’ decisions to procreate—or not. Jasper and Melinda are a young couple who can’t decide whether to have a child. An older couple, Karen and Tom, share a “sharp sarcasm and deep-seated mutual understanding” that diapers and day care are strictly for suckers. Meanwhile, rock critic Dan and second-generation flower child Windsong, are already expecting, even though they hardly act like adults themselves. These are intelligent folks “with whom we instantly identify,” and who seem as if they could be our own neighbors or relatives. Gilman’s sure depictions of her characters and milieu help the exceptional cast “bring out the unspoken undercurrents as clearly as the surface wit.”

Director Amy Glazer has collaborated with Gilman before, said Dennis Harvey in Variety. “The perfectly realized rhythms and often hilarious line readings (or even funnier mute double-takes) make it clear” that they share a comic sensibility. Some of the best lines go to Lorri Holt, whose Karen stands out as “a wellspring of dour, disillusioned-left truths that even she knows are a guaranteed party killer.” Such knowing satire is “fine as it far is goes,” but Gilman doesn’t go far enough into the interior lives of her characters. The 75-minute play seems like an extended one-act and “feels awfully slight as a stand-alone evening.” The casually amusing way the couples trade witticisms over dinner is undeniably appealing. But it doesn’t “feel like a full dramatic meal.”