TOP PICK - Mary Stuart - to August 16

Left to right: Harriet Walker and Janet McTeer; photo by Alastair Muir.
The Donmar Warehouse production of a new translation/adaptation by Peter Oswald of Friedrich Schiller's 1800 classic drama, Mary Stuart is amazing audiences at the Broadhurst Theatre on W. 44th St. The play features two proud, intelligent Tudor Queens: Mary, Queen of Scots (Janet McTeer) and Elizabeth I of England (Harriet Walter). Brilliantly directed by acclaimed British opera, film and theater director, Phyllida Lloyd, this production was a success in July-August 2005 at London's Donmar Warehouse and then transferred to the West End from October, 2005 to January, 2006.
The following description is from the press materials: "For a Queen to stand, a Queen must fall... Mary Stuart is a thrilling account of the relationship between England’s Elizabeth I and her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth’s rival to the throne. With its behind the scenes intrigue, scheming and betrayal, the play has the contemporary feel of a modern-day political thriller. Mary Stuart builds to one of the most electrifying dramatic confrontations in world theatre, in which Schiller imagines a fictive meeting between the two monarchs on the grounds at Fotheringay Castle."
A brilliant directorial touch is the decision to dress all the male courtiers and jailors in conservative gray modern business suits, while the women are dressed in period attire. The effect is to make the male ministers and courtiers resemble a throng of scheming modern bureaucrats, while the two queens are trapped in the machinations of the courtiers and in their prescribed roles.
Some viewers reported that the romantic melodrama and long monologues are '"static, old-fashioned" and not to their taste, but all viewers applaud the drama of the rain scene (12 minutes of downpour when Mary walks in the courtyard, unaware why her jailers have allowed her this scrap of freedom) and the dramatic but fictional confrontation between Mary and her cousin Elizabeth in the courtyard. In addition to McTeer and Walter, both splendid and convincingly monumental, the cast includes: Michael Countryman, John Benjamin Hickey, Michael Rudko, Robert Stanton, Maria Tucci, Chandler Williams, Nicholas Woodeson, Brian Murray.
Get tickets right away, while the early discounts are available, on offer at both www.theatermania.com and www.broadwaybox.com, with prices as low as $45/$40 for tickets ordered before April 19. Tickets have also been offered at TKTS booths and to tdf members.
-- Ellen