Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – No visuals, but strong points of view: Audio productions of ROMEO Y JULIETA and PARADISE BLUE

• By drediman
• March 25, 2021
• No Comments

During these economically and logistically difficult times, theater companies have often sought out other institutions with which to continue to present work. One of the more fascinating types of collaborations have been the ones between theater companies and podcast producers, which have often yielded (ironically) shows with strong points of view. More specifically, enter the Public Theater and Williamstown Theatre Festival and their ongoing collaborations with WNYC Studios and Audible, respectively. This past week saw the latest releases from these joint ventures.

ROMEO Y JULIETA
The Public Theater / WNYC Studios
On-demand through March 22, 2022

The Public Theater and WNYC Studios were on to something special when they initiated their collaboration last summer with their four-installment audio presentation of Richard II, which featured a mostly Black cast. The timing seemed just right to finally show that Shakespeare’s plays weren’t only universal, they could also reflect a specifically Black point of view. With their recent bilingual audio adaptation of Romeo y Julieta (RECOMMENDED), the Public and WYNC continue their mission to further shed light on and and bring meaning to the lives of American minorities – this time around, the country’s Latinx communities – which are often left unexplored and underrepresented in theater. Because the end product here falls somewhere between the comfortable familiarity of Shakespeare’s underlying tragedy and the Bernstein/Sondheim classic West Side Story it inspired (particularly the pseudo-bilingual 2009 revival on Broadway), Romeo y Julieta doesn’t quite have the same focused, pointed impact as the aforementioned Richard II. Nevertheless, the production flies by with an appealing modern flair, thanks to the snappy direction by Saheem Ali (who also helmed Richard II). As the star-crossed lovers, Lupita Nyong’o and Juan Castano do well to smoothly adapt their iconic roles to the idiosyncratic rhythms of the Spanish language (courtesy of Ricardo Pérez González and Alfredo Michel Modenessi) and Latin culture, as do the rest of the cast. In particular, Ms. Nyong’o gives Julieta a compelling dramatic arc and genuine sense of urgency that fuels and elevates this rendition of the Bard’s popular tragedy.

PARADISE BLUE
Williamstown Theatre Festival / Audible
On-demand indefinitely

Then we have Williamstown Theatre Festival’s collaboration with Audible (a producer of audiobooks and podcasts) to present its 2019-2020 season. Despite some initial hiccups (e.g., misjudged audio revivals of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire starring the great Audra McDonald and Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51 starring Anna Chlumsky), the team seems to have found its footing with Dominique Morisseau’s Paradise Blue (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). I had seen the play – which tells the story of a struggling jazz club in mid-century Detroit – when it made its New York debut at Off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre in 2018 (after receiving its world premiere in 2015 at WTF) in a charged, atmospheric production directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Mr. Santiago-Hudson, along with three fine actors from that production (Kristolyn Lloyd, Simone Missick, and Keith Randolph Smith), have returned to this audio rendition of the play, and their experience with the piece has translated into a confident, deliberately-paced aural experience that has no problems sustaining mood (I especially took to Ms. Missick’s seductive work, which reminded me of Tonya Pinkins’s Tony-winning turn in Jelly’s Last Jam). The newcomers to the cast are none other than film stars Blair Underwood and André Holland (who actually played the title role in the Richard II mentioned above); happily, both are sensational additions. Collectively, this company of actors is perfectly attuned to the alluring musicality of Ms. Morisseau’s dialogue, which is a true pleasure to bask in.