Coming Attraction: The Amazing Red-Hot Exploding Shakespeare Company
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Mary Pat Sullivan, director of marketing and public relations for the Chicago festival, says, “Already we’re getting calls from all over the country for Renaissance tickets.” But to get first dibs on those tickets, festivalgoers will have to purchase multishow packages. Renaissance company tickets come with three of the five packages that go on sale later this month. The presence of Branagh’s company in the festival will be promoted prominently in February 23 double-truck newspaper ads announcing the packages. Customers who want to buy single tickets to see Branagh’s company will have to wait until mid-April.
At the Mark Taper Forum theatergoers are lining up in droves before performances of King Lear and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, hoping to nab any returned tickets. Branagh’s box-office potency appears critic-proof, at least in LA, where his reviews were mixed. Daily Variety said of the Renaissance Lear: “Branagh, as director, shows himself a young man willing to take on the biggest challenges, able to give ‘Lear’ a sense of grit and violence, but not ready to instill the experience with the multiplicity of layers that complete the drama.” Los Angeles Times drama critic Sylvia Drake said of the company, “What’s lacking all around is substance. Penetration. Subtlety. The productions explode. They don’t dig deep and don’t touch us deeply.”
Organic Has a Hit!
Michael Frazier, owner of the Halsted Theatre Centre, is developing a new musical with New York-based producers Joe Tandet and Marv Neelon. Called Hearts Desire, it consists of four stories about relationships at different stages in life. The book was written by Chicago short-story author Stuart Dybek, San Francisco-based writer Armistead Maupin, Texan Beverly Lawrey, and another writer who isn’t likely to be involved in future versions of the piece. Stage and film musical consultant Glen Roven has written what Frazier calls a “very contemporary, tuneful score.” Frazier plans to give the script to Remains Theater’s Larry Sloan to see if the company might want to get involved in developing the work. Actors Peter Gallagher and Bernadette Peters also may be involved with a future production.
