Review: ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Met Theatre
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The star-crossed stakes of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at the Met Theatre straddle the space between adventurous and academic. This traditionalist take on Shakespeare’s deathless romance seeks to redress postmodern directorial tinkering.
Sound designer Ivan Robles’ house music suggests as much, ‘West Side Story’ and Prokofiev giving way to Nino Rota’s love theme from the 1968 Zeffirelli film. The company appears, dishing Andy Williams in costumer Howard Schmitt’s impressive Renaissance garb, and it’s off to Verona.
Director Louis Fantasia gets considerable mileage from the triple doors of designer Howard Schmitt’s Globe-inflected set. Using a trimmed Folio text, Fantasia keeps the story in focus, though not without some casualties of tone and familiarity.
The rising action plays at breakneck conversational tempos; the descent into tragedy grows andante and declamatory. Frederik Hamel and Megan Goodchild make creditable title teens, he resolutely articulating past a French accent, she growing from all-purpose proficiency to a nuanced climax. Yet their chemistry is almost neutral, and a swath of styles emerges within Fantasia’s overall scheme.
Some turns feel contemporary, such as Jill Holden’s acerbic Nurse, Michael Naishtut’s brash Peter and Isabella Hofmann’s understated Lady Capulet. Others are rangier of interpretive expression: Niall Padden’s resonant Lord Capulet or Michael Matthys’ bravura Mercutio clearly ready for Hamlet. There is the classically subdued attack of Tony Motzenbacker’s Friar Laurence, the collegiate zeal of Paul Benz’s Paris. So travels a valiantly variable roster.
Given Fantasia’s goal, such extremes are curious, only sporadically catching fire, though Brian Danner’s fight choreography is certainly fervent. The lack of an intermission proves trying, and the back-to-basics approach sometimes misfires, as when Andreas Beckett’s slain Tybalt must resurrect to exit.
It’s not a bad reading, nor, for much of its length, is it boring. It’s just not particularly illuminating, more admirable effort than moving achievement.
-- David C. Nichols
‘Romeo and Juliet,’ Met Theatre, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., L.A. 7 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends April 5. $20. (800) 838-3006. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.