Review Roundup: LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Opens at Shakespeare in the Park - All the Reviews!

The Public Theater's production of the new musical LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, the second show of The Public's 2013 free Shakespeare in the Park season at the Delacorte, opens tonight, August 12, 2013. Directed by Alex Timbers, the show features songs by Michael Friedman, with book adaptation by Timbers, and will run through Sunday, August 18.

The complete cast of the new musical LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST features Daniel Breaker (King of Navarre), Kevin Del Aguila (Dull), Colin Donnell (Berowne), Rachel Dratch (Holofernes), Andrew Durand (Boyet), Kimiko Glenn (Maria), Jeff Hiller (Nathaniel), Rebecca Naomi Jones (Jaquenetta),Justin Levine (Moth), Patti Murin (Princess), Lucas Near-Verbrugghe (Dumaine), Bryce Pinkham (Longaville), Charlie Pollock (Costard), Caesar Samayoa (Don Armado), Maria Thayer (Rosaline), and Audrey Lynn Weston (Katherine). The non-equity ensemble features Michael R. Douglass, and Bradley Gibson.

LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST features scenic design by John Lee Beatty, costume design by Jennifer Moeller, lighting design by Jeff Croiter, sound design by ACME Sound Partners, and choreography by Danny Mefford.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Michael Dale, BroadwayWorld: Their crazily antic new show premiering at the Delacorte certainly elicits guffaws from 21st Century musical theatre nerds, mimicking Shakespeare's text with its frequent allusions to Broadway's past, and also pleases the uninitiated with a rowdy collection of musical moments exploring the youthful battle of mind vs. hormones...With so many characters and relationships to cover, Love's Labour's Lost charges through its 100 minutes, often resembling a revue more than a fully-realized book musical with its entertaining boy band, girl group, marching band and chorus line bits. Jones makes ravishing work out of the score's best song, "Love's A Gun," a serious reflection using Shakespeare's technique of letting lower born characters comment on the action of their higher born counterparts.

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: The point appears to be that love makes fools of everyone, which is also the point - or a point - of the Shakespeare play that inspired this woozy frolic. But comedy is funniest, and truest, when people make fools of themselves in ways peculiar to their characters. In this production, there is seldom a real connection between the singers and their songs. It's as if the musical numbers, which cover a gamut of pastiche styles, had been assigned at random from a mixtape playlist...Disconnectedness pervades this "Love's Labour's Lost," which is a surprise, given the triumphant and audacious cohesiveness of Mr. Timbers and Mr. Friedman's "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson"...even light works of art need a sustained point of view to keep them afloat. Mr. Timbers's interpretation becomes airborne only in fits and starts. As a silly diversion for the silly season, it passes muster, but only just.

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter: Adapted and directed by Alex Timbers and featuring a score by Michael Friedman -- who previously collaborated on the acclaimed and similarly irreverent Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson -- this delightfully antic show is a perfect midsummer night's entertainment...It's all a great deal of fun, although its stylistic incoherence would probably play less well in a more formal indoor venue...The youthful cast puts it over with terrific comic elan, especially in the comic musical numbers...By the time an actual high school marching band, complete with tubas, hits the stage for the rollicking conclusion, the show, for which tickets are free, has thoroughly won us over. There's nothing at all laborious about this Love's Labour's Lost, which marks a refreshing change of pace from the Public's usual faithful productions.

Jesse Green, Vulture: Love's Labour's Lost turns out to have the makings of a fine rompy musical. Alex Timbers (book and direction) and Michael Freidman (songs) may not have reached that goal quite yet, let alone anything loftier, but by reveling in the original's almost revue-like nature instead of trying to fix it, and by tailoring the story to a modern setting that suits it well, they have made opportunities out of the play's liabilities, and a delicious summer evening out of questionable ingredients.

Steve Parks, Newsday: While purists may be horrified at liberties taken -- one of Shakespeare's rewritten sonnets is read from a toilet-paper scroll -- they may find themselves stifling chortles throughout an hour and 40 minutes of dueling hormones...But it's the R-rated rock operatics -- boy bands vs. girl groups -- that burnish the show's Broadway potential. Music director and Northport native Justin Levine's ensemble rocks John Lee Beatty's college-town set until the Bard demands a return to life-and-death reality. "The Owl and the Cuckoo" finale are strictly lyrics by Shakespeare. That's reverence enough for us. Rock on, Will.

Thom Geier, Entertainment Weekly: As with Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Timbers and Friedman write like antic Ivy League parodists, kings of the Dramat, studding the Bard's narrative with pop culture references, meta-jokes, and sight gags that can occasionally seem more silly than apt...And yet there's a generous expansiveness to this Love's Labour's Lost, nimbly staged by Timbers as a true ensemble piece.

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: With Lost, Timbers and Friedman don't seem interested in reflecting on history, or anything else, for that matter. Their model for this latest Bard-based musical was 1971's Two Gentlemen of Verona, also crafted for the Public (and revived at the Delacorte eight years ago); and like that late-hippie-era romp, Lost is propelled by sheer giddy energy. Luckily, that's enough to sustain this 100-minute offering, which is enhanced considerably by Timbers' nimble guidance of a winning young cast...So West Side Story it ain't. Lost's adroit goofiness -- and a disarmingly sweet ending -- still make it a pleasing midsummer night's diversion.

David Cote, Time Out NY: Freely but fondly adapted by Alex Timbers, and scored with more than a dozen superb tunes by Michael Friedman, this gleeful riff on Shakespeare is a tall, fruity drink of intoxicating delight. Friedman finds the sweet spot between giddy pop grooves and bruised, ruminating lyrics, creating a dual sensation of silliness and heartache. Timbers's gag-stuffed staging completes the festive vibe, while also giving the material's grimmer side its due.

Matt Windman, AM New York: The new musical "Love's Labour's Lost"...attempts to turn the bard's verbally witty but dense, tiresome and esoteric romance into a youthful, lively and freewheeling rock musical...There are moments, particularly the tuneful ensemble numbers, where the cast wins the audience over with a silly, self-effacing spirit. But it saps in energy and slows down during the openhearted solos or whenever any of the many supporting characters take over. But Timbers' gorgeous production does provide a good deal of fun.

Robert Kahn, NBC New York: Under Timbers' tutelage here, an ace cast -- including a two-dozen-strong marching band toward night's end -- offers up an unusual hodgepodge of stage musical references and introspective ballads that zip by at the speed of light and demand your rapt attention...Friedman and Timbers have squeezed 21 songs into the intermission-less 100-minute musical, which at times references "A Chorus Line," "The Drowsy Chaperone," "La Cage...," "How to Succeed ...," and, for good measure, "Cats"...People more fluent in Shakespeare than I argue this double-edged sword of a story gives "Lost" itsoomph: you need the reminder that pain exists in order to fully appreciate the pleasures of being alive. That sentiment comes across crystal clear in Timbers' surprising and quick-witted new musical, which packs a lot of living into its own brief time in the spotlight.

Brendan Lemon, Financial Times: No question that [Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman's] collaboration...continues to be rich and lively. And when the comedy falls flat, as it does intermittently, especially in the scenes with the academic Holofernes and Nathaniel, there's always a marching band waiting in the wings to enliven the action and remind us that this is a deliberately sophomoric evening...Some of the verbal energy comes from the juxtaposition of modern pop language such as hip-hop and the Elizabethan English of Shakespeare. And some arises from our awareness of references: Costard, for instance, is an homage to the Matthew McConaughey character in Dazed and Confused. Mr Big's 1991 hit, "To Be with You", though, is an out-and-out borrowing. It's what I left the theatre humming.

Joe Dziemianowicz, Daily News: Timbers' imaginative production is fast, fun and fluid. It trafficks in Segways and sequin hot pants, German performance art and Jellicle cats. Beyond the goofiness, there's great big heart. That's what "Love's" all about.

Fern Siegel, Huffington Post: While much of the production is well done, attitude can trump text: We hear more from Timbers and less of the Bard. The humor remains, and when the cast sticks to Shakespeare, there are genuinely lovely moments. Still, part of the fun on a summer's night is to just sit back and enjoy the lively score and chemistry between Thayer and Donnell. The two are excellent, and Samayoa is engaging. In fact, the entire cast is first-rate.

Marilyn Stasio, Variety: Isn't "Love's Labour's Lost" about Berowne and Rosaline, those intelligent, articulate lovers who carry on a fierce flirtation via a battle of wit and words? Not in the version that Alex Timbers adapted and directed for Shakespeare in the Park. Modernized and musicalized, it's now a buddy play about four friends (led by Colin Donnelly's rock-star-sexy Berowne) who learn the hard way that a dude isn't a real man until he grows up. Michael Friedman has written funny and occasionally inspired songs for this bromance - but mainly for the guys, who barely make eye contact with the girls.

Lizzie Simon, Wall Street Journal: The many musical numbers in "Love's Labour's," which illustrate Mr. Timbers's appetite for spectacle. We won't spoil the surprise they deliver, but suffice it to say that they elicited a post-performance conversation about how sometimes, in the theater, more is more. And they suggested to Mr. Cullman that Mr. Timbers must have repeatedly emerged victorious from the long series of logistical and financial meetings to which directors must attend throughout preproduction.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post: The show also couldn't figure out how to solve Shakespeare's unwieldy ending, so it tried to cover all the bases with left-field surprise guests and an abrupt turn into wistfulness. It might have been better to stick it to Shakespeare one last time and go off with an out-and-out bang.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

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