Article

New York Love's Labour's Lost Premiere snippets

various, June 6 2000

USA Today

Loverly: ''There's singing and dancing and deep, deep silliness,'' said Kenneth Branagh at Monday's New York premiere of Love's Labor's Lost. He co-stars and directed this confection of Shakespeare and songs by Cole Porter, George Gershwin and others, which had the audience virtually dancing in the aisles.

He might have added it includes Alicia Silverstone and Nathan Lane, two people so adorable you could put them on a Ritz cracker and eat them up, to steal a line from Lane's Tony Awards appearance on Sunday. Lane plays the king's resident comedian, complete with rubber chicken, and Silverstone is a French princess, all very updated. ''It's a charming film,'' Lane said. ''Ken has done something they don't do any more. Maybe it'll revive the movie musical.''

Lane will spend the summer in another classic, The Man Who Came to Dinner, at the American Airlines Theater (new 42nd Street home of the Roundabout Theatre).

Silverstone was on hand with musician boyfriend Chris Jarecki; her front-plunging black-glitter dress was by Eduardo Lucero. She's happy to report her Animal Haven project is moving ahead in L.A. with ''all kinds of educational stuff'' on abandoned pets and the vegetarianism she has embraced. Loverly: ''There's singing and dancing and deep, deep silliness,'' said Kenneth Branagh at Monday's New York premiere of Love's Labor's Lost. He co-stars and directed this confection of Shakespeare and songs by Cole Porter, George Gershwin and others, which had the audience virtually dancing in the aisles.

Lane will spend the summer in another classic, The Man Who Came to Dinner, at the American Airlines Theater (new 42nd Street home of the Roundabout Theatre).

MSNBC

Kenneth Branagh arrived dateless at the premiere of Love's Labour's Lost. Branagh, who split from Helena Bonham Carter told "The Scoop" that he's available. He also said that his next project is bringing "Macbeth" to the screen....

Fox News

Alicia Silverstone has a new beau, with whom she is living very happily in Los Angeles. The young man in question is Chris Jarecki, lead singer of the L.A.-based rock group Stun and fellow vegan. (That's not a Star Trek villain, that's someone who can't tell the difference between a shell steak and a New York strip, so they give up the whole thing.)

I have no idea what Stun sounds like, although I like Jarecki — when I met him on Monday night at the premiere of Love's Labour's Lost he shared my enthusiasm for the new group Travis and their single "Why Does It Always Rain on Me?"

Jarecki says Stun is reminiscent of the Clash — not the "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" Clash but the "Tommy Gun" Clash. Clash fans will understand this distinction. Jarecki looks like a rock star — he's tall and gangly with a shock of unkempt dark hair.

How did the couple meet? "I can't tell you that. But it was a very tame incident," he concluded. They are now living together.

Alicia, meantime, has grown into quite the stunning young woman. The baby fat that made her so cute as Cher in Clueless is gone, and she looked quite elegant in a black evening dress. How much Shakespeare did she study? "I worked on it for about a month," she told me. "So I knew what everything meant and what I was talking about."

Love's Labour's Lost is part musical — a little experiment on the part of Kenneth Branagh, who was determined to mesh the music of Cole Porter with the music of Shakespeare's language. Of course, only Miramax would release this. Does the movie work? Sometimes. And maybe in the end that's what's so interesting about it — it is clearly not intended to be a smash hit. But if you're up for an experiment and some fun singing, Love's Labour's is for you.

New York Observer

Branagh’s Big Balls

Kenneth Branagh stood squinting into the spotlight in the front of the Paris Theater, where he was about to screen a cut of his newest star-studded William Shakespeare adaptation, Love’s Labour’s Lost. He was choosing his words carefully, no doubt because Miramax’s co-chairman Harvey Weinstein, the man who put up the money for his film, was in the theater listening to him. "Harvey’s been a fantastic collaborator," he said in his plummy English accent. "We’ve often had a free and frank exchange of views. Read into that what you will."

A few people tittered. Derek Jacobi, who was sitting in the very back row, chortled. "When we had a particularly challenging preview–some people here will know what I mean," he said under his breath, "he was right there with us, and I appreciate his support and his input very much."

Mr. Branagh seems to have made his job very difficult. As he himself said before the Paris audience, he chose to adapt the Shakespeare play that–for reasons that became obvious to some audience members during the screening–had not been performed for the 200 years following the bard’s death. And he chose to make it a musical using American popular standards. And he chose to set it in World War II—era Europe. And he decided he would use a Citizen Kane—like faux newsreel footage to encapsulate much of the action. And he would put in a synchronized swimming scene and a sight gag involving a dead sheep. And he would do all this in about an hour and a half–an accomplishment considering that the play was one of Shakepeare’s most interminable.

"I have to pee really bad," said Alicia Silverstone after the screening. Ms. Silverstone, who portrayed the princess in Mr. Branagh’s film, was standing in line to get onto an elevator leading up to the very modest reception that Miramax was throwing for the film in the upstairs banquet room of a restaurant on West 57th Street called Shelly’s New York.

Ms. Silverstone wore a dress with a slit going down to her belly button, with multicolored sequins all over it, which seemed like a pretty elaborate get-up for a crowd that included actor Peter Boyle, in chinos, and Sopranos co-star and E Street Band member Little Steven Van Zandt, in snake boots, and a gaggle of scruffy reporters.

Mr. Branagh was getting polite reviews from the guests. "It was a very difficult thing to pull off, you know?" said Mr. Van Zandt, earnestly.

"I found it a goof," said Mr. Boyle, who was wearing a Knicks lapel pin.

Reviews for Shakepeare’s play were more guarded.

"I mean it is Shakespeare, but it’s not a great play," said Mr. Boyle, nodding.

"You gotta give Mr. Branagh credit," said Mr. Van Zandt. "The man’s got balls."

"Balls of an elephant!" Mr. Boyle yelled, perhaps a bit too loudly.

"Balls!" shouted Mr. Van Zandt.

"Cojones!" howled Mr. Boyle. They seemed to be cracking each other up.

Meanwhile, Mr. Weinstein was at a table seated next to a young actor named Jon Abrahams, who was in Outside Providence.

The Transom asked Mr. Weinstein about his rumored disappointment with Mr. Branagh’s preview of the film several months before. Mr. Weinstein looked hard at The Transom and chose his words carefully. "I was very supportive of this entire movie," he said. "I had a great collaborator with Branagh every step of the way. I’m very proud of the movie. I’m very proud of my own work. There’s nowhere you’re going to go on this that’s going to get me fucked, because I’ve been a good boy." The Transom noted that Love’s Labour’s Lost was one of Shakepeare’s longest plays. Mr. Weinstein looked like he was about to say how he really felt about the play. "And probably …" he paused in thought, "his longest."

Back to Articles Listing
Back to the Compendium