Mr. Shakespeare And Mr. Porter
by Karen Tortora-Lee on December 9, 2009
I’ve been a fan of the mash-up ever since I heard that playing Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon during a muted Wizard of Oz creates a completely new experience. On the other hand, I’m absolutely NOT a fan of the jukebox “musicals” such as Mama Mia and Movin’ Out, because I’ve always thought it was rather cheap to take pre-existing songs and retrofit them till they trip over some sort of plot. Frankly, I’d rather just listen to Abba and Billy Joel singing the original versions.
So, when I heard about Mr. Shakespeare and Mr. Porter (Created and Directed by Barbara Vann) – an almost overly-ambitious idea of taking music from Cole Porter (one of the 20th centuries wittiest, wryest, cleverest song smiths) and pairing his classic tunes with the plays of William Shakespeare - I thought “This could either go one way, or the other”. What I hadn’t bargained on was that there was a third way all together.
This review will have to be short for two reasons. One – it may go to places I don’t want to take it … and Two – after seeing pretty clearly what Act 1 (King Lear and Macbeth) had to offer, I chose not to stay for the offerings of Act 2 (Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Since all the songs were listed, I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to miss, and chose to miss it anyway.
