Wanted to quickly record a cool event I attended last week. Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles had a staged reading of "Merry Wives of Windsor" - it was an all-star cast including: Tom Hanks, Williams Shatner, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Eric Idle, Tracy Ullman, etc. But the reason I wanted to go was because Kenneth Branagh was also involved! I adore Kenneth. He is THE Shakespeare Master, so I did not want to miss the chance to see him do Shakespeare live.
My seat was way up high, so I wasn't close, but still thrilled to be there. It was a stupid expensive event, so I was just lucky to be there (my boss gave me the ticket as a thank you gift). The show was fun. Everyone was being pretty silly and it was a super duper paired down version, but that was good for what this was. I mean it was a reading, so actors standing up acting it out, but still without much staging. It was set in the South, with blue-grass music. The music was great. Reba MacIntyre sang and actually sounded really good.
Martin Short was insane! So funny. He wore this weird white/silver wig, his Three Amigos hat and did a bizarre accent a la Father of the Bride. It was bizarre and delightful. He really went nuts and just did his great Martin Short thang. At one point he had some line like "I salute you" and he did his Three Amigos salute!!! It was awesome!!! Tom Hanks was funnyish, but you could tell he wanted to be the center of attention, he wanted to be the funny one and made weird remarks to Martin Short in trying to have the last laugh, but sorry, Tom, you're fine and all, but Martin Short is a comedy legend.
Now, Kenneth did not disappoint. I only wish he had had more - I want to see him in a for real Shakespeare production so bad! But the material he did have was still uber impressive. First of all, he looked fantastic - looked in great shape, great height. Second, his voice is lovely, just lovely. He spoke in his British dialect for most of it, but as his character went in disguise he would switch into a Southern/American dialect, and did so flawlessly. The first time after he finished a little soliloquy the audience broke into applause - like you couldn't help it, it was so apparent how amazing he was. He totally stood out. I mean, his use of language is perfect. He just knows what he's doing. I mean it seems so elementary, but whereas plenty of the other actors would be unclear with what they were saying, Kenneth was crystal crystal clear and absolutely compelling. I hung on every word. And not just because it's me and it's him, but because he USES the language and he knows it, he's completely comfortable in it. I also noticed that he does, again, I think effortlessly use the iambic pentameter. There are different schools of thought on how much to use it, or how to use it and I certainly haven't figured it out for myself totally, but he really proved to me that the iambic pentameter does make things easier to understand, that rhythm does makes things clear and just felt right when being handled by someone who felt it and used it right. It was beautiful to listen to. His energy with the language, with his words was great. Even though this was a silly, funny, improvy show, he just can't help but being a master. Just so impressive. I love him. I was devastated to learn that a local movie theatre had a Kenneth Branagh weekend ending with a viewing of his Hamlet with a discussion with Kenneth afterwards - yargh!!! I didn't find out about it until after - I would have freaked out. I love that Hamlet so so much. Anyway. It was cool to behold.
K. Good night.
