"""CurtainUp"" reviewer called the play an ""overcooked theatrical perogi"", but goes on to write that the play: ""...does follow his [Lubitsch] comedy classic's basic plot of having the thespians foil a Nazi plan to entrap the leaders of the underground movement. Its few laughs come when the script sticks to Edwin Justus Mayer's screenplay...But it's all weighed down by added and unfunny jokes."" To Be or Not to Be (play) To Be or Not to Be is a play written by Nick Whitby, based on the 1942 film ""To Be or Not to Be"". The play, described as a ""black"
"The Comedy of Errors The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. ""The Comedy of Errors"" is, along with ""The Tempest"", one of only two Shakespearean plays to observe the Aristotelian principle of unity of time—that is, that the events of a play should occur over 24 hours. It has been adapted for opera, stage, screen and musical theatre numerous times worldwide. In the centuries following"
"critics, who argued that not only was it confusing for the audience as to which character was which, but much of the comedy was lost when the characters look identical. The entire production takes place on a stylised set, the floor of which is a giant map of the region, shown in its entirety in the opening and closing aerial shots; all of the main locations (the Porpentine, the Abbey, the Phoenix, the market etc.) are located in a circular pattern around the centre map. The ""Prefaces to Shakespeare"" episode for ""The Comedy of Errors"" was presented by Roger Rees"
"an eruption of first rate social, political, cultural criticism that the country desperately needed.” He said, “The assumption was that all that had to be done was to show the people these things, and the country would change. … The full effect of all this exposure though was that instead of re-educating the country and making it ready for change, it terrified the country and made it withdraw from the idea of change.” When Joan arrives in the play, he added, “she comes in as the life-giving figure to bring hope. Because if those two men don’t change, they will"
"the various actors and actresses on the London stage; in a competition judged by Shakespeare and Jonson, Garrick is named the greatest English actor. Its immediate popularity was no doubt largely due to its personal character, but its vigour and raciness make it worth reading even now when the objects of Churchill's wit are forgotten. The first impression was published anonymously, and in the ""Critical Review"", conducted by Tobias Smollett, it was confidently asserted that the poem was the joint production of George Colman the Elder, Bonnell Thornton and Robert Lloyd. Churchill immediately published an ""Apology addressed to the Critical"
"response to the play has traditionally been mixed. In 1629, Ben Jonson lamented the audiences' enthusiastic responses to the play: <poem> No doubt some mouldy tale, Like Pericles; and stale As the Shrieve's crusts, and nasty as his fish— Scraps out of every dish Throwne forth, and rak't into the common tub (Ben Jonson, ""Ode (to Himself)"") </poem> In 1660, at the start of the Restoration when the theatres had just re-opened, Thomas Betterton played the title role in a new production of ""Pericles"" at the Cockpit Theatre, the first production of any of Shakespeare's works in the new era."
"with broadened marketing, proved exceedingly popular with audiences at these extended venues. The first of these was a tour – to twelve different parks in four boroughs – of Shakespeare's raucous ""A Comedy of Errors"" directed by Gloria Skurski, with costumes by Barbara Weiss, on a touring set designed by Dorian Vernacchio. The cast featured Connor Smith and Andrew Achsen, and Ronald Lew Harris, Karen Jackson, Dan Johnson, Erin Lanagan, Trip Plymale, Mel Winkler and Dan Woods. The production featured a magician, a belly dancer accompanied by a lively percussion score composed and played by Michael Canick, and a very"
"seduce another woman. She tells The Lady not to trust The Man, as he is a mere actor. She then recognises that The Lady is Queen Elizabeth. The Man reveals that he is William Shakespeare. The Queen demands that he should apologise to her, but Shakespeare insists that his family is more respectable than hers, and that she only has her job by accident of birth. The Dark Lady is shocked by Shakespeare's frankness, but the queen forgives him. Shakespeare complains that his worst plays, ""As You Like It"" and ""Much Ado About Nothing"", are the most popular, but is"
"you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"" Those who see the speech as sympathetic point out that Shylock says he learned the desire for revenge from the Christian characters: ""If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction."" Even if Shakespeare did not intend the play to be read this way, the fact that it retains its power on stage for audiences who may perceive its central conflicts in radically different terms is an"
"are at odds, and Antipholus and Luciana have not yet met. At the end, all the couples are happily together. By writing his comedies in a combination of Elizabethan and Plautine styles, Shakespeare helps to create his own brand of comedy, one that uses both styles. Also, Shakespeare uses the same kind of opening monologue so common in Plautus's plays. He even uses a ""villain"" in ""The Comedy of Errors"" of the same type as the one in ""Menaechmi,"" switching the character from a doctor to a teacher but keeping the character a shrewd, educated man. Watt also notes that"
"wondered if any other performers could bring it off. Allardyce Nicoll called it ""amusing, no doubt, yet hardly moving farther below the surface than a paper boat in a bathtub and, like the paper boat, ever in imminent danger of becoming a shapeless, sodden mass."" ""The Manchester Guardian"" commented, ""The audience evidently found it a good entertainment, but Mr. Coward certainly had not flattered our intelligence. The play appears to be based on the theory that anything will do provided it be neatly done."" ""The Observer"" also thought that the play depended on brilliant acting and thought the characters unrealistic,"
"spark ignition system. This facilitated being able to plunge the entire theatre - both stage and auditorium - into complete darkness during a performance of Booth's Hamlet. Booth's Theatre, modeled after the finest theatres of Europe, and using American inventiveness, was a marvel of technology and a palace of theatrical pleasure. Booth chose to open his new theatre with a sumptuous production of William Shakespeare's ""Romeo and Juliet"", starring leading actress Mary F. McVicker as Juliet and Booth as Romeo, supported by a ""full and efficient company"" of actors (see program, right). The program also noted that ""The tragedy will"
"the play with this line: ""Why, I'm the lady from Dubuque. I thought you knew. ""[to the audience]"" I thought he knew."" Elizabeth's curtain lines, quoted above, both typify the Pirandellian style of the play's dialogue, in which characters frequently make comments directly to the audience. (The first occurs very early, when Jo, observing the Twenty Questions game in progress, looks out at the audience and asks, ""Don't you hate party games?"") Michael Billington, in his review of the 2007 London production, wrote: ""...to me the lady from Dubuque is clearly the angel of death: a theory supported by the"
"admonishes Nigel. In a rage, Nick goes back to Nostradamus with what he has left of the money he stole from the Money Box. He asks Nostradamus to tell him what Shakespeare's new hit is going to be, and Nostradamus sees ""Hamlet"", but misinterprets it as ""Omelette"", among other mistakes (such as the Prince eating a danish pastry rather than being a Danish prince). He gets excited at the possibilities of success and dreams of a future in which crowds cheer for him and Shakespeare bows down to him (""Bottom's Gonna Be on Top""). The Minstrel welcomes the audience back"
"established comedy revue, it was a series of satirical sketches and musical pieces using a minimal set, looking at events of the day. It effectively represented the views and disappointments of the first generation of British people to grow up after World War II, and gave voice to a sense of the loss of national purpose with the end of the British Empire. Although all of the cast contributed material, the most often quoted pieces were those by Cook, many of which had appeared before in his Cambridge Footlights revues. The show broke new ground with Peter Cook's impression of"
"Aubrey's claim that Morose was modeled on Elizabethan businessman Thomas Sutton is no longer credited. Unlike many of William Shakespeare's plays, which would have been performed in the open aired Globe Theatre, this play's reliance on controlled sound would have required that it be performed in a small, contained venue like the Whitefriars Theatre. The intended audience of this play would have been wealthier than Shakespeare's crowd. This can be seen through the play's use of Latin phrases, which would have required the audience to possess advanced education in order to understand all of the jokes and references. The play"
"dollars to produce. It had a dramatic impact on the audience and was met with great acclaim; the cast that night took 28 curtain calls. Harold Clurman said of the performance: The first scene of ""[Waiting for] Lefty"" had not played two minutes when a shock of delighted recognition struck the audience like a tidal wave. Deep laughter, hot assent, a kind of joyous fervor seemed to sweep the audience toward the stage. The actors no longer performed; they were being carried along as if by an exultancy of communication such as I had never witnessed in the theater before."
"Tranquility and Ease agreeable to their Age and Condition . . . rejoicing in the Felicity of ""Edgar"" and ""Cordelia""."" Cooke added that he had ""read many Sermons, but remember[ed] no one that contains so fine a Lesson of Morality as this Play."" Samuel Johnson also approved of the happy ending, believing that the fact that Tate's version had so successfully supplanted Shakespeare's was evidence that Shakespeare's tragedy was simply unendurable. Taking the complete disappearance of the tragic ending from the stage as a sign that ""the public [had] decided"", he added: And if my sensations could add anything to"
"is great wit and comedy within the play even if there were some imperfections caused by hastily writing the play. Later critics, Wilbur Cross and F. H. Dudden, believe that the characters were lacking and the plot was faulty. It is uncertain as to if 18th century spectators agree, but Cross and Dudden believe that the audiences would have agreed with their assessment, with Cross claiming that the audience hissed during the first night. Likewise, H. K. Banerji believed that the play was ""a complete failure"". Robert Hume characterises the play as a ""genuine satire (a rarity in English comedy),"
"The Comedy of Errors (musical) The Comedy of Errors is a musical with a book and lyrics by Trevor Nunn and music by Guy Woolfenden. It is based on the William Shakespeare play, ""The Comedy of Errors"", which had previously been adapted for the musical stage as ""The Boys from Syracuse"" by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and George Abbott in 1938. The London production won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 1977. While enjoying a holiday in Ephesus, Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse are mistaken for their long-lost twin brothers Dromio and Antipholus of Ephesus by Adriana, who"
"its premiere, the play's title has entered the popular English lexicon as an idiom for ""an event or series of events made ridiculous by the number of errors that were made throughout"". Set in the Greek city of Ephesus, ""The Comedy of Errors"" tells the story of two sets of identical twins who were accidentally separated at birth. Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, arrive in Ephesus, which turns out to be the home of their twin brothers, Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant, Dromio of Ephesus. When the Syracusans encounter the friends and families of their"
"strikes me as unsettling as anything he has written. What the Scarborough audience treated as a robust romp I took to be a cry of despair about the moral depths to which our society has sunk"". The reviews were, on the whole, supportive of the change of tone. They also generally liked the concept of writing for a repertory company. The opinions of the play itself, however, were more mixed. The reviews were generally favourable of the first half. John Peter, for ""The Sunday Times"", praised the comedy scene where Sorrel tries to get Leo's attention with her unerotic gestures,"
"which he co-wrote and performed in with two other actors, was selected to premiere for the public at the prestigious Theatre Royal Winchester, to a sell out crowd. The play is a comedic tragedy, starting with three friends waiting in a hospital for news of their friend, intercut with flashbacks of them waiting for their friend to arrive at their house, earlier in the day. The witty banter back and forth between the characters drives the plot and saw the three performers receive the highest marks of their graduating class for the piece. His next play Coffee Mornings was produced"
"of the stage. As he could not hear the audience's applause and laughter, he assumed the show was a failure. It was not until friends congratulated him later that evening that he realized that the curtain had been met by wild applause. Bambi Linn, who played Louise, was so enthusiastically received by the audience during her ballet that she was forced to break character, when she next appeared, and bow. Rodgers' daughter Mary caught sight of her friend, Stephen Sondheim, both teenagers then, across several rows; both had eyes wet with tears. The original production ran for 890 performances, closing"
"of Errors"" was written ""in the latter part of 1594"" on the basis of historical records and textual similarities with other plays Shakespeare wrote around this time. The play was not published until it appeared in the First Folio in 1623. For centuries, scholars have found little thematic depth in ""The Comedy of Errors"". Harold Bloom, however, wrote that it ""reveals Shakespeare's magnificence at the art of comedy"", and praised the work as showing ""such skill, indeed mastery--in action, incipient character, and stagecraft--that it far outshines the three ""Henry VI"" plays and the rather lame comedy ""The Two Gentlemen of"
"event pinpoints the date of a Shakespeare play with rare precision. Sir Henry Wotton recorded that the play ""was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and ceremony"". The theatre was rebuilt but, like all the other theatres in London, the Globe was closed down by the Puritans in 1642. The actors in Shakespeare's company included Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, Henry Condell and John Heminges. Burbage played the leading role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including ""Richard III"", ""Hamlet"", ""Othello"", and ""King Lear"". The popular comic actor Will Kempe played Peter in ""Romeo and Juliet"""
"on their chief flaw as actors: they can not lose their own identities to even temporarily replace them with those of their fictional roles. Also in 1971, Andrew D. Weiner argued that the play's actual theme is unity. The poet's imagination creates unity by giving form to diverse elements, and the writer is addressing the spectator's own imagination which also creates and perceives unity. Weiner connected this unity to the concept of uniformity, and in turn viewed this as Shakespeare's allusion to the ""eternal truths"" of Platonism and Christianity. Also writing in 1971, Hugh M. Richmond offered an entirely new"
"published in 1688. It informs us that ""The Comedy of Errors"" received its first known performance at these revels at 21:00 on 28 December 1594 (Innocents Day) when ""a Comedy of Errors (like to Plautus his Menechmus) was played by the Players [...]."" Whoever the players were, there is evidence that Shakespeare and his company were not among them: according to the royal Chamber accounts, dated 15 March 1595 – see Figure – he and the Lord Chamberlain's Men were performing for the Queen at Greenwich on Innocents Day. E.K. Chambers informs us that ""the Court performances were always at"
"British pantomime performances, the audience is a crucial aspect of the show and is expected to perform certain tasks such as: ""The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)"" divides the audience into groups assigned to call out the concerns of three components of a character's psyche. In ""The Mystery of Edwin Drood"", a Broadway theatre musical based on Charles Dickens's last, unfinished work, the audience must vote for whom they think the murderer is, as well as the real identity of the detective and the couple who end up together. The 1984 Summer Olympics included card stunts at the Olympic"
"afraid of everything and one who was afraid of nothing, with the play forming from the idea of what would happen if these two characters met. Ridley in part got the inspiration for the character of Cosmo from when, at the age of 18, he witnessed in a pub a man wearing a red sequined jacket proceed to eat a variety of different insects onstage for entertainment. Initial Reception The play was considered shocking for the time it was produced, with reportedly some walkouts throughout the show's run, along with rumours of audience members fainting. One verified account of an"
"""Menaechmi,"" which is characteristic of classic structure for comedy"". Baldwin notes that Shakespeare covers a much greater area in the structure of the play than Plautus does. Shakespeare was writing for an audience whose minds weren't restricted to house and home, but looked toward the greater world beyond and the role that they might play in that world. Another difference between the audiences of Shakespeare and Plautus is that Shakespeare's audience was Christian. At the end of ""Errors,"" the world of the play is returned to normal when a Christian abbess interferes with the feuding. ""Menaechmi,"" on the other hand,"
"before the curtain was to come up. The play garnered both critical and public acclaim. With Jouvet as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Suzanne Bing as Viola, Blanche Albane as Olivia, and Romain Bouquet as Sir Toby Belch, in a startling simple stage setting, the play called upon the audience's imagination in a way that had not been seen on a Paris stage since Paul Fort, an earlier reformer who had worked in the theatre in the 1890s. Enthusiastic crowds finally queued up to see this rendition of ""real Shakespeare"" (Kurtz, pg. 31), but the run closed as scheduled for the troupe"
"thing. Although some critics sneered at the ""cup-and-saucer comedy"", others voted it absurdly realistic, and said there was nothing in it but commonplace life represented without a trace of Sheridanian wit and sparkle. Nevertheless, playgoers flocked to the little theatre in Tottenham Court Road, and the London stage was at once inundated with imitations of the new style of acting and the new kind of play. Miss Marie Wilton, the darling of the Strand Theatre, and the life and soul of the merry and really witty burlesques (what a contrast to the vapid 'musical comedies' of to-day!) that then formed"