STAYIN' ALIVE ON A SATURDAY NIGHT.Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer The pre-curtain opening disco sing-along should be enough of a clue that, although the words ``Midsummer'' ``Night'' and ``Dream'' are contained in the marquee at the Falcon Theatre, we are most assuredly not in Shakespeare's England anymore. Not that that's a problem. The Troubadour troubadour One of a class of lyric poets and poet-musicians, often of knightly rank, that flourished from the 11th through the 13th century, chiefly in Provence and other regions of southern France, northern Spain, and northern Italy. Theatre Company's ``A Midsummer Saturday Night's Fever Dream'' has its own manic benefits. This one's not for the Shakespearean purists, but for sheer outrageous fun, you could do a lot worse. More fusion than adaptation, ``Fever Dream'' strategically inserts the better part of the Bee Gees' ``Saturday Night Fever'' soundtrack into Shakespeare's comic tale of lovers, fairies and laborers all jumbled up in a forest. Theseus, Puck, Bottom and the gang are all present, but they're not reciting much poetic verse and they do a mean rendition of ``Stayin' Alive'' and ``If I Can't Have You.'' Establishing an atmosphere that's more party than drama, the troubadours troubadours (tr  `bədôrz), aristocratic poet-musicians of S France (Provence) who flourished from the end of the 11th cent. through the 13th cent. are constantly playing directly to the audience, stopping the action to highlight line fluffs and singing some seriously outdated disco. Director Matt Walker and his ensemble have likely never met a cheap laugh they didn't lunge for or, for that matter, a joke they can't nail. And if you don't laugh, chances are good one of the company members will beat one out of you with a whoopee cushion and slide whistle A slide whistle (variously known as a swanee whistle, piston flute or less commonly jazz flute) is a wind instrument consisting of a fipple like a recorder's and a tube with a piston in it. . A few too many snot snot n. Nasal mucus; phlegm. jokes notwithstanding, ``Fever Dream'' is the type of intro that would prevent young children from automatically assuming that Shakespeare is boring. When the actors are pratfalling or launching into ``Boogie Shoes'' every five minutes, even a 7-year-old's attention shouldn't wander. More importantly, in Troubadour's hands, ``Midsummer's'' labyrinthine lab·y·rin·thine adj. Of, relating to, resembling, or constituting a labyrinth. labyrinthine pertaining to or emanating from a labyrinth. plot seems amazingly easy to follow. We're still dealing with four lovers, a duke and duchess
The Duke and Duchess of Boxford are people featured in the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends TV Series. , the fairy kingdom and a bunch of laborers who think they're actors. Young Hermia (played by J.J Snyder) wants to marry Lysander (Ben Johnson Ben Johnson or Benjamin Johnson may be:
In the woods, vengeful fairy king Oberon (Michael Sulprizio) instructs his hench fairy Puck (Walker) to first make his queen Titania (Michelle Anne Johnson) fall in love with a monster and then fix the Hermia-Lysander-Demetrius-Helen entanglement. Also present are a group of laborers rehearsing a melodramatic little opus called ``Pyramus and Thisbe Pyramus and Thisbe (pĭr`əməs, thĭz`bē), in classical mythology, youth and maiden of Babylon, whose parents opposed their marriage. Their homes adjoined, and they conversed through a crevice in the dividing wall. .'' Spells start flying, lovers get entangled en·tan·gle tr.v. en·tan·gled, en·tan·gling, en·tan·gles 1. To twist together or entwine into a confusing mass; snarl. 2. To complicate; confuse. 3. To involve in or as if in a tangle. , and everything gets worse before it gets better. Sing it with me, everyone: ``Night fever! Night fever!'' Doing double duty as Puck and laborer leader Peter Quince, Walker is a wonderful master of ceremonies and Meleney Humphrey is hilarious as ditsy dit·sy also dit·zy adj. dit·si·er also dit·zi·er, dit·si·est also dit·zi·est Slang Eccentric or scatterbrained: "Needless to say, this ditsy crew succeeds in spite of itself" duchess Hippolyta. Actually, there's not a sour apple in the entire fruit basket. Leading the four-piece Troubadour band, musical directors Dave Barker and Lisa Valenzuela make sure that if ``A Midsummer Saturday Night's Fever Dream'' doesn't exactly rock (we're still talking Bee Gees tunes, after all), at least they'll get the audience rolling with laughter. And occasionally singing along, as well. ``A MIDSUMMER SATURDAY NIGHT'S FEVER DREAM'' Where: Falcon Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank. When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; through Jan. 28. Tickets: $15 to $20. Call (818) 955-8101. Our rating: Three stars |
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