LOVE'S LABOURS LOST at the Public's Delacorte Theater

(Seen August 11, 2013)


Entertaining?  Fast-paced? Tongue-in-cheek?  Yes to all the above.  But is it Shakespeare  Hardly.  The story is there --- four young nobles forsaking women and worldly pursuits to study, uninterrupted by the raucous world.  And the occasional speeches and poems remain intact, but the essence is missing.  

Unlike the Public's  earlier venture this summer,  musicalizing COMEDY OF ERRORS --- which kept it's original story and spirit, while updating the events  -- this production goes far afield and loses focus. 

Book writer-director Alex Timbers has filled the pleasant bucolic setting with extraneous and intrusive characterizations and overly intensive dance numbers.   
It is loud and glitzy and schtick-filled, and its sometimes clever and bright dialogue is of a style that shouts: "See how clever I am!!!" (Triple exclamation points when none are necessary.)

The versatile cast is excellent in achieving the director's vision, but cannot overcome the material.  It is like a musical revue, where the dances and the songs are the stars, with the story somehow stringing them together.  I often felt like I was at a drag show, with all the men striving to show their feminine sides.   

While I believe that love --- and the absence of it --- can drive men to do strange things, it doesn't quite work out creatively in this case.  Although you couldn't tell that from the audience response --- it was definitely a crowd-pleaser.  

But unlike COMEDY OF ERRORS, I wouldn't want to use it to introduce  Shakespeare to new audiences.