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Thursday, June 16, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS

TV REVIEW

‘Love’ in the Arb

By MERIN MCDIVITT

Daily Arts Writer

Nichols Arboretum is always 

teeming with visitors during the 
summer — among them are picnick-
ers camped out 
near the Huron 
River, 
tanners 

stretched out on 
sun-bleached 
towels and kay-
akers 
trying, 

and failing, to 
avoid the boul-
der 
everyone 

seems 
to 
get 

stuck on. On 
weekend 
eve-

nings in June, 
though, the Arb 
will take on a 
decidedly more 
romantic 
tone 

as the sunlight dims and Shake-
spearean lovers scatter throughout 
the shadowy woods.

This month marks the 16th year of 

Shakespeare in the Arb, the beloved 
festival that takes place through the 
end of June. Directed by Kate Men-
deloff of the Residential College, this 
year’s play, “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” 
takes audience members on a jour-
ney through the Arb itself, providing 
an immersive theatergoing experi-
ence that draws more lovers — of 
Shakespeare, that is — every year.

“There’s this sense that you enter 

this world of the King’s Park,” Men-
deloff said of the summer’s pro-
duction, which highlights one of 
Shakespeare’s earliest plays. “I try to 
create a 360-degree experience for 
the audience.”

The play, which centers around 

the King of Navarre and his cronies, 
is set in a forest, making the Arb 
the ideal setting. As the play moves 
around the woods and valleys, the 
audience follows the earnest hijinks 
of the king and his friends as they 
take a vow of celibacy, only to be 
happily thwarted by their romantic 
interests. While no one could have 

predicted 2016 would be a land-
mark year for women, from feminist 
Beyoncé to Hillary Clinton, this play 
goes along perfectly with our “Year 
of Women.”

“It has a lot of great roles for 

women,” Mendeloff said, drawing 
attention to some of its humorous 
feminist winks. “The women are so 
much [more clever] than the men.” 

A new, fresh concept when it 

first appeared in 2000, the festi-
val has displayed remarkable stay-
ing power and a sense of history. 
Unseasoned performers join every 
year, providing new blood and con-
temporary perspectives, but other 
collaborators, like Mendeloff, have 
participated in the program since 
its inception.

One woman in particular left her 

indelible mark upon Shakespeare 
in the Arb — Roberta Vander-
mey served as the show’s costume 
director for nearly a decade, craft-
ing many of the show’s delicate, 
exquisite garments, before passing 
away several years ago. She chose 
to be buried right next door to her 
beloved Arb in Forest Hill Cem-
etery, the lush, peaceful graveyard 
that shares its border with the park. 
Every year, Mendeloff and her col-
laborators leave flowers on Vander-
mey’s grave before opening night.

“It’s this ritual that we really 

love,” she said.

Dotted with flowering trees and 

visited by occasional deer, the cem-
etery is perhaps the quietest spot 
in the city, the hush interrupted 
every once in awhile by traffic from 
the streets nearby and the muf-
fled sound of feet on damp grass. 
By summer nightfall, even these 
sounds have fallen away and For-
est Hill is silent. But next time you 
walk home on Geddes Road at dusk, 
down the hill and past the wrought 
iron fence lining the graveyard, lis-
ten closely. Carried on the wind is 
the soft rustle of gossamer and chif-
fon, and maybe someone, flowers 
in hand, is straining her ears to the 
east for the closing lines of a sonnet. 

Tony Awards joyful in 
face of adverse times

Winners and 

performers alike 
celebrate year in 

theatre

By ALEX INTNER

Summer Managing Arts Editor

This 
year’s 
Tony 
Awards 

had 
an 
immensely 
difficult 

task. They had to take on the 
evening after 
the 
deadliest 

shooting 
in 

American 
history. 
However, they 
didn’t 
back 

down. Instead, 
the Broadway 
community 
came together 
and put on a genuine celebration 
of the theatrical medium. The 
Tonys are always my favorite of 
the four major awards shows. 
Not only does everyone seem 
happy to be there and showcase 
their work for the national 
audience, but the winners bring 
an authentic sense of joy to 
their moments. After a powerful 
opening acknowledgement by 
host James Corden (“The Late 
Late Show,” who said “all we 
can say is you’re not on your 
own right now. Your tragedy is 
our tragedy”), the show went 
on. This year’s Tonys brought 
a sense of happiness that was 
necessary on a day like Sunday.

The host of an awards show 

is one of the most thankless 
jobs on television, but Corden 
embraced the position, bringing 
his immense skill set to the job. 
He was asked to sing, dance, tell 
jokes and deliver moments of 
solace to a grieving audience. He 
attacked each of these challenges 
with 
charm, 
charisma 
and 

gravitas. His opening number, 
while a little long, launched 
the 
night 
with 
enthusiasm 

and energy, as Corden moved 
through snippets from classic 
musicals in rapid succession and 
danced his way into our hearts. 
He also got to show off his 
more comedic side, with little 

bits during the show, including 
ones 
where 
he 
showcased 

presenter Josh Groban’s high 
school performance as Tevye in 
“Fiddler on the Roof,” and the 
amount of people in the theatre 
community who have been on 
“Law & Order” by displaying 
pictures of them on the show. 
He also introduced Andrew 
Rannells 
and 
Glenn 
Close 

dressed as Donald Trump and 
Hillary Clinton in “The Book 
of Moron” and “A Clinton Line” 
respectively.

It wasn’t just Corden who 

brought 
energy; 
the 
other 

performances 
from 
the 

nominated shows brought their 
best to the Beacon Theatre 
stage. The performances on the 
Tonys are consistently some of 
the best moments from awards 
shows, as Broadway shows share 
themselves with the national 
audience. This year’s ceremony 
brought us Audra McDonald tap 
dancing during a performance 
from “Shuffle Along.” The kids 
from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 
adaptation of “School of Rock,” 
who play their instruments live 
on stage, shined in a similar way 
to how the cast of “Matilda” 
stole the show a few years ago. 
The cast of the closed revival 
of 
“Spring 
Awakening” 
also 

brought their American Sign 
Language-infused choreography 
to the telecast. Jane Krakowski, 
Zachary Levi and Laura Benanti 
also 
brought 
their 
fantastic 

performances in “She Loves Me” 
to the stage. (Levi’s enthusiasm 
as he sings “She Loves Me” 
will never fail to make me 
smile). Personally, the way that 
production incorporated deaf 
cast members and ASL into the 
show (it’s entirely signed or 
captioned) changed the way 
musicals could be done for me 
when I saw it in December. 
There also was no shortage 
of 
emotional 
showstoppers, 

as Heather Headley, Danielle 
Brooks 
and 
the 
immensely 

talented Cynthia Erivo brought 
their huge voices to a number 
from “The Color Purple” and 
Jessie Mueller made me cry 
during her performance of “She 
Used to Be Mine” from Sara 

Bareilles’s “Waitress.” 

Other highlights from the 

show came from its speeches, as 
the winners brought enthusiasm 
and gravity to their celebratory 
moments. A couple of winners 
brought up the shootings earlier 
that 
day. 
When 
Lin-Manuel 

Miranda won the Tony for Best 
Original Score for writing the 
music and lyrics of “Hamilton,” 
he performed a sonnet where 
he wrote: “When senseless acts 
of tragedy remind us nothing 
here is promised. Not one day. 
This show is proof that history 
remembers. … Love is love is love 
is love is love cannot be killed 
or swept aside.” Frank Langella, 
after winning Lead Actor in a 
Play for his performance as an 
elderly man with dementia in 
“The Father,” went up on stage 
and said: “I urge you, Orlando, to 
be strong because I’m standing in 
a room full of the most generous 
human beings on Earth and we 
will be with you every step of 
the way.” His words show how 
powerful live events like this can 
be, attempting to bring comfort 
in a difficult time.

However, the night belonged 

to “Hamilton,” which not only 
took home 11 awards (one short 
of 2001 record set by “The 
Producers”), but its cast also 
opened and closed the show. It’s 
no surprise that they dominated 
the awards, as the show is the 
biggest hit Broadway has seen 
in years. In fact, the ceremony 
gained two million viewers year-
to-year, showcasing the clear 
impact “Hamilton” has had on 
the broader theater culture.

While talking to friends after 

the ceremony about the horrific 
events earlier in the day, I 
realized what this year’s Tonys 
provided. The ceremony showed 
the power theater has to be a 
place for people to forget what’s 
happening. They made me laugh 
and they made me cry from 
the powerful emotions in the 
performances. At its best, theater 
whisks you away into another 
world. It makes you forget your 
problems and the problems of 
the world. This year’s Tonys was 
a beacon of joy and celebration in 
a day surrounded by sadness.

A

The 70th 
Annual Tony 
Awards

CBS

SHAKESPEARE IN THE ARB

Who invited the dementors to the picnic?

 COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

Shakespeare 
in the Arb 
presents 
“Love 
Labour’s 
Lost”

Thu-Sun at 
6:30 in June

Nichols Arboretum

$20 for adults, 

$10 for students

