Muppets and Shakespeare

Jennifer12

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I just got back from a trip to London--great city, very nice people-- where I saw a show called The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged) by the Reduced Shakespeare Company. They do 37 works in 97 minutes. It's completely hysterical. I'd recommend it to anyone without reservation. It really doesn't matter if you have an education in The Bard's works or not.

But I promised a muppet connection, so here you go: The three members of the cast break the fourth wall and interact directly with the audience and do a lot of improv. During the intermission, some people snuck into the box seats. One of the cast members noticed them and asked where they came from and said they looked like the Muppets. He asked where Kermit was. Then he did a Statler and Waldorf impression, saying "This isn't Shakespeare, who do these guys think they are" and he made a bunch of critical remarks. (When he was doing this, I started to think that the theater really did look like the Muppet Theater.)

Then when they were doing Hamlet and they got to the part with the play-within-the-play, one of the guys dragged out a puppet theater and hand puppets. The actor who had been teasing the folks in the box seats said "Hey look! It's your friends!" and the actor with the puppets on his hands started the mah-na mah-na song.

The show had me gasping for breath I was laughing so hard, but the mupppet jokes just made it funnier!

Anyway, just thought you guys would appreciate this!

Jennifer
 

crazy ernie

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Our local theater recently did Complete history of America(abridged).
 

AndyWan Kenobi

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Late reply--sorry. Anyway, I saw a local production of the same play, and I wish we'd gotten Muppet jokes. That sound hilarious!

(As it turns out, I'm currently staying up just about all night to work on my dissertation prospectus on the politics of Shakespeare's romance plays. I saw the "Muppets and Shakespeare" subject and figured that this technically doesn't count as procrastination!)

:wink:

Hoo-boy. Back to work.
 
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