Chicago Theater Review: THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (Chicago Shakespeare Theater)

OLD LECHERS GET NO RESPECT

Merrily set at Christmastide at the height of the swing era, Barbara Gaines’ sumptuous Navy Pier staging of Shakespeare’s slightest comedy is hilarious, certainly funnier than it has any right to be. As always with this company, it’s also as gorgeous to behold as to hear. Its nearly three hours pass faster than the writing warrants.

Following Falstaff’s hilarious debut in Henry IV, and his death in Henry V, Queen Elizabeth wanted to see more of the rotund braggart-soldier and full-time tippler. Her wish was the Bard’s command: Shakespeare obliged by inventing this sitcom spin-off, specifically a formulaic farce which, sadly, mocked the knight whom Shakespeare had earlier sympathized with so powerfully.

The plot, which must be continually jump-started with escalating humiliations, punishes Sir John for lusting after the bodies and wealth of the title characters Mistresses Ford and Page. This lord of lard is overpunished for having hormones in his golden years. But then the alternative—treating the fat knight as a de facto stalker and sexual harasser as well as would-be homewrecker—wouldn’t suit the stage or the season.

Shakespeare invents the three-strikes rule: He  has the big-boned Lothario treated as dirty laundry and thrown into the Thames in a clothes basket; then our huge hero gets beaten up as he escapes in an old crone’s garments; and if that’s not enough, the bawdy sinner must be publicly disgraced–lured to Windsor Forest where he’s pinched by make-believe fairies and in effect forced to abandon lechery and stick to drink. Fat chance, so to speak.

For bad measure Shakespeare throws in two half-baked subplots, each lightened by the abundant boogie-woogie breakout numbers that bedeck the fun: One involves a silly duel between two xenophobic stereotypes, a Welsh preacher and a French physician. (It can only remind you of better clashes in the history plays.) The other anticipates Moliere: Pretty Anne Page is wooed by stupid suitors–the pick-up artist Slender and the epicene Dr. Caius–only to be won by the handsome Fenton, here a G.I. who’s “overpaid, oversexed and over here.”

Gaines, who thrives on directing lesser Shakespeare, finds a ton of physical fun amid the tedious dialogue. It begins and ends with Scott Jaeck’s bluff but bullied Falstaff, an obese soldier who’d rather attack a flagon of sack than any invading Nazi, and has inflated himself with a horndog’s hubris. Jaeck (who played a suitor in C.S.T.’s 2004 production of the comedy) fully grasps the curmudgeonly, corpulent codger from the inside out. His broad face is a road map of merry mischief in action. But he needs to work harder at not just reacting to his mistreatment. Though the plot never lets Falstaff get to first base, he must convince us that he knows he can seduce and succeed: Otherwise the mean-spirited tricks played on him just look particularly petty.

Jaeck’s one comic rival is Ross Lehman’s tour-de-farce as he repeats his 2004 role as the splenetically jealous Master Ford, a cunning contrast to Kevin Gudahl’s sanguine Master Page. Merry enough, Kelli Fox and Heidi Kettenring, musical-comedy delights themselves, remain paragons of virtue even as they outfox the dirty old knight.

Gaines can command Chicago’s best talents. James Harms delivers a sweetly gangly and delightfully good-natured Justice Shallow, Greg Vinkler offers a Clouseau-like accent as Dr. Caius, and Steven Sutcliffe, mousing into a bookworm as silly Slender, all goof up gloriously as the ill-suited suitors. Tiffany Yvonne Cox and Matt Mueller are suitably romantic as the true lovers who discover each other by process of elimination. Don Forston, a potential Falstaff himself, has great fun as the bumptious inn host. The second act contains a chase scene worthy of Benny Hill or a Mack Sennett silent comedy. As for blatant scene-stealing, this production features three very different dogs: Under perfect control (and three leashes), they melt the audience’s hearts throughout the 160 minutes.

The real star is the set. We really feel the town of Windsor all around us, bustling with wartime activity. A winter fantasy (it was autumnal in CST’s previous production), James Noone’s well-integrated set produces Falstaff’s Garter Tavern and the Ford kitchen with equal precision and detail, as well as a starkly skeletal Herne’s Oak in the chilly finale.

Equally appealing, Susan E. Mickey’s 1940s costumes and Melissa Veal’s period-perfect wigs tell us exactly when we are. Rich with jitterbugs and Lindy Hops, Lindsay Jones’ pastiche score accentuates the positive, providing a sweetly hokey counterpoint to the salacious doings, and ending riotously with Cole Porter’s joyous romp “Hooray for Love.” Finally, John Culbert’s winter-bright lighting transports us to a Currier and Ives skating pond surrounded by a patently quaint English village. Very merry indeed!

photos by Liz Lauren

The Merry Wives of Windsor
Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Courtyard Theater on Navy Pier
scheduled to end on Jan. 19, 2014
for tickets, call 312.595.5600
or visit www.chicagoshakes.com

for info on Chicago Theater, visit http://www.TheatreinChicago.com