Just imagine walking into a theater where everything around you revolves around William Shakespeare and his works.
That’s exactly how things looked at the premiere of “Fool of Hearts,” an original musical about hope, love, and redemption at the end of the dark ages.
The play took place at The Globe Theatre in Hollywood, which could have been the coolest part of the whole evening.
The Globe theatre is a smaller version of the original Globe Theatre in England, the theatre where most of William Shakespeare’s work was performed.
So just imagine walking into a theatre where everything around you revolves around Shakespeare.
It looked like the designers of Medieval Times and Disneyland had joined forces to make it. Posters, reviews, armor, hung everywhere in this warehouse that was magically transformed into a playhouse around the late seventies.
Since this was a musical, people sporadically burst into song and danced around – which ironically had a lot to do with the story. So as to not give it away, a prince is born into a kingdom where dancing happens to be very popular.
Unfortunately, the prince is born crippled, and the king feels a “weak” prince will head a “weak” kingdom.
Instead of killing the prince, the king decides to mock the prince’s death when the queen dies of “the fever”.
Years go by and the prince is not allowed out of the castle. The servants are not allowed to dance and as in most fairytales, there is a constant season of winter. But, here’s where the fool of the story comes in.
He narrates for the audience what might be going on if we get lost in the lyrics – which happened a few times, and befriends the prince.
On a bright sunny day the prince, fed up with staying inside the castle walls all of his life, ventures out to see what yonder light breaks outside the castle walls, and what do you know, he meets a girl.
So really going any further would be unfair to those of you who want to go out and see the show.
In my opinion though, it was very well acted and sung, and the dancing wasn’t bad either. The cast was extremely well put together and was fun to watch.
The music wasn’t spectacular. It all blurred together, making it hard to tell one song from another and there must have been 5 million ballads. Set design was pretty minimal, given that the theatre itself had already been designed to mimic a medieval setting.
As a perk, there was an enjoyable live band.
I was honestly impressed with the whole production of the show but felt the only problem might have been that the story needed some more revisions.
But hey, that’s just my opinion.
If you’re interested in seeing Fool of Hearts, the show will be going on until December 15 and is shown Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8p.m., Sunday at 2p.m. and 7 p.m. Ticket prices are $27.50 Thursday, Friday, Saturday and $22.50 on Sunday. For seniors and students there’s a $5 discount.
For more information or reservations, call (323) 655-TKTS.