Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Red Bull’s adaptation of THE ALCHEMIST is the kind of unapologetically bawdy and giddy fun we need at the moment

• By drediman
• November 23, 2021
• No Comments

Many of New York’s Off-Broadway theater companies – particularly those that were formed to fulfill specific missions – fill discrete niches in the fabric of the city’s theater scene. One of those companies is Red Bull Theater, whose typically visceral revivals and adaptations of lesser known works (primarily those written and originally performed during the English Renaissance) have, over the years, thrilled New York theatergoers with their full throttle, no holds barred sensibility. This week at New World Stages, Red Bull returned to in-person performance with the opening of its raucously escapist new adaptation of Ben Jonson’s comedy The Alchemist.

For this return, the folks at Red Bull have assembled most of the same creative team responsible for company’s crowd-pleasing take on Nikolai Gogol’s The Goverment Inspector – notably adapter Jeffrey Hatcher and director Jesse Berger. Happily, Red Bull has once again struck comic. Admittedly, I am not familiar with the play, which depicts the scheming shenanigans of a butler, a con man, and a prostitute. I needn’t have worried, however; I was in safe hands – Mr. Hatcher’s adaptation is immediately and hilariously accessible without having to completely diverge the play from its English Renaissance origins.

Mr. Berger’s handsome production is the very model of farcical hilarity. After a heavily expository yet still very funny first act, the production unspools with bawdy, inspired glee in its second act, thanks to the staging’s astonishing precision and snappy timing. Pulling it all off with sensational aplomb is the ensemble cast, many of whom are Red Bull usual suspects. In final assessment, The Alchemist is the kind of unfiltered and unapologetically giddy fun that well all need at the moment to relieve our minds of heavier matters.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

THE ALCHEMIST
Off-Broadway, Play
Red Bull Theater at New World Stages
1 hour, 55 minutes (including an intermission)
Through December 19