{"id":7843,"date":"2019-03-21T08:20:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T12:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7843"},"modified":"2019-04-06T14:15:57","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T18:15:57","slug":"the-gods-of-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7843","title":{"rendered":"The Gods of Comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Princeton\u2019s McCarter Theatre\nCenter<\/a> presents the world premiere of Ken Ludwig\u2019s delightful new play,\ndirected by Amanda Dehnert. The Gods of\nComedy<\/em> opened March 16 and runs through March 31. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a university classics department, a normal day is about\nto collapse into turmoil, thanks to a madcap mix of switched identities, characters\nwho become invisible, and not-so divine intervention. Daphne Rain (played by Shay\nVawn) is a bookish young classics professor entrusted by her colleague and\nboyfriend Ralph Sargent (Jevon McFerrin) with the priceless manuscript of the\nlost Euripides play, Andromeda<\/em>. When\nthe manuscript goes missing, she calls on the ancient Greek gods out of\ndesperation. And who turns up? Dionysus and Thalia, the gods of comedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boisterous Dionysus (Brad Oscar) and flirtatious Thalia\n(Jessie Cannizzaro) turn Daphne\u2019s life upside down as she tries to hide the\nmanuscript\u2019s disappearance from Ralph and their dean (Keira Naughton).\nMeanwhile, the dean is determined to showcase the prize that evening at a\nGreek-themed costume party for the school\u2019s big donors. One of these donors is a\nglamorous actress named Brooklyn de Wolfe (Steffanie Leigh) who sets her sights\non Ralph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daphne and the gods have to devise a plan to satisfy the\ndean and keep Ralph away from Brooklyn. A pretty effective distraction arrives\nin the divine personage of Ares, god of war (George Psomas). Wearing his helmet\nand cape and brandishing his sword, he\u2019s mistaken for one of the party-goers,\nand when he intones so confidently, \u201cI am a god,\u201d Brooklyn naturally responds,\n\u201cYeah, that\u2019s what all men think.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plot of a farce never benefits from minute dissection,\nbut Oscar, Cannizzaro, and Psomas create such strong and entertaining characters,\nyou willingly suspend disbelief, and the many clever touches pile up one after\nanother, keeping the audience roaring. There are a few lulls in act two, but the\npace picks up again when Dionysus and Thalia use their powers of metamorphosis\nto become other characters\u2014a tangle that is baffling for the other characters\nand hilarious for the audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vawn is sympathetic as the worried academic, simultaneously\ngrateful for the gods\u2019 help and dismayed at the trouble they\u2019re causing. McFerrin\nis clueless, especially when under Brooklyn\u2019s spell, and Naughton, once she\ndons her Artemis costume, reveals a naughty side. Psomas plays two small roles,\nin addition to Ares, each to perfection. And Jason Sherwood designed beautiful\nsets, especially for Act 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCarter Theatre is easily reached from New York by car or train (New Jersey Transit to the Princeton Junction station, then the shuttle bus into Princeton. The shuttle ends a short walk from the theater and the university\u2019s new arts district, as well as two innovative new restaurants. For tickets, call the box office at 609-258-2787 or visit the ticket office online<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

photo: T. Charles Erickson<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Princeton\u2019s McCarter Theatre Center presents the world premiere of Ken Ludwig\u2019s delightful new play, directed by Amanda Dehnert. The Gods of Comedy opened March 16 and runs through March 31. In a university classics department, a normal day is about … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Gods of Comedy - When a classics professor loses a priceless ancient manuscript, she calls on the gods for help. She's thinking Apollo, Artemis. . . Who shows up to \"help\"? The Gods of Comedy! ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[272,104,147],"tags":[906,329],"class_list":["post-7843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedy","category-the-morgue","category-theater","tag-ken-ludwig","tag-mccarter-theatre"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/The-Gods-of-Comedy.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-22v","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7845,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7843\/revisions\/7845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}