As You Like It - Public Works

[ZAKtheWEST]

Posted: 9/1/17 at 1:02pm

Does anyone happen to have an extra ticket for tonight?

Updated On: 9/1/17 at 01:02 PM

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 9/1/17 at 8:57pm

Does anyone know if they have a plan for if it rains (as it's supposed to over the weekend)? 

[JBroadway]

Posted: 9/2/17 at 12:38am

Saw this tonight. I think my experience was partly tainted by being very tired, and having a lot of rude audience members talking through it around me. But in general, I had kind of mixed feelings about it. Shaina Taub is a great composer, but I think her lyrics for this project were kind of middling - a lot of it tended to be kind of trite or 2 dimensional. I think if you're going to replace sections of Shakespearean text with your own words, they had better be good. I know it's been done several times, but the only other time I've seen it done was with Love's Labour's Lost. I enjoyed LLL more than this because the play has less substance than As You Like It, so the songs were just goofy and fun, and it didn't really matter if they supported the story or not. That said, I enjoyed some numbers very much. The principal cast is excellent. I had never seen Darius de Haas before except in ensembles. I knew he was well-regarded, and now I see why. He has a pretty small part in this, but he has a lot of charisma. Rebecca Naomi Jones and Ato Blankson-Wood are both lovely and have great chemistry. I liked that they made 2 of the supporting character couples same-sex. Some clever bits of staging and direction as well. 

Then there's the community. The Public has amassed an enormous ensemble, made up of amateurs of all ages, who have been recruited from various community groups around New York - apparently from predominately Black communities. In theory, it's a lovely idea. Get people involved in the arts, bring communities together, represent real people of color onstage. It's a lovely theatre outreach idea that I am fully in support of. From an artistic standpoint, however, it did make the production feel very busy and crowded, and it felt more like amateur community theatre, despite the high level of talent in the leading roles. Taub wrote a framing device that ties the community ensemble in an ultimately moving and beautiful way. But the framing device doesn't actually seem to have much to do with the play itself, so it wasn't as impactful as it could have been. 

Overall, this production felt like a bit of a mess. But in many ways, I suppose it was a beautiful mess.

[VotePeron]

Posted: 9/2/17 at 1:26am

This one's unfortunately a misfire. Shaina Taub is a genius, and she & (most) of the music are the highlights of the evening by far, but there's far too little of both. If you saw last year's phenomenal Twelfth Night, you will be greatly disappointed. Truly believe this is just an off-year, I'm sure with how unfortunately this will be received they'll bring back the director from last year, or Lear from the years prior. Public Works is a beautiful event and I hope they let Shaina continue to shine!

[rkinla&ny]

Posted: 9/4/17 at 11:08pm

I saw Public Works' "As You Like It" Labor Day evening and found the show to be a magical and hugely entertaining adaptation of the play, transforming the play's major story beats into a musical comedy that sports a tuneful and witty score by the wonderful Shaina Taub.  After the show, I was very surprised to learn from the program that the show's cast has only 5 equity actors, as I would have guessed some of the non-pros were equity performers.  The positive spirit of the huge cast and show was palpable and infectious.

For me, this was another joyous winner for Public Works that I was very fortunate to have experienced.  Thank you Public Works.

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 9/5/17 at 12:17am

I thought it was totally fine. Not as good as The Odyssey. I sadly didn't see the Twelfth Night that everyone seems to have loved. I think the songs for the principal characters effectively cut corners so we knew what the characters wanted and could understand the various love plots/relationships. The Forest of Arden/ensemble/Darius songs were less effective but they at least channeled a feeling of joy, love, togetherness, etc. The repetition of the Duke Frederick song became very annoying and there was a bit too much repetition in the ensemble songs, but otherwise I didn't have too much of a problem with the music. The boy band stuff was cute. I think Rosalind's solos were probably the most articulate. In general though, I still feel like I need to read the play or see a more traditional production to actually understand what was going on. I did not really grasp what had gone on with the Duke and why Frederick relinquished his crown to his brother at the end. Joel Perez is always great but I think things were lost with the Touchstone/Audrey and Phoebe/Silvius relationships. They mostly got boiled down into basic musical comedy and translated into song. Jaques was also a bit messily adapted and I could not get a grasp on what he was going on about. The framing device came together in the end but during the play, I feel like I understood the least of what his character was trying to say. There was also a slight sound issue for me where things got muddled when more than one person was speaking/singing. I found myself reading the screen at the side of the stage more often than not.