![]() ![]() Unfortunately, a frothed-up premise does not a story make - just as a female protagonist does not feminism make. Director and choreographer Emily Maltby helms the production with a sense of play and unfussy theatricality. ![]() It's a fun premise, but one that doesn't seem to have been given much thought beyond its gendered twist. Maria Wirries (Daphne) and Philippe Arroyo (Telemachus) share the stage with George Slotin and Sean Thompson. She puts them in letters signed from her long-lost husband, reads them to her pawing suitors, and delays the obligation to pick a new husband for another day. It turns out Homer is a big story thief and Penelope is the one who really wrote all those fanciful tales about cyclopes and soothsayers and evil goddesses turning men to swine. Instead of a bereft woman forced to spend 20 years raising her son Telemachus on her own and cleverly fending off dozens of lascivious suitors vying to be the new king of Ithaca - she's pretty much the same but with an unearthed talent for spinning a yarn. Trading Shakespeare's sexual politics for Homer's toxic masculinity, Penelope reframes the Greek epic we all read in high school as a story from the perspective of Odysseus' wife (played by the lovely Britney Nicole Simpson). I don't, however, get the sense that lightning is striking twice. The two musicals share the same satirical tone, breezy humor, and DIY aesthetic (Auerbach Pollock Friedlander provides the set simple yet garish design), so if you like a spoonful of sugar with your literary culture, Penelope could be an enjoyable way to pass two hours of your evening. The York is now taking a chance on Kellogg's next irreverent revamp with Penelope, or How the Odyssey Was Really Written (he partners with composer Stephen Weiner for this one). The York Theatre gave that musical (which Kellogg wrote with composer David Friedman) its off-Broadway debut in 2017, followed by several extensions, a commercial run at New World Stages, and a cast album you can enjoy on Spotify. But book writer and lyricist Peter Kellogg managed to pull one out with Desperate Measures, a spin on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure with cowboys, slapstick, and song. Off-Broadway hits are a rare breed in the world of theater. Britney Nicole Simpson (center) as Penelope, surrounded by her suitors in Penelope, or How the Odyssey Was Really Written at the York Theatre. at The Theater of the Performing Arts, Main Stage359 Washington St, Hartford. “Penelope’s Dream” has two performances, Friday at 8 p.m. Sometimes a dance can go on for too long.” I want ‘Penelope’s Dream’ to have a cliffhanger. “I will do a second one,” she says, “about Odysseus’ return. Then she wants to return to Greece, and do a follow-up to “Penelope’s Dream,” perhaps as soon as in the fall of 2022. She did some outdoor performances but didn’t continue in that way because she “wanted to focus on other stuff.” She hopes to have a show of recent pieces at The Bushnell in March or April. Plumb had a different dance, a full-scale revision of a full-length work based on concepts and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci, ready to go in the spring of 2020, but it was postponed when COVID hit. She’s also drastically trimmed the number of characters in the legend for the hour-long production, which features seven dancers. ![]()
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