'Shakespeare in Hollywood' Amuses
Ken Ludwig's "Shakespeare in Hollywood" is a funny play.

By Lucia Anderson
The Freelance Star

WASHINGTON--They're having a lot of fun down at Arena Stage. Ken Ludwig's latest opus, "Shakespeare in Hollywood," is a merry blend of satire and farce, skewering the glitzy world of moviemaking with gleeful abandon.

The basis for the play is the filming of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Hollywood in 1934. The movie was directed by Max Reinhardt, a famous Austrian director, and the cast included Mickey Rooney, Jimmy Cagney, Olivia de Haviland, Joe E. Brown and Dick Powell, among others.

Ludwig has taken this historical event and added a magical Oberon and Puck, straight out of Shakespeare's wood near Athens, to complicate things. Their bemused reaction to "this brave new world" offers Ludwig a lot of scope for jokes.

There's a strident starlet, who closely resembles the silent film star in "Singing in the Rain," the autocratic director with delusions of genius and the decency censor who finds plenty of offensive material in the Bard's script.

Puck embraces movie culture with abandon. Oberon's speech is larded with quotes from other Shakespeare plays, and he mangles modern English idioms.

As in Shakespeare's play, a magic flower that squirts a love potion results in all sorts of comical passions, including the leading lady's for Joe E. Brown in drag as Thisbe.

Ludwig carries this a bit too far in the end, but director Kyle Donnelly keeps the pace brisk and the jokes come fast.

Many in the cast will be familiar to Washington audiences. Robert Prosky is back as crotchety Max Reinhardt, and Casey Biggs has returned as a magical Oberon.

Both turn in the kind of top-notch performance one has come to expect from them.

Alice Ripley is a kick as the strident starlet, hellbent on making a splash with Shakespeare. Ellen Karas has a lovely cameo as Louella Parsons and Hugh Nees endearingly mugs his way through the part of Joe E. Brown.

Newcomer Emily Donahoe is delightful as mischievous Puck.

"Shakespeare in Hollywood" is a funny play: Those who are already familiar with "A Midsummer Night's Dream" will probably have more fun with this than those who come to it cold, but it's an enjoyable evening for anyone.

Date published: 9/18/2003