{"id":8037,"date":"2019-06-20T07:18:52","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T11:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8037"},"modified":"2019-07-09T06:46:43","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T10:46:43","slug":"the-three-musketeers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8037","title":{"rendered":"The Three Musketeers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey<\/a> kicks off its 2019 season with a rollicking dramatic comedy adapted from the Alexander Dumas classic by popular playwright Ken Ludwig, which opened June 15 and runs through July 7. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As director, renowned fight choreographer Rick Sordelet makes good use of his experience in the swashbuckling swordplay the stage barely contains. Sitting in the front row, I was sure a rapier-wielding musketeer would end up in my lap! \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1625 France, the handsome young d\u2019Artagnan\n(played by Cooper Jennings) and his sister Sabine (Courtney McGowan) leave their\nhome in Gascony for Paris in search of adventure. He wants to join the famous school\nof musketeers, charged with defending King Louis XIII (Michael Stewart Allen)\nand Queen Anne (Fiona Robberson). Sabine is bound for a convent school, but\ndisguised as d\u2019Artagnan\u2019s servant, gleefully finds herself embroiled in his\nexploits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Paris, d\u2019Artagnan stumbles into\nthe three most admired musketeers, each in turn\u2014Athos (John Keabler), Porthos\n(Paul Molnar), and Aramis (Alexander Sovronsky)–offending each of them. The\nresult is a schedule of three duels for that very night. Before d\u2019Artagnan can\nbe skewered, they are set upon by the minions of the scheming Cardinal\nRichelieu (Bruce Cromer) and his guardsman Rochefort (Jeffrey M. Bender). The\nnow four allies fight the Cardinal\u2019s men bravely. Impressed with d\u2019Artagnan\u2019s\nfighting skills, he\u2019s won three important friends. An assignation d\u2019Artagnan\nhas made with the queen\u2019s lady-in-waiting Constance (Billie Wyatt) also turns\nout rather well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plot proceeds mostly along the\nstory\u2019s familiar lines, except that Ludwig has given a larger role to the\nwomen. His creation Sabine is her brother\u2019s equal in fencing and in enthusiasm\nfor combat. In several scenes, the women are active fighters, including Sabine,\nthe evil Milady (Anastasia Le Gendre), and the serving wench at an inn who uses\na short sword and a serving tray as shield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all of Ludwig\u2019s trademark\nhumor and love of stage chaos, there\u2019s not a dull moment, and the 20-member cast\ndelivers the action convincingly, with a heady mix of heroism, treachery,\nnarrow escapes, music, and laughter. Especially fun was the somewhat dim Louis\nXIII. He may not be the brightest, but, boy, does he love being king! Jennings\nis physically perfect for the unworldly d\u2019Artagnan. He\u2019s a young actor, yet\nplays the role with perfect assurance. The \u201cinseparable three\u201d (Keabler,\nMolnar, and Sovronsky) establish distinct and interesting personalities.\nSpecial mention should be made of McGowan, who stepped in on short notice when\nthe original actor playing Sabine broke her foot in previews. She had only a\nfew days to prepare and performed flawlessly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The adaptation, originally commissioned by the Bristol Old Vic in England was a tremendous hit when it premiered in 2006, a result of its judicious updating alongside its timeless evocation of loyalty and honor. \u201cAll for one and one for all!\u201d Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey productions are hosted at Drew University in Madison, N.J. (easily reachable from NYC by train). For tickets, call the box office at 973-408-5600 or visit the Box Office online<\/a>. Note that STNJ offers special ticket pricing of $30 for theatergoers under age 30! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo by Jerry Dalia<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey kicks off its 2019 season with a rollicking dramatic comedy adapted from the Alexander Dumas classic by popular playwright Ken Ludwig, which opened June 15 and runs through July 7. As director, renowned fight … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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 Three Musketeers -- swashbuckling production at Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey--excites the gods of comedy and adventure!","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}},"categories":[440,272,394,104,147],"tags":[906,1585,1584],"class_list":["post-8037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","category-comedy","category-romance","category-the-morgue","category-theater","tag-ken-ludwig","tag-rick-sordelet","tag-the-three-musketeers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/STNJ-The-Three-Musketeers_6.jpg?fit=368%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-25D","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037","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=8037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8039,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037\/revisions\/8039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}