Review - The Merchant of Venice: Regretfully Timely

With celebrity anti-Semitism once again making headlines very shortly after The Public Theater's production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice ended its Broadway run, it almost seems a well-timed retaliation that Theatre for a New Audience's excellent mounting make a return visit to Gotham.

Director Darko Tresnjak's tense and moody production, first seen in 2007, sets the play in a contemporary Wall Street atmosphere, represented simply by three laptop computers (their enlarged screens visible to the audience from above) and a cast of characters dressed primarily in dark business suits. F. Murray Abraham once again stars as the Jewish moneylender, Shylock, playing the role with a steely patience that endures the casual bigotry he encounters every business day. Tom Nelis' Antonio, who risks a pound of his own flesh in order to secure a 3,000 ducat loan on behalf of Lucas Hall's Bassanio (Tresnjak makes it very clear that their relationship is more than a close friendship.) expresses his hatred of the Jew with second-nature thoughtlessness, making a harsh demonstration against a symbol of his rival's religion only after Shylock has been undeniably defeated.

Though certainly not lacking in passion, Abraham's Shylock keeps his emotions in check as a protective shield. The character's most famous monologue in defense of his people is delivered as the argument of a skilled debater; challenging his tormentors with reason when he knows he cannot win them over emotionally. The only instances when the actor allows Shylock's heartbreak to burst forth are when he learns that his daughter Jessica (Melissa Miller) has run away to marry Lorenzo (Vince Nappo) and convert to Christianity.

As Portia, the noble woman whose deceased father has made her hand in marriage the prize for the man who can solve the riddle behind three boxes, Kate MacCluggage displays the business-like confidence of someone who, by her gender and by her attractiveness, endures similar bigotries as Shylock in the all-boys club. Though she disguises herself as a male lawyer to rescue Antonio from having to pay his debt, MacCluggage and Abraham's performances parallel each other, illuminating similarities in the anti-Semitism and sexism their characters encounter. One might conclude from this production that if Portia had taken a moment to get to know Shylock, she might identify with his plight and switch her allegiance to his side.

Photos of F. Murray Abraham and Kate MacCluggage by Gerry Goodstein.

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The thought crossed my mind more than once during the intermission of Rick Elice's delightfully funny romp, Peter and the Starcatcher, now playing at the New York Theatre Workshop. Why was the versatile comic actor, Christian Borle, fresh from an acclaimed dramatic turn as Prior Walter in Signature's Angels in America, now regulated to a perfectly respectable but not exactly choice ensemble role in this prequel to J. M. Barrie's tale of Peter Pan?

My answer came quickly when the action resumed, as he began the second act leading the almost entirely male company, dressed in makeshift mermaid outfits highlighted by shiny vegetable steamers that added sparkle to their breasts, in a ukulele strumming music hall number that suggested the lunacy yet to come. Sporting a thick, black soup-strainer as the villainous pirate, Black Stache, Borle's role kicked into high gear in the evening's second half, and his maniacally hammy performance, reminiscent of Groucho Marx in his side-splitting wise-cracking and mock-balletic physicality, frequently threatened to pack the rest of the production in a valise and carry it home with him. (At one point he charges onto the stage threatening to report an unseen crocodile to the union if he dares to out-ham him.)

But this mounting, co-directed by Roger Rees and Alex Timbers and based on the same-named novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, is far too splendid for even the talented Mr. Borle to run off with. Presented in two distinctly different styles, the first half Is told as a storybook, combining dialogue scenes with lots of third-person narration to tell of 13-year-old Molly (Celia Keenan-Bolger), the daughter of "starcatcher," Lord Aster (Karl Kenzler), who, while on board the good ship Neverland, attempts to rescue a young orphan who will eventually be named Peter (Adam Chanler-Berat) from being sold into slavery, while keeping close guard of a large trunk that contains, as her father says, "the greatest treasure on earth." (In order to keep her mission secret, the two of them communicate in the language of the dodo bird.)

Though set designer Donyale Werle frames the stage in a beautiful, classically Victorian proscenium arch, the first act's many locales are achieved impressionistically, with the help of Jeff Croiter's distinctive lighting. In some instances, a long rope held just right is all that's needed.

Act II brings the shipwrecked characters to an island where the inhabitants' leader (Teddy Bergman) barks out orders that sound like the specials at an Italian bistro. With the narrative dropped, this half reveals the secrets behind why Peter never grows up, where Tinkerbelle came from, how Captain Hook lost his hand and other details of Barrie's classic characters. It all makes perfect sense and is really quite touching, particularly in the performances of Bolger and Chanler-Berat, who compete for leadership while escaping danger, but who also grow to admire and respect each other while feeling the first tingles of adolescent affection.

Peter and the Starcatcher makes for an excellent piece of family entertainment. The youngsters will enjoy the physical comedy and there's a strong central female character. And there's verbal wit a-plenty for the adults. While set in the early 20th Century, there are scattered modern references used as punch lines (Stache describes Molly's trunk as, "Elusive as the melody in a Philip Glass opera."), but the wackiness of the evening embraces such anachronisms just as naturally as audiences will be embracing Peter and the Starcatcher.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Adam Chanler-Berat & Christian Borle; Bottom: (front) Karl Kenzler and Celia Keenan-Bolger (center) Christian Borle, Arnie Burton, David Rossmer and Kevin Del Aguila (back) Brandon Dirden, Adam Chanler-Berat, Ted Bergman, Carson Elrod, Matt D'Amico and Greg Hildreth

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