ART IMITATES SHAKESPEARE IN"PREMIERE!"
by Chuck Graham
TucsonStage.com
Any actor will tell you light comedy is as difficult to pull off as heavy drama. To draw out those gentle laughs while maintaining a buoyant congeniality is to walk a tightrope high above the crowd, that little internal gyroscope spinning faster and faster -- all the while charming everyone with a warm and winning smile.
Dallas Thomas generates a magnetic presence as Rebecca, the wife of grumpy albeit very successful playwright Gil Fryman (Robert Anthony Peters). She gets in some convincing mood changes as the ambitious woman who encourages her husband to pass off his work as Shakespeare's own. Then gets antsy when the high-falutin' scam looks like it might actually work.
Also making a big impression is Victoria McGee as Professor Justinia Hawkins, the Shakespeare expert who wears bright red-framed glasses and flaunts her superior literary knowledge.