[NEohioPAL] Review of "Ken Ludwig's Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood" at Cleveland Play House

[Bob Abelman]

CPH’s swashbuckling ‘Sherwood’ parodies as it parries 



Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal



The Cleveland Play House’s love affair with Tony Award-winning contemporary playwright Ken Ludwig continues.



After staging world premiere productions of his “Leading Ladies” in 2004, “The Game’s Afoot” in 2011, “A Comedy of Tenors” to open its centennial season in 2015, and “Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery” in 2017, Ludwig’s latest work is on stage at the Allen Theatre.



It is easy to see the attraction.  Ludwig has mastered the farce formula – the silly situations that escalate into mayhem, the witty repartee delivered at lightning speed, and the performance of highly stylized, high-energy physical funny-business.  And his most recent plays, which are comical take-offs of others’ serious works, are branded with his very own name in their titles.  



“Ken Ludwig's Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood” was commissioned by and received its world premiere at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, CA in 2017 under the less audacious but more assertively punctuated title “Robin Hood!”  Its subsequent name change is due, in part, to avoid comparisons with the many other modern retellings of the Robin Hood legend but, of course, comparisons are inevitable.  And they come up favorably.



For more of this article, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/
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