New Shows: Michael J.Fox vs. Robin Williams in the Battle of the 80s Sitcom Stars

Michael J. Fox is one of those performers who rose above whatever vehicle he was in. I don't think either Family Ties or Spin City would've gone anywhere if they had cast, say, Matthew Broderick in the former or Charlie Sheen in the latter from the get-go. Whatever the show, Fox's intelligence and charm and especially his comic timing made it seem better than it was. But then Parkinson's Disease intruded. He still had America's heart, even if he wasn't doing television or movies anymore. That means great things were expected when he announced he was coming back to NBC with a sitcom built around him, acknowledging his Parkinson's and using it as part of the main character in The Michael J. Fox Show.

Contrast that with Robin Williams, who made his mark on TV as Mork of Mork and Mindy fame, and then went on to big, important movie roles where he was in turn lovable, crazy or really crazy. See: The Dead Poets Society, Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting and The Birdcage for warm-and-fuzzy Williams, and The Fisher King, One Hour Photo and Insomnia for the nuts and psychopaths. I'm not sure where to put Popeye, except to note that he was terrific in it, and I totally believed him as a serious actor after that one.

But Williams, too, had off-screen problems, mostly centered around substance abuse and just how out-of-control his comedy stylings could get when he was on a roll. The word "manic" comes to mind. Yes, Williams has always been funny, but sometimes it's not that great to be identified with "crazy" as a matter of course. His new show on CBS isn't backing away from that, however, going with The Crazy Ones as a title.

Both shows are on Thursday night, and last week, they both held the 8 pm (Central) slot. The Michael J. Fox Show came in with a slightly better critical reception than The Crazy Ones, but The Crazy Ones had a better lead-in with The Big Bang Theory and its boffo ratings than MJF got with back-to-back episodes of Parks and Recreation, a much superior show that has much inferior ratings.

So whose comedy emerged supreme? For my money, it's The Crazy Ones. I watched both episodes of The Michael J. Fox Show and the pilot for The Crazy Ones, and I'm surprised to say this, but I liked The Crazy Ones a lot better in terms of character and situation. It also trounced The Michael J. Fox Show in the ratings.

In The Michael J. Fox Show, our hero is a much-beloved news anchor who left his desk due to Parkinson's but has now decided to come back. In The Crazy Ones, our hero is the wackadoodle head of an ad agency who works with his daughter (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and a very attractive subordinate (Mad Men's James Wolk). Neither premise is exactly inspired, but neither is terrible, either.

In The MJF Show, Michael J. Fox is as capable as ever, and Betsy Brandt is strong as his wife. I could take or leave the children, Katie Finneran is annoying as Fox's character's narcissistic sister, and the other supporting characters seem to come from The Comedy Stock Character Handbook instead of a place of creativity or inspiration. Mostly, I don't think I respond all that well to family-based sitcoms anymore, and that's exactly where this show finds its center. Teens, toddlers, underachievers at school, playtime at the park, hijinks ensuing...

Over at Crazy, we're playing with the grown-ups and their job-based hijinks instead. As I watched, I decided that Williams was fine, Gellar seemed uncomfortable, and Wolk was adorable. Plus Kelly Clarkson guested in the pilot as herself, or a version of herself who didn't want to sing the McDonald's jingle unless they sexed it up, and she was a lot of fun. Williams' brand of insanity actually worked when played off Clarkson and Wolk. And I wouldn't underestimate the power of Wolk being adorable. So far, anyway, I'd tune in just to see him sing jingles and fool around with clients.

Next week, these two shows will not be in direct competition, as Sean Hayes' Sean Saves the World moves into the 8 o'clock slot and The Michael J. Fox Show airs at 8:30 on NBC, while The Crazy Ones stays at 8, followed by that old chestnut, Two and a Half Men.

We'll see how the ratings shake out for The Crazy Ones without that Big Bang lead-in, and for The Michael J. Fox Show when it's drafting Sean Hayes' fumes. But for now, anyway, 80s star Robin Williams is leading 80s star Michael J. Fox in the battle for my TV time.

Fall Heats Up: Tons of TV Premieres Tomorrow

Sunday has become a hot night for television, with biggies like The Amazing Race, Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, The Good Wife, Homeland, Mad Men, Once Upon a Time, Revenge and The Simpsons finding space there. And tomorrow... A whole lot of your favorites are launching their fall seasons.

On ABC, Once Upon a Time comes back, taking us to Neverland in pursuit of little Henry, who was kidnapped at the end of last season. Snow White and Prince Charming (, as well as Evil Queen Regina, Rumplestiltskin, Captain Hook and Emma, Snow and Charming's daughter, are on board for Neverland adventures. Henry's dad, sometimes whileand Belle, the one who goes with the Beast, stayed back in Storybrooke. But everybody should be mixing it up with villainous mermaids and a nasty and dangerous version of Peter Pan as we move into Once Upon a Time, season 3. Look for the special two-hour premiere beginning at 6 Central time on ABC.

Revenge also shows up for its Season 3 premiere on ABC, followed by a new show called Betrayal that is trying to capture the Revenge spirit, maybe with a soupcon of Scandal for good measure.. On Revenge, Emily let the cat out of the bag about really being Amanda at the end of last season, and she's getting married to Daniel as this one starts. Everybody's lives are complicated when Victoria's much-beloved (maybe too beloved?) son Patrick, played by Justin Hartley, shows up. And Betrayal mixes sex, politics, murder and an illicit love affair between a defense lawyer and a prosecutor's wife. They're both married, and who they're married to makes their affair a whole lot more complicated when the two attorneys take opposite sides of a very high-profile murder case.

The Good Wife, season 5

Over on CBS, it's time for The Amazing Race to take off from the starting line for its 23rd season. I'm not making that up. They've raced around the world 23 times now, winning nine Emmys in the Best Reality Competition Program category. The first leg of this season's race will be followed by the season premieres of The Good Wife and The Mentalist, at 8 and 9 Central time respectively. Alicia (Juliana Margulies) is jumping ship from Lockhart/Gardner to create a new firm with Cary and the ill-treated associates. "Everything Is Ending" is the name of the premiere episode, the one that begins the war between Alicia and her Lockhart/Gardner boss, Will, who also happens to be her ex-lover. And what about husband Peter now that he won his election?

Showtime is starting up its espionage thriller Homeland for its third season, showing what happens "during the aftermath of the horrific terror attack that decimated the U.S. intelligence apparatus and prompted a global manhunt for the world's most wanted terrorist, Nick Brody (Damien Lewis). As Carrie (Claire Danes) and Saul (Mandy Patinkin) begin to pick up the pieces of their shattered professional and personal lives, they are swept up in the political and media firestorm surrounding the terror attack and the subsequent search for Brody's whereabouts." The aftermath begins at 8 Central, followed by a new show called Masters of Sex, starring British actor Michael Sheen and American Lizzy Caplan as Masters and Johnson, the trailblazing duo -- he was a fertility expert and she was a twice-divorced single mother -- who became famous for their research into human sexuality starting in the late 50s.

And on HBO, you'll find another new series, this one a comedy called Hello Ladies, about a hapless web designer who moves from England to LA and begins a desperate search for love and romance. Or at least a date. The web designer looking to get it on with the ladies is played Stephen Merchant, Ricky Gervais's frequent collaborator and co-creator of the original British version of The Office, who recently went viral after a lip sync contest on Jimmy Fallon's Late Night. He's tall, he's spindly, he's affable, and he does a heck of a job on Beyonce's "Single Ladies," but the New York Times called his new show "mortifying and melancholy, played out against a tinselly, soft-jazz vision of nighttime Hollywood." If mortifying and melancholy is your thing, Hello Ladies may be just what you're looking for. Merchant's dating games begin at 9:30 pm Central time on HBO.

If your DVR is already overloaded, you'll still need to make room for the 75-minute series finale of Breaking Bad at 8 Central time on AMC. It's all over. Breaking Bad will be broken, one way or the other.

Nick Offerman Comes Back to U of I in October to Benefit Japan House

I remember Nick Offerman from his days as a theater student at the University of Illinois in Urbana, and I remember very distinctly that he didn't get cast a lot at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. I remember him playing a policeman blowing a whistle in a Feydeau farce in the Colwell Playhouse, and doing multiple scenes with fellow actors as part of a senior showcase. The group also sang Stephen Sondheim's "Opening Doors." And that's about all I recall, except for some work he did at Urbana's Station Theatre, outside the program. Oh, wait. There was also a new play staged at the Armory Free Theatre, written by Christopher Johnson, that involved Offerman stripping, wearing skimpy women's undies, and shoving his arm down a garbage disposal. At the time, I was all, ooh, gross, but in retrospect, I'm pretty impressed they could pull off the disposal/blood spatter effects in the Armory Theatre.

Now that Offerman is headed back to U of I for some special events planned to support Japan House, a project started by famed theater artist Shozo Sato on the Urbana campus, I've learned that he almost gave up his acting dream while he was a student, and it was Sato's Kabuki theater class that kept Offerman in the biz. At least that's what U of I's press release is telling us, as they announce that tickets are on sale now for a special Krannert Center stop on Offerman's "American Ham Tour," an evening of comedy and cautionary tales scheduled for the Foellinger Great Hall at 7:30 pm on October 26.

Apparently, Offerman was a frequent dinner guest at the Sato residence when he was an undergrad, and the two stayed in touch over the years, with the master of Zen arts also officiating when Offerman married actress Megan Mullally in 2003.

This visit to Champaign-Urbana will include not just the comedy show at Krannert on Saturday night, but also an "East Meets Midwest" eleven-course dinner on Sunday, October 27, with Shozo Sato and his wife, Alice, as a benefit for Japan House. Space is obviously very limited for the fundraising dinner, which will take place at Prairie Fruits Farms, and tickets are priced at $325 per person. If you'd like to see if tickets are still available for that event, you can visit the Japan House website or call them directly at 217-244-9934.

Chefs Shin Matsuda, Thad Morrow and Drew Starkey will be preparing this eleven-course meal, while a Japanese drumming group from Chicago called Ho Etsu Taiko will perform during dinner.

For all the details, check out the U of I press release here and Japan House's posted notice here.

Emmy Rundown (or Maybe Running Over Them with a Mack Truck)

I was going to do a rundown of the Emmy ceremonies that took place last Sunday night on CBS. But here's the deal. Some of the winners were surprising, but not necessarily in a good way (Jeff Daniels, you're a good actor and I like you, but The Newsroom is a dog. I know you're doing the best you can to elevate Aaron Sorkin's mess, but... It's still a mess.) and some of the winners weren't surprising at all, also not in a good way (Love you, Modern Family, but you really don't need to keep taking all the awards, ok? Leave some for some other comedies.)

Fine by me for Behind the Candelabra to clean up. Fine by me for Tony Hale to win for Veep. He's so good, as evidenced by the little act he did as his Veep character when Julia Louis-Dreyfus won her award, carrying her purse and whispering suggestions. He's the kind of actor who often doesn't get picked up on Emmy's radar, so good for him.

What else? I find Derek Hough smug and annoying and I wish anybody else had won that category. Why give it to someone whose choreography is too often about simulated blowjobs instead of, you know, dancing? The Voice? Really? Why did Neil Patrick Harris have so little to do? Why does anyone think boob jokes are still funny, even if it's NPH delivering them? Why am I still watching the Emmys?

While I was, I did a kind of stream-of-consciousness record of what was happening, but I didn't start till the first award. Whatever came before that is lost in the sands of time. Yep. That's how forgettable it was. But here are my thoughts on the 2013 Emmy Awards as they unfolded. Not a lot of detail, I admit. And again... Why am I still watching the Emmys?

Merritt Wever

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Merritt Wever, Nurse Jackie. Who is Merritt Wever?

Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series
Tina Fey and Tracey Wigfield, 30 Rock, "Last Lunch" episode

Tony Hale

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Tony Hale, Veep. Aw, nice. One of our nieces was really into Arrested Development when she was little, and she told my husband he was just like Buster. (My Arrested Development twin was Maggie Lizer, by the way.) So when Tony Hale's name was announced, my husband said, "I won an award!" And that was nice, too.

Robin Williams' tribute to Jonathan Winters. Nicely done, but nothing so significant that it couldn't have been part of the standard In Memoriam reel.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep. Loved the bit. Funniest thing so far.

Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series
Gail Mancuso, Modern Family. I don't really have an opinion on who's who here, so it's good to see a female director win.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory. Whatever. He seems nice. He got Bob Newhart on his show, so bonus points for that.

Jean Stapleton

Rob Reiner's tribute to Jean Stapleton. It seemed heartfelt and sweet, and I do think Jean Stapleton and All in the Family were huge in the history of television. But I would've preferred at least a few clips. I wanted to hear Edith Bunker sing "Those Were the Days."

Elton John plays a new song in honor of Liberace and HBO's Behind the Candelabra. Total waste of time as far as I'm concerned.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
Laura Linney, The Big C: Hereafter.

A bit about NPH and Excessive Hosting Disorder from his HIMYM pals. Mildly amusing.

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
Henry Bromell, Homeland. Very sweet to see this posthumous tribute.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad. She and I have the same birthday (along with Viola Davis) and she does a dandy job on Breaking Bad in what seems like more of a leading role than a supporting one. But this way she gets an award because she doesn't have to compete with Claire Danes, so good for her.

Jane Lynch's tribute to Cory Monteith. Which of these things is not like the other? Yeah, I thought so.

Outstanding Reality Competition Program
The Voice. Poor Amazing Race doesn't know what to do with itself without a win in this category.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Bobby Cannavale, Boardwalk Empire. Outstanding Supporting Actor with the Most Violence in a Drama Series... Your girl is lovely, Bobby. And I like you. I really do. But I think Aaron Paul deserves this more than you do. And Mandy Patinkin deserves this more than you do.

Jeff Daniels in The Newsroom

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom. Yeah, whatever. Daniels is fine, he really is, but the way Aaron Sorkin builds his characters, especially the female ones, makes this show unwatchable for me.

Don Cheadle and Carrie Underwood salute 1963 on television, as the year the Beatles hit The Ed Sullivan Show and TV anchors like Walter Cronkite covered the JFK assassination. Underwood sings "Yesterday." Very, very badly. I love "Yesterday," but it was a hit in 1965, not 1963. If I have to have a tribute to 1963, could I have a different one, please? One without Carrie Underwood anywhere near it? Talk about pitchy, dawg. It was also at this point (with Carrie Underwood and her milkmaid/Heidi/40-Year-Old Virgin Sound of Music poster showing up all over the place) that I realized that pretty much everyone with a special segment -- with the exception of Rob Reiner, I guess, and maybe Elton John -- also had a season premiere or new show or special project of some sort coming up very soon. So they were chosen so they could promote their stuff, then, and not because the people or events they were supposedly celebrating were worth celebration in any meaningful way. Got it.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Claire Danes, Homeland. Of course. Hated her dress, by the way. The internet was divided. Thumbs down from here.

Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series
David Fincher, House of Cards. Nice to see the show get something.

Outstanding Writing in a Variety Series
The Colbert Report. Very much deserved.

Outstanding Directing in a Variety Series
Don Roy King, Saturday Night Live. Yeah, no.

Michael J. Fox tribute to Gary David Goldberg. I love Michael J. Fox and he certainly did have a strong connection to Gary David Goldberg, someone whose contributions to television were significant and important and over too soon. But these memorial segments are so not working. They just make me mad at the people who've passed away or at the people honoring them, and that is so wrong.

Outstanding Choreography
Derek Hough, Dancing with the Stars. Ugh.

The Colbert Report

Outstanding Variety Series
The Colbert Report. Sure.

Edie Falco tribute to James Gandolfini. She seemed very emotional and very committed to sharing what she loved about James Gandolfini. I found this the most moving of the tributes because of that.

Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special
Abi Morgan, The Hour. Did you see the other nominees? Tom Stoppard, Jane Campion, David Mamet, Richard LaGravenese... Good for you, Abi Morgan, for coming out with the trophy against that kind of competition.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie
James Cromwell, American Horror Story: Asylum. He's fabulous.

And then the more complete In Memoriam reel, which was, of course, hugely overshadowed by the special people with special tributes. Such a bad idea to single out the few and insult the many.

Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special
Steven Soderbergh, Behind the Candelabra.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
Ellen Burstyn, Political Animals.

Michael Douglas as Liberace in Behind the Candelabra

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie
Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra. Deserved and also very, very expected.

Outstanding Miniseries or Movie
Behind the Candelabra. Expected.

Outstanding Comedy Series
Modern Family. Of course.

Outstanding Drama Series
Breaking Bad. It deserves it. Mad Men, Downton Abbey and House of Cards (even Game of Thrones) are more my style, but I can't deny that Breaking Bad is a fabulous hour of TV. Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul are what makes it sing, though, and I'm sorry that the Academy didn't see that. They should've been throwing awards at those two whenever they could.

ISU's SPRING AWAKENING Opens Friday

If you're a fan of the Broadway show Spring Awakening, the one that set Lea Michele, Jonathan Groff and John Gallagher, Jr., on the road to stardom, you'll want to get tickets now to Illinois State University's production of this teen angst rock musical. Singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik wrote the music for the show, while Steven Sater did the book and lyrics. The 2006 Broadway production of Spring Awakening took home eight Tony Awards, including wins for its book and score, direction, choreography, orchestrations, lighting design, featured actor Gallagher, and the show itself, which was named Best Musical.

Third-year MFA director Matthew Scott Campbell directs the ISU production, with Pete Guither as Musical Director, with designers including Harrison Hohnholt (lighting), Jamie Jones (costumes), Kieran Pereira (sound), Mary Rose (hair and make-up), and Andrew Sierszyn (scenic design). The cast includes Joey Banks, Nina Ganet, Joshua Gouskos, Bethany Hart, Carlos Kmet, Colin Lawrence, Ali Lockenvitz, Gloria Petrelli, Gabriella Rivera, Mitchell Schaeflein, Nico Tangorra, Colin Trevino-Odell and Abby Vombrack, with Christina Duris, Anne Olson, Joshua Pennington and Leonn Summers in the ensemble.

This is how ISU is describing the show:

This landmark musical, based on Frank Wedekind's controversial 1891 play, is an electrifying fusion of morality, sexuality and rock & roll that is exhilarating audiences across the nation like no other musical in years. Join this group of late 19th century German students on their passage as they navigate teenage self-discovery and coming of age anxiety in a powerful celebration of youth and rebellion.

Spring Awakening opens September 27 with a 7:30 pm performance at the Illinois State University Center for the Performing Arts. Subsequent performances are scheduled for September 28 and 29, and October 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. For all the details, visit this Facebook page for the event. To order tickets, call 438-2535 for the ISU Center for the Performing Arts box office, visit the box office in person, or go to ticketmaster.com. Check out this page for more ticket how-to information.

Emmy Time!

Tomorrow the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences throws itself a big, boffo party on TV to hand out its annual primetime Emmy Awards for excellence in acting, directing, writing, choreography, and in general, putting on the shows we see on our tellies, whether they're reality TV-paloozas, comedies, dramas, mini-series, made-for-TV movies, animation, variety specials or pretty much anything else you can think of.

This will be Neil Patrick Harris's sixth year as host, and stars like Elton John, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Bob Newhart, LL Cool Jay, Jon Hamm, and Jimmies Fallon and Kimmel will drop by to help out.

Who wins is generally a fairly predictable affair, although this year there's a little more drama with non-televised, made-just-for-Netflix entries like House of Cards and Arrested Development. Will Kevin Spacey or Robin Wright win acting honors for the former or Jason Bateman for the latter? Can anybody upset the Homeland juggernaut from previous years? Will Breaking Bad break through and steal the hardware in the drama categories? Is Modern Family still the comedy to beat? Will HBO's Behind the Candelabra continue to clean up like it did at the technical awards ceremony last week?

I wouldn't be against any of those things, although I suppose someone has to emerge in the Homeland vs. Breaking Bad battle for Best Drama.

Because 2013 marks "the 50th Anniversary of two events that changed the face of our world," we will see a tribute to television milestones in 1963, with Don Cheadle and Carrie Underwood telling us about the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and how John F. Kennedy's assassination made TV come of age.

Jonathan Winters

And because television lost TV legends James Gandolfini (The Sopranos), Gary David Goldberg (Family Ties, Spin City), Jean Stapleton (All in the Family) and Jonathan Winters (The Steve Allen Show, The Garry Moore Show, Mork and Mindy) this year, there will be a a special In Memoriam segment to honor the passing of these luminaries along with Cory Monteith of Glee. Monteith's career wasn't nearly as long as the others and not nearly as important in my mind. But Monteith was current and his death was shocking, and I guess that counts for something with the Academy. You'll excuse me while I spend my extra mourning time on Jonathan Winters, a comic genius and someone my mom absolutely loved. Today would've been her 89th birthday, and she would've been really cranky that her favorite had to share his In Memoriam time with a callow youth from Glee.

Much better examples of television icons who passed away this year? Larry Hagman of Dallas and I Dream of Jeannie fame, who was nominated for Emmys twice, and Jack Klugman, who starred in Quincy and The Odd Couple and won three Emmys. Come on, Academy! It's pretty clear who does and does not belong in the special group that gets extended tributes. And it ain't Cory Monteith.

Oh well. This complaint's for you, Mom.

Edie Falco will pay tribute to her Sopranos co-star James Gandolfini, while Michael J. Fox will step up for Family Ties and Spin City producer Gary David Goldberg, Rob Reiner will say a few words about Jean Stapleton and their All in the Family days; and Robin Williams will speak on behalf of his friend and mentor Jonathan Winters. And Jane Lynch, also of Glee, gets the Cory Monteith assignment.

The 65th Annual Emmy Awards will start at 7 pm Central on CBS tomorrow, September 22, 2013. You can see all kinds of extra info and behind-the-scenes video at the Emmys site.

It's MUCH ADO, TONY & CLEO and ELIZABETH REX for the ISF in 14

The announcement has been made, and we now know what will be playing when the Illinois Shakespeare Festival begins again next summer. This time, Festival Artistic Director Kevin Rich has created an integrated line-up, with two Shakespeare choices that link together through the third, Timothy Findley's Elizabeth Rex, which imagines Queen Elizabeth I taking a breather in the barn where Shakespeare and his players are lingering after a performance. They've just performed Much Ado About Nothing, which will also be on the Illinois Shakespeare Festival bill, and we see William Shakespeare in the midst of writing Antony and Cleopatra, which is the other show chosen for next summer. Ta da! All tied up neatly with a bow, and one of the best uses of repertory, overlapping themes and shared cast ever.

Husband-and-wife directors Jonathan West and Paula Suozzi, who have extensive credits in Milwaukee, will direct Much Ado and Elizabeth Rex, while Rich will take on directorial duties for Antony and Cleopatra himself. Much Ado was last seen at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival in 2007, while you'll have to go all the way to 1991 to find Antony and Cleopatra.

Here's how the Festival breaks down next year's offerings:

ELIZABETH REX, by Timothy Findley
Directed by Paula Suozzi

This brilliant, award-winning play imagines Queen Elizabeth spending the eve of her lover’s execution in the company of William Shakespeare and his players. Seeking distraction from her grief, she watches Much Ado About Nothing and afterward, banters with Beatrice about identity, sexuality and love. Meanwhile, Shakespeare is writing a new play called Antony and Cleopatra – about a Queen’s tragic affair with her lover – which Elizabeth finds suspiciously familiar. Elizabeth Rex will be performed in repertory with both of these Shakespearean plays, making a trilogy of uniquely connected productions that cannot be missed.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, by William Shakespeare
Directed by Jonathan West

Messina’s soldiers have returned from victory abroad to discover new battles at home! Sworn bachelor Benedick and his fiery counterpart Beatrice engage in a war of words and wit while their friends watch their attraction grow stronger with every skirmish. Meanwhile, Claudio plans to wed his true love Hero, unaware of the villainous Don John’s desire to foil his plans. Will these battles end in victory? Our hilarious production has the answers – and a whole lot more – featuring the same actors who play these parts in Elizabeth Rex.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, by William Shakespeare
Directed by Kevin Rich

Shakespeare’s epic portrayal of Mark Antony’s intoxication with the stunning Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. Drunk with passion, the Roman war hero and leader neglects his duties back home, ignores prophecies, and enrages his former allies by choosing Egypt and its beautiful ruler while the Roman Empire hangs in the balance. When Octavius Caesar turns on Antony, is his attack on Egypt enough to rouse the smitten soldier into action? Often requested and seldom performed, this production is as enchanting as its Queen. In our repertory, Cleopatra will be played by the same actress who plays Queen Elizabeth in Elizabeth Rex.

I am loathe to suggest I called this combination, because, well, I didn't. Last time I was making guesses, I went with Twelfth Night and Julius Caesar. But back when I reviewed Elizabeth Rex at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, I did include this little addendum:

As a side note, I would love to see Elizabeth Rex played in repertory with Much Ado About Nothing, which begins this play, and Antony and Cleopatra, which is supposedly being written during this play, with some of the same actors who are supposedly playing roles in Much Ado taking those roles in Much Ado, and the actor we see as Benedick and reading a few of Antony's lines taking those roles, too. Maybe we should even throw in A Winter's Tale, so the bear has something else to do?

With three plays in the Festival's rotation, there's no room for A Winter's Tale, but the other three are represented, so... Great minds think alike?