The Metromaniacs (Red Bull Theater)

Based on a French comedy from 1738, David Ives has created another adaptation from this period.  This one was called La Metromanie written by Alexis Piron.  The title loosely translates to The Poetry Craze and was a Page Six scandal back in the day, apparently based on a public embarrassment for Voltaire.  None of this really matters though.  As noted by Mr. Ives in the program, “When my friends ask me what it’s about, I always say that The Metromaniacs is a comedy with five parts, none of them important.”  And that, my friends, is the problem.

In the spring of 1738, poetry is everywhere.  So much so that everyone speaks in rhymes.  We have a young poet, his uncle, a young woman in love with poetry, her father, a young man in love with the young woman in love with poetry, a maid and a valet.  The last two are of the randy variety.  The ballroom of this home in Paris is outfitted with fake trees as it is to be the scene of a play, a subplot here.  Meanwhile, identities are confused and, oh, it does not really matter.  We are here for the rhymes.  The problem is that The Metromaniacs is only occasionally funny.  It wraps itself in a blanket of cleverness that keeps the play from taking off.

Everyone in the show does nice work and the entire production design is quite good.  My favorite performer was Adam Green as Mondor the valet.  There is nothing particularly wrong with this production.  But in the end/I cannot bend.  The show was sort of lackluster/a positive review I cannot muster.  Excessive poetry dear friends is my consternation/from rhyming overload there will be no adoration.

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