THE THREE MUSKETEERS
REVIEWS
ALABAMA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
April - June, 2009
Charles Morey's inventively compressed adaptation ... extravaganza of intrigue, romance, history, adventure, panache, and swordplay that delights audiences from start to finish ... gets a lot of mileage out of the melodramatic comic conventions of the theatre, while staying true to the spirit and historical authenticity of the original novel.
Montgomery Advertiser
ELM SHAKESPEARE COMPANY
August 2007
This Three Musketeers is rousing, raucous, and rather ribald. Charles Morey''s clever adaptation takes a format… with the author of an adventure story creating it under duress, and inserting himself (and some of his enemies) into the action to show how readily even the most fantastical art imitates life.
New Haven Advocate
PIONEER THEATRE COMPANY
September-October 2001
The Three Musketeers” is enormously clever theater. Lovers of spectacle will revel...those who crave intrigue and romance can get their thrill of both. Morey’S inclusion of Dumas as an interloper in his own story is a bright comic touch.
Celia Baker
The Salt Lake Tribune
High adventure on a grand romantic scale. That’s what Pioneer Theatre Company delivers in this energetic never-a-dull-moment swashbuckler.... Charles Morey infuses the action with innovative theatrical devices... like the model carousel on his (Dumas’) writing desk …the action filled plot and the Musketeers’ adventures constantly spin and twirl on PTC’S stage.
Ivan Lincoln
The Deseret News
...highly creative re-imagining of “The Three Musketeers”... Morey freely converges the two dissimilar worlds with hilarious results...be sure to see this exciting, sexy, and daring re-telling of a classic adventure story while it is here on its home turf.
Megan Matthes
The Daily Utah Chronicle
Pioneer Theatre Company brings Alexandre Dumas “The Three Musketeers”to the stage with the kind of energy and spectacle that leaves patrons giddy. Performances ring with comic gusto and melodramatic evil. This friends is theatre spelled with a capital F-U-N ...Morey’s take would appear to add a cheeky layer of post-modernism... We watch characters frozen in time waiting for their next bit of dialogue or motivation. We get to see an entire fictional world rewind itself when the author rethinks the starting point for his story or realizes he’s written himself into a corner... Morey’s “Musketeers” delivers everything you could ask for in a piece of theater.
Scott Renshaw
City Weekly
THE REPERTORY THEATRE OF ST. LOUIS
November-December 1996
...as adept at swordplay as it is as wordplay....seamless production with glorious flashes of comedy...big time fun and thoroughly entertaining....
Harry Hamm
KMOX Radio
No buckle has ever been swashed better... For sheer fun with no excuses needed, you can’t beat this off-beat version... Thanks to the Charles Morey adaptation.... a very good script with plenty of sight gags and lots of action to go along with the tongue in cheek feel... You can’t top THE THREE MUSKETEERS for sheer entertainment...
Steve Allen
KFUO Radio
...Morey freshens the story with a clever frame...
Judith Newmark
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
... What Charles Morey has done in his adaptation is find a way to say, “We know that this story has a lot of silliness in it and you’ll have trouble taking it seriously. But that’s alright. We’re not going to take it all that seriously either. Still, it’s a rip-roaring good story and we’re going to have fun telling it. We hope you have fun too, and that you’ll admire the skill with which we tell it.” ... We are, in other words, constantly reminded that this is all pretend - a very high level of pretend, carried off with extraordinary inventiveness and skill... Great theatrical fun.
Bob Wilcox
Riverfront Times
...the best (holiday show) available right now is the rep’s production of THE THREE MUSKETEERS... Call and get tickets immediately - they won’t be around long.
Riverfront Times
MEADOW BROOK THEATRE
September-October 1995
Meadow Brook''s well honed opener is one for all... a sumptuous staging of THE THREE MUSETEERS that does more than merely impress - it surprises. From a professional company that seemingly struck surprise from its mission long ago comes an eye-opening pageant directed by Charles Morey who isn't afraid to exercise our imaginations... There is nothing flat about Morey's adaptation... the swashbuckling story of D''Artagnan literally moves and shifts and bolts effortlessly through the "petty intrigues and secret love affairs"... springs from the mind of Dumas in spontaneous bursts, animating the usually internal creative process and inviting theatrical whimsy... This tastefully cast ensemble... is consistent as few past Meadow Brook productions have been.
Kenneth Jones
The Detroit News
Charles Morey's brawling, ingenious adaptation is at times more evocative of a Luigi Pirandello play... an open love letter to the art of stagecraft. Every aspect of the show helps our imaginations get a real workout. And here's a rare event - "a "classic" play that hasn''t forgotten how to laugh. Morey combines highbrow intrigue... with low-brow pratfalls... But Morey has achieved something besides mere spectacle. Like Pirandello's absurdist drama "Six Characters in Search of An Author”… this adaptation is also an affectionate, tongue in cheek view of the playwrighting process... When the Musketeers emerge riding life sized merry-go-round horses, the transition from printed page to live fantasy is complete. Such moments can leave you feeling as slack jawed as a sixth grader at a Saturday matinee.
Reed Johnson
Detroit Journal
A lavish, exuberant, rollicking adaptation of Alexandre Dumas'' THE THREE MUSKETEERS... bursting with fun, excitement, and swash.
Barbara Michaels
The Eccentric
Treat yourself to this sexy, swift-moving adventure, a marvelous adaptation that explodes with theatricality... If this is an example of Artistic Director Geoffrey Sherman's good taste (he hired adaptor-director Charles Morey who helped hire the company) the new season looks promising indeed.
John Kennet
Oakland Press "On-Stage" Column
"Musketeers" is one tasty confection... as canny a piece of stagecraft as Meadow Brook has seen in years... With all the comings and goings... almost anything can go wrong, but just about everything goes right. Most responsible for this happy state of affairs is director Charles Morey...
Martin F. Kohn
Oakland Press
Offbeat "Musketeers" is a charmer... wall-eyed and funny looking, but undeniably a charmer...
Lawrence Devine
Detroit Free Press
... Meadow Brook has nearly outdone itself as (The Musketeers) quip, quibble, and quash their way through two and a half hours of visual spectacle and historical horseplay that not only entertains, but sets a tone for this commemorative year... This cleverly told tale of swashbucking good fun and adventure is well worth the time and the drive...
Kathleen Kirby
Flint Journal
THE THREE MUSKETEERS offers a good mixture of fine performances, loads of action, a dash of comedy and just the right amount of passion to make for a wonderfully entertaining concoction.
Scott Roush
Oakland Tech News
Meadow Brook is beginning its 30th season in grand style... has everything a Saturday matinee thriller should have... In the end, it is the story of the Musketeers as a product of Dumas’ imagination and his own personal struggle as an artist that becomes more poignant than any swashbuckling adventure can be.
Daniel Skoura
Detroit Monitor
PCPA THEATERFEST
July - August 1991
Plenty of dash and derring-do can be found in Morey’s exuberant staging of his “musketeers” with additional spice thrown in that eluded the films: the mixing of the author’s reality with that of the characters and the ingenious multi-purpose use of a turntable that serves to telescope scenes and carry our musketeers along on their honor saving missions on the backs of carousel horses. It’s a tongue in cheek frolic.
Sylvie Drake
Los Angeles Times
Witty and action packed adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic...
Rob Stevens
Backstage
...a mad, fun re-telling of this staple action adventure yarn...
Mark MacDougall
Five Cities Times Press Record
...a rollicking stage version of Alexandre Dumas’ classic... Fans of the original text will be impressed with the fidelity of Charles Morey’s adaptation; others will simply be impressed by the spectacle. Either way it’s a splendid evening...
Phillip Brandes
Santa Barbara News Press
...No one should pass up the opportunity to see PCPA Theaterfest’s production of THE THREE MUSKETEERS...the non-stop action explodes on to the stage with such energy that not even the crankiest of critics could feign boredom... Morey has done a superb job creating a version of the original novel that meshes comedy with tragedy... Don’t miss it.
Pamela Mowry
Santa Ynez Valley News
PIONEER THEATRE COMPANY
October -November 1989
MUSKETEERS is meta-spectacle, the show completely generated from its form...(it) literally casts Dumas’ serial on a carousel complete with music and wooden horses. This play seems to grow out of the stage floor - no, it spins gaily like a cosmic top flinging characters out into orbit where they hurtle past each other in surreal form only to be “meteorite” back into the literary present two hundred miles or two hundred years away. It’s a little solar system, a theatrical Newtonian watch rocketed out, ticking away into vast imgaination....Golly it’s fun! ...the liveliest show I’ve seen in Salt Lake in years...I’d say it has quite a future.
David Pace
The Event
Among the many reasons to recommend THE THREE MUSKETEERS... there is one I keep coming back to. I had a great time... a marvel of glib dialogue and clever storytelling...It’s witty, it’s wry. It’s full of romance and adventure, action and intrigue, high drama and rollicking comedy. And it’s fun... A script that does what other adaptations of Dumas story have failed to do. It captures the spirit of the tale without sacrificing theatricality.
Joseph Walker
Deseret News
Alexandre Dumas must be smiling....this is one grand extravaganza... We’ve got melodrama here, on a sweeping scale, with tongues firmly planted in cheeks for most of the goings-on.
Nancy Melich
Salt Lake Tribune
April - June, 2009
Charles Morey's inventively compressed adaptation ... extravaganza of intrigue, romance, history, adventure, panache, and swordplay that delights audiences from start to finish ... gets a lot of mileage out of the melodramatic comic conventions of the theatre, while staying true to the spirit and historical authenticity of the original novel.
Montgomery Advertiser
ELM SHAKESPEARE COMPANY
August 2007
This Three Musketeers is rousing, raucous, and rather ribald. Charles Morey''s clever adaptation takes a format… with the author of an adventure story creating it under duress, and inserting himself (and some of his enemies) into the action to show how readily even the most fantastical art imitates life.
New Haven Advocate
PIONEER THEATRE COMPANY
September-October 2001
The Three Musketeers” is enormously clever theater. Lovers of spectacle will revel...those who crave intrigue and romance can get their thrill of both. Morey’S inclusion of Dumas as an interloper in his own story is a bright comic touch.
Celia Baker
The Salt Lake Tribune
High adventure on a grand romantic scale. That’s what Pioneer Theatre Company delivers in this energetic never-a-dull-moment swashbuckler.... Charles Morey infuses the action with innovative theatrical devices... like the model carousel on his (Dumas’) writing desk …the action filled plot and the Musketeers’ adventures constantly spin and twirl on PTC’S stage.
Ivan Lincoln
The Deseret News
...highly creative re-imagining of “The Three Musketeers”... Morey freely converges the two dissimilar worlds with hilarious results...be sure to see this exciting, sexy, and daring re-telling of a classic adventure story while it is here on its home turf.
Megan Matthes
The Daily Utah Chronicle
Pioneer Theatre Company brings Alexandre Dumas “The Three Musketeers”to the stage with the kind of energy and spectacle that leaves patrons giddy. Performances ring with comic gusto and melodramatic evil. This friends is theatre spelled with a capital F-U-N ...Morey’s take would appear to add a cheeky layer of post-modernism... We watch characters frozen in time waiting for their next bit of dialogue or motivation. We get to see an entire fictional world rewind itself when the author rethinks the starting point for his story or realizes he’s written himself into a corner... Morey’s “Musketeers” delivers everything you could ask for in a piece of theater.
Scott Renshaw
City Weekly
THE REPERTORY THEATRE OF ST. LOUIS
November-December 1996
...as adept at swordplay as it is as wordplay....seamless production with glorious flashes of comedy...big time fun and thoroughly entertaining....
Harry Hamm
KMOX Radio
No buckle has ever been swashed better... For sheer fun with no excuses needed, you can’t beat this off-beat version... Thanks to the Charles Morey adaptation.... a very good script with plenty of sight gags and lots of action to go along with the tongue in cheek feel... You can’t top THE THREE MUSKETEERS for sheer entertainment...
Steve Allen
KFUO Radio
...Morey freshens the story with a clever frame...
Judith Newmark
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
... What Charles Morey has done in his adaptation is find a way to say, “We know that this story has a lot of silliness in it and you’ll have trouble taking it seriously. But that’s alright. We’re not going to take it all that seriously either. Still, it’s a rip-roaring good story and we’re going to have fun telling it. We hope you have fun too, and that you’ll admire the skill with which we tell it.” ... We are, in other words, constantly reminded that this is all pretend - a very high level of pretend, carried off with extraordinary inventiveness and skill... Great theatrical fun.
Bob Wilcox
Riverfront Times
...the best (holiday show) available right now is the rep’s production of THE THREE MUSKETEERS... Call and get tickets immediately - they won’t be around long.
Riverfront Times
MEADOW BROOK THEATRE
September-October 1995
Meadow Brook''s well honed opener is one for all... a sumptuous staging of THE THREE MUSETEERS that does more than merely impress - it surprises. From a professional company that seemingly struck surprise from its mission long ago comes an eye-opening pageant directed by Charles Morey who isn't afraid to exercise our imaginations... There is nothing flat about Morey's adaptation... the swashbuckling story of D''Artagnan literally moves and shifts and bolts effortlessly through the "petty intrigues and secret love affairs"... springs from the mind of Dumas in spontaneous bursts, animating the usually internal creative process and inviting theatrical whimsy... This tastefully cast ensemble... is consistent as few past Meadow Brook productions have been.
Kenneth Jones
The Detroit News
Charles Morey's brawling, ingenious adaptation is at times more evocative of a Luigi Pirandello play... an open love letter to the art of stagecraft. Every aspect of the show helps our imaginations get a real workout. And here's a rare event - "a "classic" play that hasn''t forgotten how to laugh. Morey combines highbrow intrigue... with low-brow pratfalls... But Morey has achieved something besides mere spectacle. Like Pirandello's absurdist drama "Six Characters in Search of An Author”… this adaptation is also an affectionate, tongue in cheek view of the playwrighting process... When the Musketeers emerge riding life sized merry-go-round horses, the transition from printed page to live fantasy is complete. Such moments can leave you feeling as slack jawed as a sixth grader at a Saturday matinee.
Reed Johnson
Detroit Journal
A lavish, exuberant, rollicking adaptation of Alexandre Dumas'' THE THREE MUSKETEERS... bursting with fun, excitement, and swash.
Barbara Michaels
The Eccentric
Treat yourself to this sexy, swift-moving adventure, a marvelous adaptation that explodes with theatricality... If this is an example of Artistic Director Geoffrey Sherman's good taste (he hired adaptor-director Charles Morey who helped hire the company) the new season looks promising indeed.
John Kennet
Oakland Press "On-Stage" Column
"Musketeers" is one tasty confection... as canny a piece of stagecraft as Meadow Brook has seen in years... With all the comings and goings... almost anything can go wrong, but just about everything goes right. Most responsible for this happy state of affairs is director Charles Morey...
Martin F. Kohn
Oakland Press
Offbeat "Musketeers" is a charmer... wall-eyed and funny looking, but undeniably a charmer...
Lawrence Devine
Detroit Free Press
... Meadow Brook has nearly outdone itself as (The Musketeers) quip, quibble, and quash their way through two and a half hours of visual spectacle and historical horseplay that not only entertains, but sets a tone for this commemorative year... This cleverly told tale of swashbucking good fun and adventure is well worth the time and the drive...
Kathleen Kirby
Flint Journal
THE THREE MUSKETEERS offers a good mixture of fine performances, loads of action, a dash of comedy and just the right amount of passion to make for a wonderfully entertaining concoction.
Scott Roush
Oakland Tech News
Meadow Brook is beginning its 30th season in grand style... has everything a Saturday matinee thriller should have... In the end, it is the story of the Musketeers as a product of Dumas’ imagination and his own personal struggle as an artist that becomes more poignant than any swashbuckling adventure can be.
Daniel Skoura
Detroit Monitor
PCPA THEATERFEST
July - August 1991
Plenty of dash and derring-do can be found in Morey’s exuberant staging of his “musketeers” with additional spice thrown in that eluded the films: the mixing of the author’s reality with that of the characters and the ingenious multi-purpose use of a turntable that serves to telescope scenes and carry our musketeers along on their honor saving missions on the backs of carousel horses. It’s a tongue in cheek frolic.
Sylvie Drake
Los Angeles Times
Witty and action packed adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic...
Rob Stevens
Backstage
...a mad, fun re-telling of this staple action adventure yarn...
Mark MacDougall
Five Cities Times Press Record
...a rollicking stage version of Alexandre Dumas’ classic... Fans of the original text will be impressed with the fidelity of Charles Morey’s adaptation; others will simply be impressed by the spectacle. Either way it’s a splendid evening...
Phillip Brandes
Santa Barbara News Press
...No one should pass up the opportunity to see PCPA Theaterfest’s production of THE THREE MUSKETEERS...the non-stop action explodes on to the stage with such energy that not even the crankiest of critics could feign boredom... Morey has done a superb job creating a version of the original novel that meshes comedy with tragedy... Don’t miss it.
Pamela Mowry
Santa Ynez Valley News
PIONEER THEATRE COMPANY
October -November 1989
MUSKETEERS is meta-spectacle, the show completely generated from its form...(it) literally casts Dumas’ serial on a carousel complete with music and wooden horses. This play seems to grow out of the stage floor - no, it spins gaily like a cosmic top flinging characters out into orbit where they hurtle past each other in surreal form only to be “meteorite” back into the literary present two hundred miles or two hundred years away. It’s a little solar system, a theatrical Newtonian watch rocketed out, ticking away into vast imgaination....Golly it’s fun! ...the liveliest show I’ve seen in Salt Lake in years...I’d say it has quite a future.
David Pace
The Event
Among the many reasons to recommend THE THREE MUSKETEERS... there is one I keep coming back to. I had a great time... a marvel of glib dialogue and clever storytelling...It’s witty, it’s wry. It’s full of romance and adventure, action and intrigue, high drama and rollicking comedy. And it’s fun... A script that does what other adaptations of Dumas story have failed to do. It captures the spirit of the tale without sacrificing theatricality.
Joseph Walker
Deseret News
Alexandre Dumas must be smiling....this is one grand extravaganza... We’ve got melodrama here, on a sweeping scale, with tongues firmly planted in cheeks for most of the goings-on.
Nancy Melich
Salt Lake Tribune