Peter Pan Live Had Shakespeare In It?

~ duane ~ 3 Comments
I know I’m a day late but my family tends to record things and watch them when it’s a better time for the kids.

Last night was NBC’s big #PeterPanLive event, as you may have noticed. I did not expect to blog about it.

But then this happened.  Wendy and the boys have gone with Peter to Neverland, where she is to play the role of mother and tell them the ends of all the stories.  And then…

Lost Boy #1:  Tell us the ending of Cinderella!
Wendy: Well, the glass slipper fit, and Cinderella and the Prince lived happily ever after.
All:  Hurray!
Lost Boy #2:  Tell us the ending of Sleeping Beauty!
Wendy:  The prince kisses her, and she wakes up and they all live happily ever after.
All:  Hurray!
Lost Boy #3:  Tell us the ending to Hamlet!
Wendy:  <blank stare>  Umm….well…..Hamlet dies, and the king dies, and the queen dies and Ophelia dies, and Laertes dies….
All: …
Wendy: ….but everybody who’s left lives happily ever after.
All:  Hurray!

I honestly have no idea if that’s a new scene or if that is in J.M. Barrie’s original in any form.

Whoa, Wait .. Is Disney Doing Midsummer Night’s Dream?!

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[Hat tip to Will Sutton of I Love Shakespeare for this one!]

The thought of a mass market animated Shakespeare has compelled me for years. I followed every story I could find while waiting for Gnomeo and Juliet to see the light of day (seriously – here’s a 2006 post, and here’s 2011 post when it finally came out). I’ve also been saying for years, you’ll note, that I think they should do The Tempest.

But I’ll take Midsummer, too!

It appears that Strange Magic will hit theaters January 23! Created by Lucasfilm (which was started by George Lucas and now owned by Disney), produced by Touchstone (who I believe did Gnomeo?) and directed by a Pixar veteran, the story is “inspired by” A Midsummer Night’s Dream so we’ll have to see what that might mean. The clip below has more, although I’m worried about the “battle over a powerful potion.”

IMDB gives us no clue about characters, listing all the celebrity credits as just “(Voice)”.

We’ll be watching this one closely! I’m quite sure I’m just getting my hopes up about the amount of Shakespeare content that might make it into the final product, but I don’t care.

King Lear and Sydney’s Arcadia?

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I received a request this evening from Hikari, who is studying at university in I assume Japan (from his .jp email address). Hikari asks:

I’m going to write an essay about King Lear‘s sub-plot and its source Sydney’s “Arcadia“(the story of the Paphlagonian King). But I couldn’t find secondary sources for my essay yet. Do you know any sources about it?

I had to go do my research to even understand the question, but I’ve never been shy to admit when I have no idea. The story of the Paphlagonian King refers to the Edmund/Edgar/Gloucester plot of Lear, which drew on Sydney’s Arcadia as a source.

Some quick googling brought me here:

For the sub-plot of King Lear, Shakespeare relied upon a story from Arcadia, the epic romance by Sidney, published in 1590. We can see by examining Shakespeare’s wonderful attention to the characters of Edgar and Gloucester, how much Sidney’s tale of the king of Paphlagonia and his two sons sparked the Bard’s own imagination.

I’m not quite sure what Hikari is looking for in his quest for “secondary sources”. Does anybody else have some better sites to link?

The Divine Miss Macbeth

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

The other day we learned that Cyndi Lauper is really into Shakespeare. Today in another one of Reddit’s famous AMA’s, Bette Midler went ahead and dropped some Shakespeare into the conversation without needing an invitation:

Lady Midler as Lady Macbeth?

I don’t know, what do people think? I’m trying to think of her most memorable roles, and I keep coming up with comedy. Could she handle one of the great tragedies? Or do we see her more in a comic role? What I don’t see her in is any sort of supporting role. Whatever she does, it seems that she’s got to be front and center.

Stop Teasing Me, Middle School

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My daughter, I may have mentioned, is in middle school. At the beginning of the school year my wife copied down all the relevant events from the school calendar to our personal calendar. I noticed that next weekend it says, “Fall play : Shakespeare.”

What’s this now?


I hit the school web site for details.  I’ve mentioned in the past that my town has an excellent Shakespeare program at the high school, and is part of an invitation-only festival in Lennox, Mass every year.  So if they say they’re doing Shakespeare I’m not going to miss it. But alas, this is the middle school not the high school and all the calendar still says is, “Fall Play : Shakespeare”.

I tackle my daughter the next morning.  “Ummm, hello?  Fall play Shakespeare? Why do I not know about this?”

“I told you about it,” she says.  Liar!

“Pretty sure you didn’t,” I say.

“Romeo and Juliet? Remember?”

Then I remember. Back at the beginning of the year she told me that the eighth graders are doing something called “Romeo and Juliet Together and Alive At Last”.

“Ohhhhh!” I say, “That’s annoying. That’s not Shakespeare.”

So as not to miss out on any Shakespeare, however, I go googling for it. Turns out that Bardfilm beat me to it, and reviewed the story (the novel version, at least) on his blog.

I did get to read some of the script, and I agree with his assessment – the characters are eighth graders dealing with eighth grade issues, but they talk like second graders. I don’t plan on going to see the play. I hope that this is not “Shakespeare prep” for the kids before they get to high school.