Gwyneth Wins Raves

August 9, 1999
http://mrshowbiz.go.com/news/Todays_Stories/990809/gwyneth080999.html


They like her, they really like her.

Gwyneth Paltrow is wowing them in Williamstown, Mass., in her two-week
run of Shakespeare's As You Like It. The actress, who took home the
Oscar for her role in Shakespeare in Love, is inspiring record ticket
sales at the Williamstown Theater Festival.

She plays Rosalind in Shakespeare's comedy, which requires the heroine
to don a boyish disguise, leading to all sorts of romantic confusion.

Michael Kuchwara, a drama critic for the Associated Press, says Paltrow
looks stunning in the play. Wearing a glamorous red strapless gown,
"she looks as if she just stepped out of an oil painting by John Singer
Sargent. Blond hair upswept, she resembles a young Grace Kelly, elegant
but with just a smidgen of insecurity and sass thrown in to keep
admirers off-balance."

Kuchwara says, "Paltrow acquits herself well, starting with her savvy
choice of roles. Rosalind is one of the Bard's most endearing heroines,
wise, witty, and charming, but not above being blissfully baffled by
love. For the most part, Paltrow measures up to those adjectives."

The AP critic also praised the rest of the cast, particularly the
"verbal dexterity" of Mark Linn-Baker (who once starred on the sitcom
Perfect Strangers), as Touchstone, and the "broad, bawdy, and very
funny" Lea DeLaria as Audrey.

Terry Byrne of the Boston Herald agreed that Gwyneth stole the show
but criticized the play's "bumbling direction." Wrote Byrne, "Gwyneth
Paltrow knows her Shakespeare. Too bad her director doesn't." He adds
that watching the actress in the play proves that her Oscar was "no
fluke."

Byrne slams Paltrow's love interest, played by Alessandra Nivola
(Nicolas Cage's brother in Face/Off), saying, "He often seems to be
emoting for a movie close-up when he needs to put his whole body into
the scene." Bryne also criticized the show's costumes, sets, stage
direction, and the tendency of characters to burst out into jazz
numbers.

"As You Like It offers evidence of Paltrow's legitimate acting chops,"
concludes Byrne.

Kuchwara notes that Paltrow's mother, actress Blythe Danner, is a
longtime member of festival's acting company and that as a child,
Gwyneth appeared in earlier plays.

This production of As You Like It runs through Aug. 15. Those of you
unable to make it to Massachusetts can instead content yourself that
Shakespeare in Love arrives on video Aug. 10.