They did MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING this year, and I tried to see it twice (“trying” means getting to Central Park early in the morning and then waiting on line for free tickets until 1:30 or so) and I saw it once. (The first time, they ran out of tickets before my place on the line got the box office.) Last night.
Sam Waterston got rave reviews (I think the NYer said he gave the performance of his life.) He must have been having a bad night last night, though, because if I’d never heard of him, I would have thought the only way he’d gotten the gig was being related to someone in the cast. (His daughter plays one of the female supporting roles.) He forgot lines, stumbled over numerous others, and delivered speeches pitched in his liver-about-to-explode hystrionic manner that made him totally incomprehensible.
But because he was Sam Waterston, people around me thought he gave a great performance. You know, TV star and all that.
Jimmy Smits, OTOH, now THAT was a great performance…