Two solid productions have arrived for the holidays, each prominently featuring the Christmas season in its plot.
The Lion in Winter is salted with plenty of humor and (spoiler alert!) none of the dysfunctional Plantagenets assembled for a Christmas reunion to decide who will inherit the crown from aging King Henry II gives his life during the cutthroat war of words. So James Goldman’s cat-and-mouse tale is probably technically a comedy, but it snugly fits the mission of Palm Beach Dramaworks, which renders it with all its sly power intact.
The year is 1183 and the locale is Chinon, France, at one of Henry’s several palaces, where he has brought his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, for a holiday from the confinement she has been under for the past 10 years. Henry is “the oldest man I know” at 50, so his thoughts have turned to his succession. Curiously, of his three surviving sons, he favors giving the crown to his youngest, John, a weak-willed whiner.
Eleanor, still powerful and rich in land and troops, even though imprisoned, favors Richard, the hot-headed warrior who will eventually gain the description of “lion-hearted.” Then there is middle son Geoffrey, cool and cerebral, but neglected by both parents. That only increases his ambition, as he schemes to pit his brothers against one another, so he can emerge as the next king by default.
The reunion showdown that Goldman depicts never actually happened, but he invents such a meeting with ever-changing alliances, quickly forged and just as quickly dissolved. The play, brimming with hyper-articulate dialogue and well-crafted aphorisms, is like a human chess game. There is a king, a queen, their three knights, as well as an opposing king, callow Philip II of France, and his sister Alais, Henry’s mistress, but a mere pawn in these machinations which are over her head.
All of the roles are rich in language and complex in duplicity, but Henry and Eleanor remain the central figures throughout. Dramaworks and director William Hayes have the good fortune of the services of C. David Johnson and Tod Randolph, veteran actors with lots of classical credits, both making their Dramaworks’ debuts.
Johnson’s Henry is full of royal bluster, even if it is a mere negotiation tactic. Randolph’s Eleanor is softer, but she often reveals the steeliness that lurks beneath the surface. As battlers, they appear to be well-matched, and when alone together, they can project a palpable love for one another, without ever letting down their guards.
As the princes, Cliff Burgess (Geoffrey), Chris Crawford (Richard) and Justin Baldwin (John) acquit themselves well, particularly in the first act climax in the bedroom of King Philip (Pierre Tannous), a scene rich in tapestries and treachery.
The physical production is dominated by a massive central revolving stage, designed by the resourceful Michael Amico to transport us quickly and efficiently throughout the palace. Even if you are familiar with The Lion in Winter, whether from the first-rate film version of 1968 or from another stage production, you will want to immerse yourself in this 12th century royal Christmas, Palm Beach Dramaworks-style.
THE LION IN WINTER, Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Through Sunday, Jan. 5. Tickets: $60. Call: (561) 514-4042.
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Or maybe you would prefer to visit Christmas in New York in the dark days of the Great Depression. That is the opportunity offered by the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, which sweetens the offer with a chorus line of adorable moppets, a trained dog, an alcoholic, though comic, villainess, an upbeat score by Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin, a crooning presidential Cabinet and a big ol’ shiny Christmas tree.
The pluses far outweigh the economic bad times in Annie, as optimistic a musical as you may ever encounter. And leapin’ lizards, does the Maltz do a bang-up job breathing life into this show, which hails originally from 1977 and keeps being revived on Broadway, including a production that is running there currently.
Director-choreographer Mark Martino has not reconceived the show, as he did with The Music Man, but he has cast it well, drilled the handful or so of orphans into a cohesive bundle of cuteness and gets some terrific work from his designers. The result is a well-crafted, polished production that will put a smile on your face, without which you are never fully dressed (as the song puts it).
As you surely know, the Annie of the title is the “little orphan” that cartoonist Harold Gray created long ago. Astutely, the show invents a back story for her, dramatizing how she came to meet and be adopted by billionaire industrialist, Wall Street tycoon and staunch Republican Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks.
The show also invented tipsy orphanage matron and confirmed kid hater, Miss Aggie Hannigan, played with scenery-chewing gusto by Vicki Lewis, Carbonell Award winner for the Maltz’s Hello, Dolly! A couple of seasons ago. Here she reinvents herself again as a perpetually hung over, sexually frustrated spinster who does a mean bump-and-grind. Short of stature, she sports a wig piled high on her head, so she seems to tower over the pint-sized tots she almost rules.
As Annie, the Maltz has imported 10-year-old Clara Young, a carrot-topped ringer from New York who can sing the show’s Big Song Tomorrow, and make you listen to the words as if hearing them for the first time. Bald-pated Christopher Carl (Warbucks) has a pleasant baritone voice and a somewhat stiff manner, as befit’s the character. And as Annie’s mutt Sandy, a former rescue dog named Macy performs on cue in his brief stage appearances.
The many sets by Paul Tate Depoo III (The Music Man) are attractive and built to move the show along. Even if you do not care for kids onstage, give these tots a look, and get a head start into the holiday spirit. Betcher bottom dollar.
ANNIE, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter. Through Sunday, Dec. 22. Tickets: $52-$79. Call: (561) 575-2223.