A.C.T. (San Francisco, CA)
Tony and Olivier Award-winning actor Roger Rees stars in this very hysterical (somewhat historical) one-horsed gallop through all things Shakespearean. What You Will is the one-man everything there is "to be or not to be" about William Shakespeare: the greatest soliloquies ever written next to side-splitting accounts of the funniest disasters ever perpetrated on the stage.
Event summary prepared by the Goldstar Editorial Team.
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The last date listed for What You Will was Saturday August 9, 2008 / 8:00pm. (view all dates)
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You need an intimate knowledge of the Plays to fully appreciate the setting of each presentation (with some exceptions).
Rees was engaging and witty, the theatre is gorgeous and I love shakespeare . . . what could be better? maybe an intermission . . . if you are in your seat in advance of the show (like good theatre goers) the show stars 10-15 later, and you are almost 2 hours without moving (not like they have modern movie-theatre seats which give some wiggle room).
The actor was great. I did have trouble following the Shakespeare lines as they were spoken rather quickly and I was not familiar with them all. Roger Rees told wonderful stories and I enjoyed the evening. It probably is best suited for people who have studied Shakespeare in greater depth than I have. I did enjoy it very much though and would love to see Mr. Rees in other shows.
The Geary Theater, built in 1909, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a San Francisco City Landmark. The theater's neo-classical brick and terra cotta facade on Geary Street opens to a monumental 1,500 seat auditorium trimmed with ornamental stenciling and gilded plaster.
What You Will is a celebration of theatre's most impactful playwright, by history's most influential players. There's Romeo, Juliet's foolish Nurse, gory Macbeth, Hamlet and the oh-so-tragic Richard II, joined by the likes of Charles Dickens, James Thurber, Noël Coward and Stevie Wonder.
Roger Rees, a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for 22 years, won both Olivier and Tony awards for his acclaimed performance in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. American television audiences know him as the dashing English tycoon Robin Colcord on "Cheers," British Ambassador Lord John Marbury on "The West Wing" and Dr. Colin Marlow on "Grey's Anatomy." His films include "Robin Hood: Men in Tights," "Frida," "The Pink Panther" and "The Prestige," among many others.
