"The Scottish play by Shakespeare," says Bienstock. "Macbeth," says Seevak. "You just spoiled tonite's performance by saying it," says Silver.
Wuthering Heights kept the large audience
Wuthering Heights kept the largeaudience waiting almost a half hour as the"techies" tried to correct last minute problemswith the lights and slides. But once the showbegan it became clear that the slide projectorswere going to refuse to work no matter what.
The other parts of the show were working,barely. The soundtrack was recorded in advance, sowhen "Dress You Up" started up, Glucksman had tobe on stage, stuck zipper or no stuck zipper. Sothe actors sometimes moved about in darkness.Spotlights appeared where they were not supposedto be. Blackouts took too long. Brennemanfrequently improvised narration to cover thetechnical problems.
Wuthering Heights has had difficultiesfrom the start. Keshishian's unusual approachraised many eyebrows at the Harvard RadcliffeDramatic Club, which hasn't chosen a studentwritten or adapted show in years. Even aftergaining approval, Keshishian underwent a 50 minutegrilling by the faculty committee, which spentonly seven minutes over the other Mainstage show.The jokes and derision, combined with a veryprofessional PR campaign, have given WutheringHeights the highest profile of any mainstageshow in years; it's the first in memory to belisted in the Boston Globe Calendar.
It's 9:30 p.m., and intermission. People seemedto be enjoying what they saw even if they didn'tfully understand it. "It's surprisingly good,"admitted a former boyfriend of Glucksman's whoasked not to be identified.
The second half went better, a succession ofstrong numbers culminating in Copaken'shypercharged "Too Turned On," which garnered anovation from the audience. But the thread of thestory started to unwind as the cast tried to coverfor a series of lighting snafus, malfunctioningmikes and absent slides that clarify the meaningof the lyrics.
The show ended with "Wuthering Heights" by KateBush, the song that inspired the project. "When Iheard the song," said Keshishian, "it just struckme--not to get too intellectual about the wholething--as really beautiful, and that there wassomething really cool about the fact that therewas this modern singer singing this song thatbrought to life the book."
After the show cast members and the audiencemingled in a lobby reception. The response wascautiously positive, though the test will comethis week, when reviewers and those who have paidto see the show turn up. The cast dribbled away tobars or to bed; Keshishian acceptedcongratulations, confered with the crew and then headed home to work with Brenneman on the narration.
Correction: April 8, 1986
Due to a reporting error, a quotation in an April 5 article entitled "Opening Nights Anxiety Reaches Wuthering Heights" was incorrectly attributed. The statement attributed to Monica D. Sams '87 was made by another cast member.