Live Performance Review

No self-respecting theatre company can resist performing Shakespeare at least once a year and over the past weekend the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, & Dance hosted a production of William Shakespeare’s classic problem play All’s Well That Ends Well. This is one of the Bard’s lesser-known works (as much as any of Shakespeare’s plays can be considered less known) and Michigan decided to stage the drama entirely with musical theatre students as opposed to the more traditional dramatic actors. This was a fascinating decision but also one that seemed to also reflect the depths that were sometimes left unplumbed by the actors at times. Michigan also decided to move the setting of the play up to the 1950’s which was a very inspired choice and which showed the versatility of Shakespeare’s drama.
The plot of All’s Well That Ends Well revolves around the love of Helena, a lady-in-waiting to the dowager Countess of Roussillon for the Count Bertram who initially rejects her and thusly, she is forced to resort to trickery and deception to gain his love. Indeed, the character of Helena is very much in line with the long list of Shakespearean women, in both comedy and tragedy, who are very proactive and push forward the actions of the play, which was not the case in much of the drama produced during the playwright’s time. This characteristic helps keep the play relevant to the modern audience and was something that the production illustrated, showing the centrality of women to the medieval court.
The modernized dress was a success as the director seemed to be aiming to emulate the popular 1950’s style that he inundated popular culture lately and seen in the television show Mad Men and films such as Far from Heaven. The court was transformed into what seemed like a large sitting room in a 1950’s style home. The actual text was not changed and remained in the original Shakespearean blank verse. The actors managed to often catch the musical nature of the text but also just as often, were unable to provide the dramatic heft that was sometimes required by the situation. Tyler Jones, who played Bertram, was able to capture the mercurial nature of the Count and also imbued his lines with the type of nobility that would benefit his status. He managed to portray Bertrand, who in reading the text seems quite worthless, as someone that Helena would reasonably want to pursue. Laura Reed did not do as successfully in her portrayal of Helena, the major character of the play and she seemed to often be struggling to present a multifaceted presentation of the character as someone other than a desperate woman. She also did not really portray the character as someone with a goal but rather someone who just seemed to be flailing away at whatever she could find.
This production of All’s Well That Ends Well was a mixed bag though it certainly deserves applauds for its attempt to bring a different perspective to the well-worn drama. The musical theatre cast did not necessarily live up to expectations but Tyler Jones’ acting and the costumes helped the show to leave a few memorable impressions and the night was not entirely a waste.