Review Fix chats with “Muse†Director Jay Michaels, who discusses the production, which is scheduled from Aug. 30- Sept. 7 at the Community Space Theater at 155 First Avenue (between ninth and tenth streets) in New York City. With a new cast member and future out-of-town dates, the Shakespearian remake still has plenty of legs left in it.
Review Fix: How will Greg Pragel change the production?
Jay Michaels: Greg is a Peter Cushing type – slight of frame, fair-eyed, with a natural cultured tone. This helps set the [Victorian] stage well along with Kris Lundberg’s classic stature. And like Cushing, when he is forced to anger as there are portions of the production where such emotion is needed, his unassuming qualities create an even stronger tension, more power to the turning points. Equally, this lightness makes the humorous and romantic moments truly compelling.
Review Fix: What has rehearsal been like thus far?
Michaels: The Gothic style needed for this is one of my favorites to create. Enthralling though rehearsals have been, make no mistake, this is a challenge. This is a comedic, melodramatic, ghost story with modern parables marinated in Victorian style. Kris, Greg, and I are charged with creating a chilling but loving, inviting yet painful, claustrophobic and expansive atmosphere. Good luck to us!
Review Fix: How will it be different from other performances?
Michaels: I was taught, years ago, not to fear Shakespeare and his works, that he was just a man. Would we be as intimidated by a play called “Romeo & Juliet” if it were written by Joe Smith? I want to put that same ease into this story. I don’t want the audience sitting on their hands or afraid to laugh because this is “art†and “classical,†or “based o a true story.†I want the same gasps and mutters in our theatre as undoubtedly heard in the theatres of that time. Actually, that’s it… Out there its 2014 … in here… London, 1862.
Review Fix: How do you want this production to affect people?
Michaels: This play has many messages underneath – the treatment of women and how that’s changed (or has it?); the treatment of artists – complete with a slight wink to how money affects art – even today; and the Faustian price of fame – especially today. I always want my audiences leaving the theatre,but still seeing the people in the play in front of them. The personification of the parables they just witnessed, per se.
Review Fix: What do you think is the production’s most endearing quality?
Michaels: That it’s a love story between two kids. When I describe it as “painter Dante Rossetti’s torrid affair with shop-girl-turned-model-turned-painter Elizabeth Siddal amid the backdrop of the formation of the revolution that changed the art world known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood during the deepest part of the Victorian Era in England†you can certainly grow intimidated. But the truth is it’s about a spoiled rich kid and the shy girl he falls for and how they end up being star-crossed because of petty rivalry. Now it’s Romeo & Juliet … and even that, when you say a tragic love story, we all get it. But when you start with “the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues rage on until…”
Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy it the most?
Michaels: The humor. Make no mistake, this is a tragic story but there is so much wit and fun in it. I want the crowds ready to laugh until…
Review Fix: How do you want it to be remembered?
Michaels: History is often learned through film and stage. Generations will learn about the Depression, Watergate, the Civil War, World War II, the French Revolution, Vietnam, even AIDS and more by their stage and film depictions long before reading it in books. There have been books and documentaries about the real Richard III … but Shakespeare’s misshapen king is the only version any of us believe. Wouldn’t it be nice if this pivotal moment in fine art and freedom of speech is remembered thanks to this play. Like the guy who knows who Yorick is without ever reading Hamlet, if those who rarely attend museums can recognize a Rossetti thanks to MUSE, that’s pretty cool.
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