Papp’s ‘Romeo’ Draws Lukewarm Response

One reason that Joseph Papp hasn’t been able to get financing for his plan to put all of Shakespeare’s plays on TV (see Thursday’s Times) may be that Papp’s productions aren’t necessarily the cream of North American Shakespeare--though they are certainly the best publicized.

The latest, “Romeo and Juliet,” struck the New York Times’ Frank Rich as having such a low pulse-rate that it could “pass for the exhausted end-of-summer offering of a provincial British stock company.”

The Associated Press’ Michael Kuchwara rather liked Peter MacNicol’s Romeo and Cynthia Nixon’s Juliet, but found the rest of Les Water’s production unfortunate.

“What Waters has assembled is a polyglot cast and he has imposed no discernible sense of style. The accents range from Brooklyn to Dublin and points in between. The acting at times seems more suitable for ‘West Side Story’ or, in one case of disastrous overplaying, ‘La Cage Aux Folles.”’

Frederick Winship of United Press International found it an “indifferent” reading of the play, with strong supporting performances from Milo O’Shea as Friar Laurence (he also played the role in the movie) and from Anne Meara as Juliet’s nurse.

It was Meara’s first role for Papp since he started the New York Shakespeare Festival in the 1950s. The Festival has done the Bard good service over the years, but so, after all, have Canada’s Stratford Festival; the Ashland, Ore., Festival; San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre.

How about a coast-to-coast effort to put Shakespeare on tape?

ALL THE NEWS. The New York Times announces that Denzel Washington has “expressed interest” in appearing with Paul Winfield in “Checkmates” when it opens on Broadway in August. That seems likely, since Washington and Winfield co-starred in Ron Milner’s comedy at the Westwood Playhouse last season.

IN QUOTES. Barbara Cook, in “Theatre Week.” “You can be the new girl in town only once.”