Word: shows
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Claudio, the young lover more in love with love than with Hero, Robert Foxworth is more light-footed and sympathetic than the ninny he plays deserves. As Hero, whom he unjustifiably denounces at the altar, Roberta Maxwell improves as the show proceeds--though Shakespeare has kept her silent many times when she ought to be vocal. Len Cariou's honest Pedro, Wyman Pendleton's pipe-smoking Antonio, June Prud'-homme's loudmouthed Ursula, Mary Doyle's saucy Margaret, Tony Van Bridge's apoplectic Dogberry, James Greene's perceptive Friar, and most of the lesser parts are in highly capable hands...
...Beatrice and Benedick, almost to a man. Although the text rises and sags, all the component groups of characters come across on a rather evenly balanced level; it is this that makes the play seem better than it really is. This Much Ado is a real company show. Just about everyone speaks cleanly, crisply, intelligibly, and with adequate projection; and there are precious few of those unintentionally ear-assaulting vowels that mar most large-cast Shakespearean productions...
There is some variation, of course. Tony Thomas' Messenger is too studied in speech. On the other hand, the best delivery in the whole show comes from William Glover's warm Leonato; so skillful is he that he sounds as though he had spoken nothing but Shakespearean English all his life...
Gill's direction in general is admirably inventive, and he maintains a pace that is swift without bring pellmell. (I could do without the second intermission, too, which would leave the show in two sections of 60 and 75 minutes.) Particularly amusing are the two garden scenes, in which Benedick and Beatrice in turn are intentionally allowed to overhear the contrived conversation of others...
Throughout the show the eye is ravished by a constant series of breathtakingly beautiful Renaissance costumes, designed by Jane Greenwood. For the men, the colors run largely to browns, with a healthy admixture of white and black. The women wear very wide farthingales, which are the sources of a good deal of comic business. And one must not overlook Thomas Skelton's helpful lighting...