Dallas Theater Center Presents “Hood”
The world’s sexiest thief. History’s great lover. The renegade hero that made redistributing wealth seem cool. Here is finally the real story of the disgraced nobleman, forced into the wilderness who seeks revenge and reclaims his great love. Five-time Tony®-nominated playwright Douglas Carter Beane–who re-invented Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella so deliciously (seen at both Ft. Worth’s Bass Hall and Dallas’ Music Hall at Fair Park)–reunites with Lewis Flinn his Give it Up/Lysistrata Jones collaborator and return to Dallas Theater Center to bring to life this hilarious and stirring new musical adventure! A world premiere musical event.
The 1938 movie, ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ was so successful, it’s one of the rare swashbucklers ever to be nominated for a best film Oscar. And Errol Flynn’s climactic swordfight with Basil Rathbone (as Sir Guy of Gisborne) became a benchmark in cinematic swordplay.
The two-minute, twenty-second sequence may seem brief and tame by today’s standards. But that’s because for nearly 80 years, film directors and fight choreographers have been trying to top it – from ‘The Duellists’ to ‘The Matrix’ and ‘The Three Musketeers’ (the one with Oliver Reed and Michael York), from “The Princess Bride” to ‘Kill Bill’ and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.’ If nothing else, the Flynn vs. Rathbone fight – staged by British fencing master Fred Cavens – made swinging a sword as central to Robin Hood’s legend as shooting arrows.
‘Hood: The Robin Hood Musical Adventure’ presented by the Dallas Theater Center through August 6th.
So ‘Hood’ – the new Robin Hood musical at the Dallas Theater Center – delivers four swordfights, plus other punch-ups and playful disagreements. This morning, Jeffrey Colangelo is rehearsing the first confrontation between Robin Hood, played by Nick Bailey, and the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham, played by Austin Scott. This isn’t fencing with rapiers; the actors are hauling around two-handed broadswords (as Flynn and Rathbone did). Robin is trying to rescue one of his ‘merry men’ from the Sheriff, and it’s a classic up-and-down-the-staircase fight but it’s also marked by the two characters’ distinctive fighting styles. This is the first time the Sheriff has ever come up against anyone like Robin. He’s someone who casually defies the Sheriff but also can defend himself with a sword.