Review - All's Well That Ends Well

I was very fortunate to receive a pair of tickets to the Public’s Shakespeare in the Park presentation of All’s Well That Ends Well last night, and was also very fortunate that my friend could join me!  We had a lovely evening!  Even including the mini-monsoon that happened before the show!  We then started the performance about 45 minutes late, but oh well.  It was a gorgeous night.  More about the rain later...

All’s Well can be a rough play to get your brain around—described as one of Shakespeare’s ‘problem plays,’ it has quite a few plot twists that really make you screw up your face and think ‘really??’.  But, once again, the brilliant Daniel Sullivan directs the piece with such clarity and with such delicacy that you see how the machinations can all fall into place.

Annie Parisse is a terrific Helena—you see her passion for Bertram and her over-zealousness, but you also see her wit, pragmatism and intelligence.  It’s a very layered, intelligent and endlessly interesting performance.  Bertram, a tough nut to crack is there ever was one, is appropriately callow, brash and ingratiating.  If the actor, Andre Holland (who I have greatly enjoyed in other plays), could perhaps seem a little more magnetic to emphasize why everyone gravitates to him, ok, but he is still quite charming.  Tanya Pinkins is gorgeous as Bertram’s mother and John Collum amazes as the King of France.  I love me some Reg Rogers and he did not disappoint as Parolles.  The interrogation scene was funny and scary, all at the same time.  All of the actors were spot-on, actually, with wonderfully clear diction and excellent phrasing of the text.

The time period seems to be right before WWI, so there’s an elegant gentility that slowly gives over to the rougher behaviors of wartime.  Themes of the future roles of women also seem to be in play.  The costumes are gorgeous—when they come out for the first scene, the ladies are wearing stunning Edwardian (?) gowns in different shades of green, so seeing them ascend from behind the stage, amongst the green of the trees behind the Delacorte Theater, is just lovely.  There is judicious and effective use of smoke, and Tom Kitt’s score is gorgeously evocative.  I give the production a ginormous thumbs up.  Now I’m even more excited to see Measure for Measure, which is the other show the Public is doing this summer.  Most of the same actors are also performing in that, so it will be interesting to see actors who had big roles last night take on smaller tasks in Measure, and vice versa.  For example, Michael Hayden is one of the lead roles in Measure, but brought a wonderful gravitas to the relatively thankless role of a Dumaine brother in All’s Well.  I love repertory companies…

So, I had forgotten that my friend who gave me the tickets had also told me there was a dinner beforehand.  Of course, we ate before we got to the theater, so didn't really partake of the pre-show food (well, we had some dessert and cocktails, so that was nice).  As we were standing in the dining area, listening to the end of a pre-show talk, the heavens opened up and it started POURING.  I especially got a kick out of the people who tried to stay dry by covering their heads with the tablecloth.  :)  

But, then, to offset the pain-in-the-buttness of a brief rainstorm, we were treated to glorious rainbows.  So hooray for summer rain in NYC...