Midsummer Night Fling

Last night i went to see Daniel Sullivan's (Rabbit Hole, and the Tony award winning Proof) staging of A Midsummer Nights Dream at the Delacorte Theatre in Centeral Park. The cast for A Midsummer Night's Dream includes Opal Alladin (Hippolyta), Jason Antoon (Tom Snout), Chelsea Bacon (First Fairy), Ken Cheeseman (Robin Starveling), Christine Corpuz (Ensemble), Keith David (Oberon), Mireille Enos (Hermia), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Francis Flute), Herb Foster (Philostrate), Simon Garratt (Fairy), Jon Michael Hill (Puck), Erica Huang (Fairy), Ben Huber (Ensemble), Cassady Leonard (Fairy), Austin Lysy (Lysander), Lily Maketanksy (Fairy), George Morfogen (Egeus), Tim Blake Nelson (Peter Quince), Daniel Oreskes (Theseus), Martha Plimpton (Helena), Mallory Portnoy (Ensemble), Laila Robins (Titania), Jay O. Sanders (Nick Bottom), Lina Silver (Fairy), Keith Randolph Smith (Snug), Jack Tartaglia (Fairy) and Elliot Villar (Demetrius). All in all it was a solid performance with a pretty solid cast. No one really stood out, all though i felt that the Helena (Martha Pimpleton), and Hippolyta (Opal Alladin) were quite good. The set was simple, natural wooden fences used as a back drop, with a large tree in the center (that reminded me of the the Lion King). the staging was really good, the show was very easy to follow (which is a hard task with Midsummer) the chase sequences were very funny, and the play with in a play was pure brilliance. I always feel that people draw a fine line with Pirimus and Thisby by making it to much slapstick, and taking out the earnest realness of the simple characters. This staging found that fine line, it was very genuine. which was nice for a change. The take on the faries i felt was very interesting. They were almost an upper crust traditional victorian family, Titania and Oberon, head of the house, Titania's fairy a maid, and Puck dressed as a traditional steward. The rest of the fairies were children in traditional victorian costumes. It made for a very strong directing choice, and staging choice. The costumes, allthough beautifull, left alittle to be desired. All of the lovers looked perfect, allthough i would have liked them to be stripped down to more interesting undergarments (the women were in corsets and bloomers, the men simply unbuttoned their shirts, and let their suspenders hang down) The fairies were in very beautifull complex victorian costumes, made out of a metalic fabric in deep jewel tones. for me i felt it would have been mre intresting to make them a little more fairy like, possibly by giving them wings or something that was more mythical, and fantasy like. The most interesting costume was the lead fairy, she was dressed as a mythical version of a traditional maid, she wore a french maid style costume that was given an acrobatic cirque esque twist. I hated the fairy make up for the show, i would like to be constructive, but it was stupid and distracting. The fairies were all covered in a pearl like sheen, and it was totally overdone and looked sloppy on Oberon, and Puck. Titania had this awkward dark stenciled in eye brows, that were not even period, and took awat from any beauty she had... she also had the most awkward wig on. i was so totally distracted by it. The costumes for the play with in a play at the end were simple and brilliant. The wedding costumes for the Lovers were beautiful traditional victorian wedding costumes. The only real gripe i have with this production (and most shakespear productions for that matter!) is when they take parts of the prose and turn it into music. This show was treading a fine line of being "Midsummer Nights Dream; the musical". The entire end of the show was done as a song, and i think it was a really weak choice, not only did puck forget the words to the most famous epilouge ever, the orchestration was weak, and got even weaker as they added in harmonies. i think it would have searved them much better to find an interesting method of staging like they did with everything else instead of turning it into a finale number that reminded me of "Ever After" from Into the Woods. Over all i enjoyed the show, it just seems like some risks shouldn't be taken (i.e. musical finale numbers) and some should (creative costumes and make up.)