There are lots of plays based on “The Three Musketeers,” and they fall into two categories - the ones that only cover the first half of the book (which gives the illusion of a happy ending), and the ones that cover the whole book, tragic events and all. Kudos to First Stage Theatre Co. and director Travis McElroy for taking the courageous route and tackling the latter version.
The story focuses on young D’Artagnan (Caleb Donahoe) as he journeys to Paris in hopes of becoming one of the King’s guards, the Musketeers. Along the way he becomes involved in court intrigue, murder plots, evil agents and more than a few sword fights. He also falls in love (more than once) and, of course, he befriends “The Three Inseperables,” Musketeers Athos (Chuck Hearndon), Aramis (Clint Wilson) and Porthos (Joseph Overstreet).
The cast features some terrific young actors who bring the classic story to life. They do a great job, including McKenzie Young as Queen Anne, Aaron Dunn as Rochefort, Lexi Smith as Constance, Sheila Arrowood as Milady, Eric Newfeld as the Duke of Buckingham, Blaine Roberts as Planchet, Chris Crawford as Bonacieux, Maggie Saunders as Madame Coquenard and Shane Stevens as Monsieur Coquenard (to name just a few).
The cast does an excellent job with the fight scenes - a real challenge in the limited space available, but they tackle it with great skill. Stage combat is difficult to master, and they’ve done a terrific job here.
Kudos also to the costume department. In a show like this, it’s a real challenge to come up with convincing period costumes - especially on a limited budget - and they’ve worked miracles here.
The set is also amazing - the stone bridge / castle may seem simple, but many long hours went into making it solid enough to handle the wear and tear of the cast marching across it. Jack Welch and his construction crew put in a lot of work to make it happen.
It takes almost two months of practice and preparation to make a show like this happen, and the cast and production crew have done an amazing job putting together a faithful recreation the original story.
You have one more chance to catch the show - Sunday at 2:30 p.m. the cast will bring the Dumas book to life one more time. Miss it not!
2 comments:
much love to Three Musketeers....amazings the four main guys were superb...much kudos to them!
I agree, although that's not meant as a slight to the rest of the cast - they all did a great job!
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