Results tagged “jeffreycoon”

It's an interesting idea, casting some of Philadelphia's most recognizable musical and comedic actors in a play that's certainly neither of those things. But perhaps so dramatically recasting Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, as director Malcolm Black has done at the Walnut Street Theatre, is a smart idea: it distances us from the Marlon Brando/Vivien Leigh/Kim Hunter/Karl Malden casting we all know and allows us to take a fresh look at the show.

I have to be honest here for a minute: I was pretty pessimistic about The Walnut's production of Les Miserables, more or less from the second it was announced as the season closer. It wasn't lack of faith in The Walnut that led to my lack of optimism. Rather, it was a familiarity: nothing about Les Mis—not the music, not the costumes, not the set*—is easy, and bad productions are far too common. Not only that, the better known a musical is, the greater the chance that the audience, used to hearing the original Broadway soundtrack, or having seen the production in London or New York, will be tough to please. Perhaps I should re-phrase my initial statement. It's not that I was pessimistic about The Walnut's production—it's just that I entered the theatre with a healthy sense of reality.

Let's just get this out on the table: producing Neil Simon's The Odd Couple is playing it safe. It's not that I don't love the play—I do—but so does everybody else. (Except for, I don't know, maybe August Strindberg, but he's dead and he doesn't count. On the other hand, Neil Simon might quite enjoy Strindberg and Helium.) And so just putting the play up on your marquee or season brochure is more or less a guarantee of your success, meaning I'm not entirely sure why Walnut Street Theatre invited me to review their production of the popular play.