BWW Reviews: Freewheeling CYMBELINE Injects Fun Into a Floundering Play

"Don't be like four-time Tony Award nominee Raul Esparza," says an actor to the audience while giving the pre-show spiel as the Broadway star openly snaps a photo of the cast.

Thus begins director Daniel Sullivan's freewheeling production of Shakespeare's Cymbeline.

Not one of The Bard's strongest efforts, this romance among royals during wartime is loaded with plot twists involving banishments, long-lost children, poison (Or is it?) and mistaken identity and pile of revelations that tie everything together in the final scene. It can feel lengthy, but Sullivan uses some fun double-casing to reduce the company to a starry cast of nine - all of whom seem to be having a grand time - Tom Kitt supplies some snazzy tunes played by an upstage band and set designer Riccardo Hernandez places the action on a storybook hodgepodge of a set where the actors hang around upstage when their characters aren't on.

Patrick Page, whose plummy tones add a touch of regalness to all his endeavors, plays the troubled King Cymbeline of Britain, but the plot revolves around his daughter, Imogen, played by Lily Rabe with a touching sincerity that anchors the evening while all the silliness surrounds her.

Cymbeline banishes Imogen's lover Posthumus, a commoner, in order to set up a marriage with his second wife's son, Cloten. Hamish Linklater's Posthumus is an earnest fellow but the actor nearly steals the show when he dons a shaggy wig and hilariously portrays Cloten as a thick-headed Valley boy.

Kate Burton digs up some good laughs, too, the devious and unnamed queen, who plays innocent charm at court but gets deliciously drunk with power in private. She also has terrific turn as a sensitive woodsman raising two young rustics played by Jacob Ming-Trent and David Furr. The three of them encounter Imogen while she is obligatorily disguised as a boy. Naturally, that trio turns out to be more than they appear.

Posthumus winds up in Rome, depicted here as Rat Pack era Las Vegas with Raul Esparza's Iachimo serving as your sleazy host, welcoming spectators with a terrific lounge lizard number. Iachimo tricks our hero with a bet that he can get Imogen to break her vow to be faithful to him. Page embellishes the setting as Philario, played like a Mafia don.

Written late in his career, Cymbeline shows signs of the playwright losing steam, with numerous instances of repeating memorable moments from his previous works. If Sullivan's lively production doesn't exactly reveal any hidden genius, it certainly offers enough madcap fun for a summer night.

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