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<\/a>\u201cIf music be the food of love,\u201d playgoers will most certainly come home sated from the Lamb\u2019s Players Theatre\u2019s production of William Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cTwelfth Night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing the clown Feste (in this case the hotel pianist) Cris O\u2019Bryon is at the big black grand piano most of the time, eliciting double-dip tips in his huge glass brandy snifter.<\/p>\n
In celebration of 20 years at their Coronado location, Lamb\u2019s Producing Artistic Director Robert Smyth, who also plays the clown Toby Belch, sets the sunny comedy upon a Hotel del Coronado set created by Mike Buckley. The year, 1949, was a good one for Jeanne Barnes Reith\u2019s costumes (the spectator shoes are to die for). The idea is redolent of San Diego Opera\u2019s 1999 and 2005 Hotel Del production of Mozart\u2019s \u201cCosi fan tutte,\u201d in which the young men were also clad in naval uniforms.<\/p>\n Viola (adorable, mustachioed Catie Grady) is a shipwrecked heiress who washes up on the shores of \u201cIlyria.\u201d Thinking her twin brother Sebastian (Charles Evans Jr.) drowned, she disguises herself as the lad Cesario and goes into service of \u201cDuke\u201d Orsino (Jason Maddy), Captain of the naval base. Viola has loved Orsino from afar for many years. In the course of her service she is sent as emissary to the object of Orsino\u2019s affection, Olivia (Christy Yael-Cox), who owns the hotel and admits no gentlemen callers because she is in deep mourning for her brother. Surrounding Feste in the hotel lobby are Olivia\u2019s hangers on, her uncle, Sir Toby (Smyth) and a suitor, Andrew Aguecheek (Brian Mackey). Manifest with Mackey\u2019s hilarious rubber legs and silly smile, Andrew is Toby\u2019s drinking companion. The performance is definitely another gem in Mackey\u2019s crown.<\/p>\n Complications include the pranking of Olivia\u2019s supercilious hotel manager, Malvolio (Brian Rickel), by the hotel\u2019s head housekeeper, Maria (Cynthia Gerber), And the most joyous of all, the appearance of Sebastian, who promptly falls in love with Olivia. Cuts, obviously instituted to bring the show in at 2-1\/2 hours, rob onlookers of Shakespeare\u2019s homoerotic elements \u2014 most specifically Orsino\u2019s consternation over his attraction to another man. Because of this, the revelation of Viola\u2019s femaleness is robbed of full impact. But never mind, the text, uniformly Americana 1949, is well spoken, the plot clear, and Jon Lorenz\u2019s score makes up for any lack of Shakespearean intent and usual practice.<\/p>\n Smyth\u2019s casting of Orsino\u2019s Ensigns, Curio and Valentine, with singers Jacob Caltrider and Jesse Abeel is brilliant. So is Jon Lorenz\u2019s setting of Shakespeare\u2019s songs, among them the aforementioned \u201cIf Music Be the Food of Love,\u201d plus \u201cO, Mistress Mine,\u201d and \u201cCome Away Death.\u201d Others in the company are Jeffrey Jones and, Carrie Heath. Deborah Gilmore Smyth, who also assistant directed, is the choreographer.<\/p>\n Memorable moments include Aguecheek and Cesario\u2019s Hotel Del-inspired tennis-racket duel with fight choreography by Maddy, and the initial appearance of Sebastian, looking so much like Cesario he takes one\u2019s breath away. Another joy of the production is the giddy and girlish love of Olivia for Cesario. Yael-Cox, cofounder of Intrepid Shakespeare Company, is far from the usual dour Olivia.<\/p>\n \u2014Charlene Baldridge moved to San Diego from the Chicago area in 1962. She\u2019s been writing about the arts since 1979, and has had her features, critiques, surveys and interviews included in various publications ever since. Her book \u201cSan Diego, Jewel of the California Coast\u201d (Northland Publishing) is currently available in bookstores. She can be reached at charb81@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lamb\u2019s \u2018Twelfth Night\u2019 heavy on concept, music Charlene Baldridge | Downtown News \u201cIf music be the food of love,\u201d playgoers will most certainly come home sated from the Lamb\u2019s Players Theatre\u2019s production of William Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cTwelfth Night.\u201d Playing the clown Feste (in this case the hotel pianist) Cris O\u2019Bryon is at the big black grand […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":236908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Bard at the Beach","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n