Last Friday morning we set off for Montgomery, Alabama, about 175 miles north of Pensacola, via Interstate 65. We were going to see a couple of plays -- West Side Story (1957) and The Beaux' Stratagem (1707) -- at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. We had been there once before and saw an excellent production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
The Festival hasn't done a lot of musicals in the past and although we trusted them to do a good job, we both thought they were very brave to choose such a challenging piece as West Side Story. It turned out that earlier in the season they presented Romeo & Juliette, so West Side Story made perfect sense. As for their production of West Side Story, it was wonderful. Broadway quality on all levels -- acting, dancing, singing as well as all the design and production aspects. ASF deserves to be very proud of this show.
The Beaux' Stratagem, by George Farquhar was also very well done, a fresh and bright production by the graduating MFA class.
The Alabama Shakespeare Festival is located in Blount Cultural Park, donated by Wynton M. Blount. It also contains the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, the Shakespeare Garden and Amphitheatre plus acres of open space groomed to look like the English countryside.Links:
ASF's website
ASF's blog
West Side Story
The Beaux' Stratagem
1 comment:
Those pictures make it look like a beautiful place! I am most jealous! :D
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