 |
| David Ogden Stiers, Leah Chandler. |
 |
| Leah Chandler, Sam Tsoutsuvas. |
John Houseman, founder and artistic director of the Acting
Company, composed of recent Juilliard graduates, staged this classical revival
for their 1973-1974, five-play repertory season on Broadway. Clive Barnes
thought it one of the company’s “more laudable” efforts because its leading
roles were played by able actors and its approach was bubbling with verve and
spirit “without sacrificing Shakespeare’s dark vision of a hypocritical society.”
Updated to the late 19th century, the interpretation concentrated on the play’s
comic elements, thereby making the behavior of the Duke and Angelo easier to
grasp.
Barnes described David Schramm’s Angelo as “no monster, but
a man of enormous rigidity . . . obsessed by his own saintliness . . . but not
entirely a scoundrel.” Leah Chandler (who alternated with Mary Lou Rosato) was “glowingly
virginal” as Isabella, and David Ogden Stiers affable and warm as the Duke.
Disagreement came from, among others, John Simon, who declared the transfer of
period unremarkable, and denied that this was “a cute farce about a clownish
duke and his diabolical deputy.”
Kevin Kline played Friar Peter, Peter Dvorsky was Claudio,
Mary Lou Rosato was Mistress Overdone, Jared Sakren was Pompey, Sam Tsoutsouvas
was Lucio, Benjamin Hendrickson was Elbow, Patti LuPone doubled as A Boy and a
Lady of the Town.
