The Grinch, Houdini, and Baz Luhrmann Walk Into Stoned King Lear
Plus: Groff, As You Like It
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Jonathan Groff will play Rosalind for the Royal Shakespeare Company.2
Evans sent the actor an email after visiting him in Just in Time, inviting him to play Rosalind. “And I wrote him back,” Groff recalls, “and the subject of the email that I wrote back to him was, ‘Holy F*cking Shit.’ That was the subject.”
Bowls with the Bard is holding auditions for Stoned King Lear. (Related: Pot Girls)
Gavin Newsom’s wine business is called PlumpJack and he’s expanding the metaphor.3
Hamlet: The Musical Comedy New Yorker cartoon. (obligatory Funny Boy link. Speaking of “what Booth did to Lincoln”:)
A relative of the guy who shot the guy who shot Lincoln made his London debut in an adaptation of The Winter’s Tale called “Perdita, or the Royal Milkmaid.”
Baz Luhrmann designed a private Pullman car. (£15,000 nets you a personal chef, butler and steward)
The immersive design centres on a fictional character imagined by Luhrmann: Celia is conceived as a leading lady who, after a triumphant performance as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is gifted her own Pullman carriage.
The first use of “cool” as “impudent” is from an 18th c. adaptation of Henry V.
The earliest OED citation for this sense is from the English writer Aaron Hill’s tragedy King Henry V (1723), an adaptation of Shakespeare’s 1599 play that adds a romance between the king’s mistress and the French dauphin.4
A sample of Shakespeare items currently available on Ebay: a letter from Houdini about his William Henry Ireland collection,5 a very strange sideboard, a Picasso sketch, a bust of Shakespeare as a springer spaniel, a bust of Shakespeare from my nightmares,6 and a Fourth Folio.
Speaking of nightmares, this sentient cake poster for Much Ado at Alabama Shakes.
Watching Noah Jupe marvel at having six weeks of rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet is delightful and also slightly painful.7 (Points for keeping Peter)
You know, the Grinch is like Richard III, the person who stands on the outside, on top of the mountain, looking down at the Whos below, and saying, ‘I’m going to get back at them.’ That has a lot of Richard III energy.
STC’s mock trial is a constant delight.
In her brief, Dunn declared that Emilia’s theft of the handkerchief was a “substantial factor” in Desdemona’s death…
It attributes Henry VI Part 1 to Kyd, Thomas Nashe and Shakespeare, but not to Marlowe as was previously assumed.
Exactly how many fairies are there and what is Moth/Mote’s deal?9
Whether Moth is named or not does not have any consequence for the plot of the play, and yet this textual crux is one that continues to intrigue me….Does Bottom simply not address Moth because, as their name seems to imply, he does not see them?
Trying to write a play per month is a Bad Idea via Dr Callan Davies.
Recommendations
“If no letter from you comes soon, I will die” -Zizizi, 19th c. BCE.
Apollinaire’s German shell ring and a deeply impractical sword.
A member of Richard III’s parliament smuggles a coffin of Portugal farts.
William Shawn “once had a writer sit outside his office till 2:30 a.m. in a standoff over a hyphen.”
“I don’t want to imply that one of the 20th century’s greatest explorers was killed by an overly vigorous workout on the pogo stick, but…” via Londonist
Like this one.
Kevin Kline told him to do it / he saw the gender-swapped Taming and wrote Petruchia a fan letter (thoughts) / he has big shoes to fill / this is the RSC’s first all-male production / will this mean more trains?
Is there a third celebrity-owned Shakespeare-named winery out there?
Please read this play. It is insane and must be performed immediately. (Or at least read at stands on a Monday.) Henry’s ex-lover Harriet whom he seduced and abandoned follows him to France, sneaks into his tent disguised as a boy, tells him he’s an a$$hole, gives him letters exposing Scroop et. al., and stabs herself.
If asked nicely or at all, I will come to your house and present a powerpoint about the man (Ireland, not Houdini). He’s such a dumb delight.
Kind readers have occasionally purchased things they’ve seen in the newsletter and given them to me. (Thank you Jemma for the Shakespeare unicorn sticker.) Please, please do not do this. I will regard it as a hostile act and stick you with the Lacuna bill.
Motion for a Venturous Theater Fund for classical theater (in addition to Roy Cockrum being a mensch and the most interesting man in the world) so we don’t have to put Hamlet up in 20 days.
Can we let Arden of Faversham go now? Please? It is not a good play and without the putative Shakespeare connection there is no reason. Life is short. Do better plays.
This costume alone is a reason to keep Moth. (The antennae!)