Review Roundup: ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

The Public Theater kicked off the 2011 Shakespeare in the Park summer season  with the official opening of ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, directed by Daniel Sullivan. The show, along with MEASURE FOR MEASURE, will run in repertory with the same company of actors through Saturday, July 30 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. 

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL is a fairytale for grown-ups. This beguiling fable follows the low-born Helena, one of Shakespeare's most resourceful heroines, as she inventively surmounts obstacle after impossible obstacle in order to win the love of the aristocratic and haughty Count Bertram. For additional information about Shakespeare in the Park, visit www.shakespeareinthepark.org or call 212-539-8750 . The Delacorte Theater in Central Park is accessible by entering at 81 Street and Central Park West or at 79th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Ben Brantley, NY Times: Mr. Sullivan has shown a special knack of late for resolving Shakespeare's so-called problem plays by finding cohesion within their seeming inconsistencies. His interpretation of "The Merchant of Venice," staged in the Park last summer (and on Broadway later that year), showed how the disparate lives of Portia the heiress and Shylock the usurer were cut from the same corrupt cloth.

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press: It is lovely production that, in the final scene, leaves both Helena and Bertram hand-in-hand but a little stunned by what has happened. Helena, "a poor physician's daughter," has twice won her lord - once after healing the king and once after tricking her love to commit adultery with her. He looks beaten, resigned. She looks regal.

Joe Dziemianowicz, Daily News: Sullivan's production covers virtually every inch of the open-air theater. Battle scenes, set at the back of the stage, come with explosiveness and noisy intensity. A stately procession that emerges from the forest behind the Delacorte charges the night air with a palpable melancholy.

Frank Scheck, NY Post: Hardly the most beloved of the Bard's works, "All's Well," which the Public Theater's running in rep with "Measure for Measure," suffers from extreme tonal shifts and wildly implausible plot devices. Like the director's acclaimed "Merchant of Venice," which played the park last summer, this production navigates its emotional complexities with finesse.

Marilyn Stasio, Variety: There are good reasons "All's Well That Ends Well" is considered one of Shakespeare's "problem plays." Besides featuring a detestable hero, defining love as an unhealthy obsession, and reducing marriage to a slave market lottery, this dark romantic comedy takes indecent delight in the sadomasochistic games played by its cynical characters. Although the Central Park production doesn't entirely escape these awkward themes, helmer Dan Sullivan wisely acknowledges the play's problems by adding yet another layer of darkness and attributing the play's cruel events to the dehumanizing consequences of living in a time of war 

Lina Weiner, Newsday: Sullivan ignores the Public Theater's dubious description of the play as a "fairy tale for grown-ups." But what then? The un-enchanted set is standard-issue double-decker latticework, and, though Jane Greenwood's Edwardian costumes for the updated court are sea-green lovely, Helena skulks around in the dowdiest of mourning black. As Helena, the capable Annie Parisse is a droopy, clingy, sad-sack of a woman whose adoration (stalking?) of this indifferent fellow is pathetic, even creepy. By making Helena so unappealing, Sullivan might be trying to make Bertram seem less of a cad for rejecting her. But there is zero chemistry between her and her obsession (the bland Andre Holland), which makes us think less of both of them.Tonya Pinkins makes a kindly, if not entirely believable Countess, mother to Bertram and guardian of Helena. The only spark comes from Reg Rogers, who plays Bertram's pal Parolles with the floppy vanity of an increasingly tiresome toy soldier. And even more than usual, Shakespeare's comic title feels less like romantic resolution than cynical resignation. Bottom Line: Drab night, gorgeous park.

Matt Windman, AM New York: Although Daniel Sullivan's scenically spare staging, set in 1918, is straightforward and generally enjoyable, it is hampered by a fundamental problem with the casting: Parisse is considerably older than Holland. Although it has always been unclear why Helena dotes so feverishly upon Bertram, her devotion now seems especially creepy in light of the age difference.

 

 

 

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