Tie together country music and Shakespeare?
One of the most critically acclaimed versions of Shakespeare’s \\Richard III\\ was done starring Ian McKellen, first on stage, and later as a movie. I did see it on stage, at the National, in London, close to a dozen years ago. I still remember bits and pieces from it, not quite the whole thing, other than it was an amazing performance. There was a scene in Act II that’s stuck with me ever since. I don’t think R3 was portrayed as a nice guy, that’s for sure.
If one were to doubt the power of the media, consider that Richard III was unearthed, and from his skeletal remains, no “hunchback” was in evidence. Or so the story goes. Yet the myth persists, thanks to this one play. But that’s just a sidebar history note. Check with the Richard the Third Society for details.
R3 is not unlike Kenneth Branagh’s \\Love’s Labor’s Lost\\, another interpreted piece. In McKellen’s \\R3\\, the setting has distinct Fascist overtones with jackbooted thugs, and an artistic sense that it’s a certain Germanic Republic of the not too distant past. Hint of Hitler, maybe?
Purists in the theater arena are appalled when one of Shakespeare’s plays is done in anything but strictest Elizabethan Theatre standards. But I’ve enjoyed a number of the plays done well, and done well out of the limits of the conventional staging.
As I recall, \\Love’s Labor’s Lost\\ is an uneven play. Mostly it’s a collection of Shakespeare love sonnets strung together as a play. Mostly comedy. Seen it on stage, and in the movie theater. That relatively recent film adaptation was good because it added some value-added “artistic direction” necessary to spin an interesting angle to the tale. Branagh choose to set it in the early portion of the last century [we can say that now, it’s 2K2, right?> on the eve of WWII. Made for good sets, good costumes, and the story, such as it is, was actually helped along by the history.
I saw, almost back to back, two very different versions of \\Troilus and Cressida\\ by the RSC. One was experimental, staged as a gangland war whereas the other performance was more traditional, opting for a straight up Trojan War setting. [That one had Mr. English Patient as the lead, too. I just hope he’s better on film than he was on stage – the rest of the cast was superb>.
As far as I was concerned, both were successful, albeit very different. The **flavor** was changed. One had stage swords and a bodybuilder mostly naked, flexing his pecks, the perfect Ajax. The other play had the “Chicago – New York in the 1930’s” gangster feeling with guns instead of swords. Spirited performances, either way. I think tragic Cressida makes a great moll.
On Amazon, in a review about ZZ Top’s Tribute album, Sharp Dressed Men, I found a particularly scathing series of comments. To be honest, the album is done by some of the current crop of C&W singers, what did you expect? It’s like a gangland/mobster \\T&C\\, or Shakespeare’s Richard the Third as Hitler. With the obvious exceptions of Hank III, Willie, and Dwight, the “artists” are from the present day wasteland of “pop country” and therefore, it sounds the same as you might expect to hear on the radio.
Doesn’t make it good or bad. Being Texan, by birth, I have a natural affinity for \\The Top\\, “Hey ZZ,” as the refrain goes. It’s an interesting interpretation. Not good, but not bad. Comfortable. But look at the artists’ names, if you don’t like those guys, you might not like the album other than as a country curiosity.
Nowthe Eagles tribute, while similar in concept, does it completely different. There are a number of songs on that album that are virtually indistinguishable from their original. It’s almost as if the Eagles produced that same music, these days, it would be played on pop country stations – instead of classic rock. It’s less an interpretation, and less evidence of this analogy, and more a statement about the current condition of the radio play lists.
The Derailers’Reverb Deluxe has that concluding track, a hidden cover of \\Raspberry Beret\\, that is, in my mind, arguably better than the original. Likewise, Kevin Fowler’s new CD concludes with Queen’s ode, \\Fat Bottom Girls\\. Can’t disparage Queen’s good name, not as early 80’s music goes, that song earned its rightful place. But think about Kevin Fowler’s version, it’s just an interpretation of song. Pretty good one, at that. Does it add something to the tone and texture? It’s a gentle, albeit with Fowler’s definite redneck tone, reminder of what we were doing then, and how we are now. In a way, it also pays homage to roots.
I suspect one of the reasons McKellen’s R3 is so good is because he practiced it on stage for years. He got to really know the part. While it might offend a purist, it works well. In the same way, Kevin Fowler’s “Fat Bottom Girls” rocks, in a redneck, trailer park, Texas twang way.
Hospes eras nostri semper, Matho, Tiburtini. Hoc emis, imposui: rus tibi vendo tuum.
[Martial, Epigrams, volume I, Book IV, #79>