MINI THEATRE REVIEW:

“RING ROUND THE MOON” At Lamb's Players Theatre

SUBMISSION DATE: February 9, 2000

What are the ingredients for a delicious evening of theater? Credible performances, well directed. Evocative set, moody lighting, gorgeous costumes. They're all there at Lamb's Players Theatre. There's only one problem. It's much ado about nothing. Jean Anouilh's 1950 "Ring Round the Moon" is an airy trifle that doesn't merit such loving attention. The play can't collapse under its own weight; it has none. But it's got a lot of meaty roles for actors: a cynical matriarch (Katherine Faulconer), a flamboyant smother-mother (Sandra Ellis-Troy), a Cinderella ingénue (Ayla Yarkut), various loopy rich folks (including the hilarious Ron Choularton, Brenda Burke & James Saba), and most especially, a pair of opposite twins, one sweet, mopey and lovesick, the other ruthless, conniving and dashingly nasty. But we don't really much care who gets loved or duped or rich or poor. It's a ho-hum 2 1/2 hour play with glorious trappings. Bravo to the ensemble, to director Deborah Gilmour Smyth, and to Nick Cordileone, in the neck-snapping, quick-change dual/twin role. But, as the Globe's failed effort to make a musical of "Waltz of the Toreadors" ("Paramour") showed, it's time to put the playwright back on the dusty shelf where he belongs.

©2000 Patté Productions Inc.