5.29.11
This is an Archival Site
There is now a new Rogovoy Report home
5.18.11
Weekend Preview May 19-24
Bob Dylan tributes, Deborah Voigt, Tom Paxton, Bill Kirchen, John Kirk and Trish Miller
5.18.11
Celebrating Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday in Style
Paying tribute to the greatest rock songwriter ever
5.17.11
FILM REVIEW: In a Better World and Of Gods and Men
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.17.11
'LIKE' The Rogovoy Report on Facebook
Click 'LIKE' to Receive Facebook feeds from The Rogovoy Report
5.12.11
Deborah Voigt Headlines Mahaiwe Gala
Opera star to sing arias, show tunes on Saturday, May 21
5.15.11
Famed Spiritual Teacher to Speak on Nonviolence
Mother Maya in free talk at Sruti Yoga in Great Barrington, Mass., on Friday May 20 at 7pm
5.12.11
Special Effects Wizard to Be Honored by Film Festival
Doug Trumbull to be Feted by BIFF
5.11.11
Weekend Preview May 12-16
Cultural Highlights of the Berkshire Weekend
6.4.09
Talk about a small world
Elaine and I grew up together, but only just recently met....
5.8.11
Berkshire Living to Cease Publication
A Farewell from Publisher Michael Zivyak
5.8.11
twiGs Branches Out
Lenox boutique launches new e-tail site
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
|
[THEATER REVIEW] Private Lives at Barrington Stage Company
8.14.08
Barrington Stage Company
Pittsfield, Mass.
Private Lives by Noel Coward
Directed by Julianne Boyd.
Sibyl Chase - Rebecca Brooksher
Elyot Chase - Christopher Innvar
Victor Prynne - Mark H. Dold
Amanda Prynne - Gretchen Egolf
Louise - Tandy Cronyn
By CHRIS NEWBOUND
Calling Private Lives one of Noel Coward's most enduring comedies is like calling A Christmas Carol one of Charles Dickens' perennially popular short stories. It's the play that keeps on giving -- especially to summer theaters looking to fill out a season with a sure bet. At this point, the play (i.e. whether or not Amanda Prynne and Elyot Chase stay together or destroy each other first) is no longer the thing: more interesting is whether fresh faces can possibly breathe new life into a couple that's been around for 78 years. Barrington Stage's on-target production does manage a little mouth-to-mouth, but the patient isn't out of danger just yet.
Everything is as it should be here: grand, expensive-looking sets by Karl Eigsti that include both the dueling seaside resort balconies and Amanda's spacious, chic Parisian flat; sleek, fabulous and flattering period costumes by Elizabeth Flauto; lighting courtesy of Scott Pinkney that casts no shadow whatsoever on the proceedings; and capable players to inhabit Amanda and Elyot with enough chemistry to make audiences care.
In fact, Private Lives is receiving such a handsome, by-the-book, and (at just over two hours) briskly paced production from Barrington a.d. Julianne Boyd that the play itself is exposed for what it is: a somewhat dated, highly stylized, mostly predictable romantic comedy with as perfect a first act as one is ever likely to see, a sagging, overlong second act and a comic conclusion that wraps things up neatly.
For those who by some chance have missed seeing Private Lives, written by Coward in a mere four days as legend has it, it's as tidy a sitcom as one could find: a divorced couple, Amanda and Elyot, after being apart for five years, meet again on their separate honeymoons. Still in love, they run away together to Paris to flirt and fight repeatedly before being tracked down by their new spouses.
Gretchen Egolf is particularly winning as Amanda, giving her a lanky, elegant, though delightfully loopy comic sophistication. And Christopher Innvar playing Elyot, looking and sounding very much like a young Elliot Gould, is certainly her match -- though the couple are less convincing as fighters than lovers.
Rebecca Brooksher is perfectly fine in the mostly thankless role of Elyot's new wife, Sibyl. And Mark H. Dold squeezes as much restrained comedy as possible out of Amanda's replacement husband, Victor. Likewise Tandy Cronyn as Louise, the cranky French maid who doesn't utter a word of English, but still manages to get her irritation across.
It's just that one is left with a feeling of "deja vu all over again" (as Yogi Berra used to say). What's missing is any sense of risk, which is essential to good theater, no matter how light the fare.
At the risk of Coward turning over in his grave, one wonders if it isn't time to do something radically different with Private Lives: a modern-day version set in the Hamptons and the Upper East Side with a hard-drinking, violent Elyot? A same-sex rendering set in Napa and San Francisco? OK, maybe not.
Perhaps, more sensibly, it's simply time to retire this old standard for a while and pull out something a little less familiar. Like a fine old wine, this one maybe needs to age a little more and wait for some newer generation to come along and rediscover it.
Chris Newbound is managing editor of Berkshire Living magazine. This review originally appeared in Variety.
Sets, Karl Eigsti; costumes, Elizabeth Flauto; lighting, Scott Pinkney; sound, Matt O'Hare; production stage manager, Renee Lutz. Opened Aug. 10, 2008. Reviewed Aug. 12. Runs through Aug. 24. Running time: 2 HOURS, 5 MIN.
|
...sites that work