Reciting Phonebooks

I did say I would be be wiling to go hear James Earl Jones read aloud from the phone book. And I meant it. And frankly the phone book recitation would have been preferable to the play we endured in London. To be fair, James Earl Jones in Much Ado About Nothing was brilliant! He is the real deal. I wanted so much to like the production because he gave it his all, but it was just not enjoyable.

Vanessa Redgrave did not perform due to illness. Her understudy played her part with enthusiasm and was delightful. I was just as happy with her performance as I would have been with Redgrave's interpretation. The lovely couple sitting next to us were crushed. As I had been looking forward to James Earl Jones with great anticipation, so had they over seeing Vanessa Redgrave. The gentleman, well into his seventies, had never seen her perform live. It was a dream of his to do so.

The production did not live up to expectations. As directors are want to do it seems, the play was reset into the modern era on an American air base in England near the end of World War II.  The set was simple. It was a plain brown arch most critics here likened to an Ikea coffee table. The critics would be correct.  Add a  couple of chairs, a 1940's era phonograph and that is it. Cool. I have an imagination, right? Turns out, I did not have near enough imagination to fill in the blanks and keep up with the story.

I have been critical of those who would speak in an affected over-done faux English accent.  Let me tell you, a Brit trying to sound American is worse. Holy cow. Every single actor sounded like a morph of Jimmy Carter and Willie Nelson. It was awful. One particular actor so over enunciated and over played his accent to the point he sounded inebriated. Good grief! Is that how we sound to Brits? And do all Americans sound like cowboys or stupid people to those outside the United States? Or worse, stupid cowboys?

I loved the Old Vic. Just being able to see the magnificent chandelier and richly velveted box seats  and the stunning grand staircases made the trip worthwhile. We had a lovely pre-theatre drink in The Pit, the bar below the Old Vic. We had another drink whilst waiting to be admitted to our seating section. We did not have enough drinks, sadly, to make the play anything more than tedious.

I do not regret going. I have loved James Earl Jones since I first heard him utter the alphabet on Sesame Street. I am thrilled I was able to hear his voice in person. He is as powerful a figure on stage as I had imagined. He needed to employ that light sabre from Star Wars and take charge of the death star that was Much Ado About Nothing.