Sherry Chandler

As You Like It

The NYTimes (or at least Virginia Hefferman) loves Kevin Kline and so do I:

Mr. Kline delivers Jaques’s beloved “All the world’s a stage” soliloquy to images of nature and the sound of chirping birds. (A lion later intrudes in a scene between Orlando and Oliver; nature is fully incorporated into stagecraft here.) This is odd, and it misuses Mr. Kline, who seems unable ever to hit a false note. As a thoroughgoing depressive here, he brings some clairvoyance to melancholy, which suits him.

Mr. Kline has, without fanfare, become a kind of elder statesman of American acting, with no taint on him. His face is so kindly and his voice so unforced that viewers can’t help wanting the satisfaction of seeing him cover the big hits; it’s not fair to deny us his face during this speech.

Kenneth Branagh, however, does not love Rosalind and so has cut Ron Howard’s daugher’s part in his production that airs tonight on HBO.

“She does go on a bit,” Mr. Branagh said, blandly explaining his resizing of the part to a reporter for The Los Angeles Times.

Alas! I have no cable. Not that I often regret this. And I don’t seem to be alone. According to Harry Shearer, about 20% of the country still grabs its television programming from the air waves.

Still I’d like to see this production if only to see Kevin Kline do Jacques. It also has Brian Blessed, whom I have loved since his days playing Augustus in I, Claudius.

Maybe it will be offered by Netflix later on.

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